The developer, known for its previous work in SOCOM and MAG, has gone for something a little bit different with this game however. Unit 13 takes more of an arcade approach to level progression, eschewing a beefy campaign storyline and simply offering you a set of jump-in missions that need to be completed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
There’s a huge variety of characters to choose from when diving into one of the 36 solo missions - from the heavily-armoured Gunner to the agile Technician, each soldier has their own statistics and skills on the battlefield. Each operative can earn experience points as well, and leveling up will unlock improvements to their skill set - as well as brand new weapons for your loadout.
The controls are quite solid - a mixture of traditional button controls and intuitive touch-screen interactivity. You soon get used to tapping the weapon icon to reload, and various other HUD buttons for leaping over barricades and activating sniper shots. It works really well. The map is fantastic and will be your best friend too, detailing where enemies are and how alert they are of your presence. Depending on your choice of soldier, you can also see traps such as trip mines and security cameras on the HUD.
As polished as it all is, none of this is breaking any new ground - and despite Zipper’s pedigree, the arcade nature of Unit 13 makes it feel something of a ‘little brother’ to SOCOM rather than a console-quality title on a portable console. Mission objectives range from the uninspired ‘kill enemy leader’ to the equally uninspired ‘rescue hostages.’ The levels themselves are of the war shooter variety; a weapons facility, an oil refinery, a prison and a dustbowl village to name but a few.
In some respects, this makes the game rather accessible - and on occasion the enemies are very agile so you’re not able to rely on camping all the time - but it doesn’t feel like you’re being very tactical most of the time, simply because the enemy will be happy to stick their heads out of cover and into your bullets.
While the game won’t be winning any awards for imagination, Unit 13 really stands up in the replay value and gameplay variety departments. Every mission has a difficulty and a length ranking - meaning that some will be super-quick stages that allow for some real speedrun action whilst on the train, while others will be difficult enough to pass an extended amount of time spent on the bog. Four types of mission are available - from straightforward shootouts, to covert ops and even time-based courses. Elite missions will challenge you to rush through a level without dying. Harder than it sounds.
Each stage has multiple leaderboards, and you can even sign onto PSN to take on a Daily Challenge - a random mission with unknown objectives that can only be completed once. A persistent notification system, not unlike the Pitwall in MotorStorm RC, lets you know when various players have beaten your time or clocked the high score on a particular challenge.
Pros:
+ Pick-up-and-play arcade fun
+ Lots of replay value
+ Technically polished, well refined.
Cons:
- Been there, done that
- AI can be too simple
- Camera issues
SPOnG Score: 7/10