Temple Run iOS Review

Introduction

Developed by Imangi Studios, Temple Run is a third person, 3D endless running game first released for iOS in April 2011. It is compatible with all iOS devices. I will be reviewing the iPhone 3GS version. It is similar to games like Gravity Guy and Canabalt.

Story

There isn’t really much of a story to Temple Run. There are a group of characters that the player can choose from. Whoever is chosen takes the idol from the temple. They are then chased by monkeys. This then initiates the game. The story is really there just to set up the game. There’s no narrative at all. There’s only a little description of each character. Overall, what little narrative there is, is only there to set the game up.

Gameplay

In Temple Run, the goal is to run, jump, duck and turn left and right to avoid randomly placed obstacles to get a high score. There is no victory condition as such; you just keep playing until you die. You can’t win in the game. The only goal is to get a high score. Running is done automatically, jumping is done by swiping up, ducking is done by swiping down, to turn left and right, you just swipe in the respective directions. The player can also tilt the iPhone to move left or right to collect coins. All of these actions work great on the iPhone 3GS most of the time, though there is some slowdown at times. This is made worse if more apps are open in the background. The slowdown at times has caused me to die because the phone wasn’t responsive enough, especially when the speed of the runner increases later in the game.

There are also power-ups to unlock which can aid the player, such as, invisibility, which means the player can just run through obstacles, speed boost, which boosts the player through ahead and coin magnet, which lets players automatically collect coins for a certain period. These power-ups can also be upgraded to further aid the player. There are also utilities which can be bought to help the player. These include resurrection wings, which allow the player to respawn after death and boost which can be used at the start of the game to boost the player ahead 1000 metres. These abilities add progression to the game as they can be upgraded. They also make it a little easier to get a higher score, though the game is still challenging.

There are also objectives to complete, such as “play X amount of games” or “collect X amount of coins”. While these objectives also add more to strive for, they also increase the score multiplier, thus allowing the player to get a higher score in a shorter amount of time. I felt the objectives were great. Some of them are challenging and time-consuming, but they’re worth the reward.

Overall the gameplay is great. Despite the lag, the game is still addictive. I still keep coming back to beat my high score.

Graphics

The graphics in Temple Run are good. Characters models are good, though they lack any proper definition, much like the environments. Textures on objects like trees and walkways don’t look that great. There are a lot of jagged edges. A lot of the obstacles are also clearly used over throughout the game. Overall, though, the graphics are good for an iPhone game.

Sound

The sound in Temple Run is good. The music is good. I think it goes well with the game. It helps to immerse the player in the game. The sound effects are also good. There’s a nasty thud when you walk into a tree, the water splashes when you fall in. There are really any bad sound effects, so overall, I think the sound is good but it’s not incredible.

Conclusion

Temple Run is a great game. It’s got addicting gameplay. It’ll keep you coming back. The sound and graphics are ok. They’re not great but they won’t hinder the experience at all. So if you have an iOS device, I recommend you download Temple Run, though if you have an older device it might be slow, so I would close all other apps first.

Summary

Good points: addicting gameplay, lots to unlock

Bad points: slowdown