Best iOS games of 2014

Lou Hattersley reveals the best games of 2014 If you got a new iPad, iPhone or iPod touch for Christmas, then you’ll want to know what the best games on the App Store are. This guide to the best games for iPad and iPhone has all the entertainment you need.

Last year was a bumper year for iOS gaming. It saw iOS gaming move up a gear and iPad and iPhone owners have a range of high quality games to choose from. In recent years iOS gaming has been mostly puzzle and indie games designed for the touchscreen, or console classics using on screen buttons and controls. Some of these have been amazing games, but in the last year we’ve seen superb games with high production values and impressive graphics designed specifi cally for the iPad and iPhone. These games are even better than those costing 10 times as much on other consoles.

Republique
Price £2.99
Republique has only just been released on the App Store, but is such a good game we had to sneak it. This is a great example of a world-leading game that has been designed from the ground up for iOS. This Metal-Gear Solid-esque stealth game sees you viewing a complex through the CCTV cameras, and guiding a mysterious girl as she escapes. You guide her through the levels, tapping to tell her where to hide while tapping to control and hack the security systems. It has world-class visuals and a control scheme custom built for the iPad and iPhone’s touchscreen interface.

XCom: Enemy Unknown
Price: £6.99
This tactical war game sees you controlling a squad of soldiers hunting, capturing and fighting aliens. It’s an almost perfect recreation of the console classic, and its controls work just as well on the iPad as on the big screen. In-between battles you can research and develop new weapons, armour and upgrade your squad. Decisions are all permanent too, so if you lose a member of your team in battle they’re gone forever. It’s a visual feast and the perfect game for armchair generals. One of the best games to arrive in 2013.

The Room Two
Price: £2.99
The Room is a fantastic 3D puzzle game where you can pick up, examine and manipulate objects in a room. All with a view to escaping. It’s a good looking game but it’s the tactile nature of the experience that makes it special. You really get the feel that you can pick up and use the items in the room. The Room Two is a truly immersive game that tests your mental and spatial abilities.

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Price: £2.99
BioWare creates some of the most amazing roleplaying games in existence. Its Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic is one of the best that it’s ever made, and also one of the best Star Wars games. It’s set in the Star Wars universe, but you don’t play Luke or Han or any of the usual characters. The storyline is fantastic, you get a real sense that you choices have consequences, and the combat is surprisingly in-depth.

Deus Ex: The Fall
Price: 99p
Deus Ex is another console classic that has become a great iOS game in its own right. With huge environments this fi rst-person sci-fi shooter blends action with role-playing gameplay. While it features console controls translated to iOS it manages to do so with a level of quality beyond most other conversions (and even most games on any platform). More than anything this is an amazing game for the price. Well worth downloading.

Stealth Inc.
Price: £2.99
Most of the our favourite games from 2013 are bombastic console classics with high quality visuals. But Stealth Inc is an indie classic developed for both the iPad, iphone and console machines at the same time. It’s a platform game, but has detailed stealth gameplay with you jumping around 80 levels. It’s sublimely easy to start out, but soon becomes devilishly challenging. It lacks the visual aplomb of other games here (apart from Papa Sangre, of course) but we love the cutesy visuals and fastpaced gameplay on display here.