In Nun Attack: Run and Gun, you have only one mission: to run as far as you can in a typical nun costume while gunning down enemies that are trying to stain your robe with your own blood. Fans of the original game will be inclined to pick this one up, but be warned that there isn’t much to this 2D endless runner that will keep you glued for a long time. At best, it is no more than a charming game you would play on your toilet seat.
The Google Play Store is swarming with every iteration of endless runners developers can think of making. So it is no surprise then that Nun Attack: Run and Gun’s gameplay uses the same tried and tested formula of automatic side running. Using up and down directional buttons located on the left, players can hop up and down platforms, while virtual buttons on the right enables you to slide to avoid deadly hanging obstacles and shoot to kill the various enemies that has no qualms about smashing you with a rock or dismembering you with a chainsaw.
Along the way, you collect coins that can be spent on upgrading your weapons, unlocking different characters and upgrading power-ups that are scattered throughout the game. The more unique stuff uses diamonds, a secondary currency that you earn sparingly and can be purchased using real money. Diamonds can also be used to purchase more coins. To instill a sense of objective to simply running to the right, the game also introduces objectives which will reward the player with coins when completed, like collecting a number of coins in one run or killing a certain enemy a number of times.
While the game does nothing to redefine the genre, the graphics are as charming and smooth as the original Nun Attack. It instills a sense of danger and fast paced action that any endless runner aspires, and never lets up throughout. At the end of each level, you hop through a portal to a world full of coins and you jump gleefully to try to collect them all, then you are thrust back into action via portal to the next level. Level variety is also something to be commended, as more and more lethal objects and enemies are introduced the further you venture into the game, and its setting, atmosphere and background is detailed and colorful.
Nun Attack: Run and Gun is not a hardcore game by any means, but you’ll find yourself coming back to it when you have 2 mins to spare in the bathroom or waiting for the bus. I started this review with a very negative point of view to this game as it is basically an a repetitive game in an overflowing and tired genre that does nothing to give me hope for the mobile gaming industry. However, if you look at the game solely from a casual perspective, it doesn’t do a bad job of entertaining you for a short period of time, which I guess is just what it aims to do. In that sense, it has a good amount of polish and variety to satisfy its core casual audience. I’m still not gonna give this more than 3 stars, but hey, there are much worse games out there to hate.
