a fun little shooter
Some have claimed this is halo for the psp...
Well its not.
If you are expecting halo then well you will be disappointed, but hey if you are expecting a 3.99 mini on a single analogue stick psp to be halo then you have bigger problems...
Without a doubt this game does take some visual inspiration from halo but it is more of a nod in halos direction than anything else.
All that aside nova is quite an entertaining little shooter.
Graphics are bright and clear and pretty smooth there are the occasional jumps and lags but very few and not game breaking. Environments are clear and attractive but fairly small and linear.
The gameplay is fairly smooth with occasional spots of lag while shooting but once again it doesn't really affect the overall experience. There are occasional loading screens which can drag on but they are well spaced and timed to not interfere with gameplay. There are 3 difficulty settings easy, normal and hard, hard being unlocked after playing through normal mode.
Controls... well it's a psp fps... the lack of a 2cnd analogue is felt but that's no fault of the game... controls work fine, with 2 schemes to choose from.
There is the normal lineup of weapons, pistol, assault rifle, sniper, shotgun, etc... You hold all your weapons and cycle through at the press of a button the guns are all satisfying to use and are possibly the best rendered graphics in the game. You have a recharging shield (once again similar to halo) that works well and recharges quickly.
Sound and voice acting is surprisingly good with some dialogue actually bringing a smile to my face.
The enemies are ok their AI is simple but effective. and here is where some of the halo aesthetic shows up... you have 3 main enemy types a small melee only creature (kind of like a cross between a flood parasite and a grunt) a midd range creature reminiscent of the elites, fast and able to dodge with good shooting ability and the last a large brute like creature with both shooting and melee ability.
Storyline is standard shooter fare nothing special but nothing wrong either.
All in all this game is nothing extraordinary but it doesn't do anything wrong either. The fact that it is a low priced mini however makes it rather remarkable and I feel it is worth every penny you pay for it, and to be honest its not that many pennies!
At the end of the day I can (and do) recommend nova, it is a cheap and cheerful time wasting fps that has the merest hint of halo (in that typical gameloft style) at a great price.
Gameplay-8
Controls-5
Graphics-6
Value-9
Replay-6