History VideoGame / NearOrbitVanguardAlliance

* DropTheHammer: Judger Red Demons in the first game. If you are too far away for them to club you with it, they fling it at you,causing the hammer to cartwheel towards you.

'''Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance''' a k a ''N.O.V.A'' is a game trilogy developed by IOS mass produced game clone maker Creator/{{Gameloft}}. It was developed as a clone of Franchise/{{Halo}}, with some elements in the first game taken from Videogame/TheConduit. N.O.V.A was released in 2008 for only IOS platforms, but the sequel ''NOVA 2 The Hero Rises Again'' was ported over to PC and Mac. The third game, N.O.V.A 3 was released on IOS and the new Apple TV. Due to it being designed primarily for mobile devices, the games felt linear in progression, with one thumb driven "stick" control determining movement and strafing, another thumb driven control for firing or grenade deployment, while the device's accelerometer was used to look around. Therefore, even level progression was straightforward and linear, and many other FPS physics such as crouching, vaulting over obstacles, taking cover etc were ignored. Sprinting and jumping was available, but were uncomfortable to use, requiring the user to stretch his thumbs to activate them. The games occasionally provided platforming challenges, which were unforgiving. Saving could only be done automatically by "saving" checkpoints. The second game featured in game currency and extra weapons that could be looted, while the third game had micro transactions.

In the future, humanity has polluted Earth to the point of uninhabitability, forcing humanity to completely relocate to extrasolar colonies, consisting mostly of organic environments maintained on low orbit space stations known as Near Orbitals. These colonies are governed by a body known as the Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance. NOVA maintains a military including space fleets and SpaceMarines in PoweredArmor. You play as Captain Kal Wardin, a former spec ops marine who starts off the trilogy enjoying his recent discharge into civilian life. In the first game, two other marines in power armor show up to kidnap and shanghai Wardin bAck into active duty. He is given his own power armor suit, weapons and a tactical AI assistant called Yelena. Kal is then tasked with investigating the massacre of marines onboard the ''Colonial Pride'', a troop transport. Kal finds the ship overrun by various kinds of strange aliens. The aliens themselves seem like mindless DumbMuscle, but something or someone appears to be directing them. After being forced to SelfDestruct the ship, Kal finds that these aliens are besieging a marine base on a nearby colony. After relieving that siege, Kal is sent on the offensive, to neutralize a manufacturing facility on an ice planet, before the aliens repurpose it to use it as a springboard to launch attacks on all colonies. At this time, Kal is contacted by Prometheus, a mysterious AI that informs him of the existence of another sister ship that was traveling with the ''Colonial Pride'' and that the NOVA government covered up what happened to it. Prometheus warns Kal to not trust what the government is telling him. Consequently, after the aliens are driven from the manufacturing facility, a NOVA general orders him to get to an extraction zone. However, his "extractors" are actually a hit squad sent to take him out. Yelena is terminated, but Prometheus whisks Kal away to a strange asteroid based citadel, which is apparently the point of origin of the invasion. Over here, Kal must find out the truth behind these aliens' motivations and find a way to stop the invasion completely.

The second game sees Kal brought out of hiding six years later when the village that sheltered him all this while is attacked by rogue NOVA marines and a new alien race called Volterites. After destroying the invaders' main weapons production facility, Kal finds out that the invaders are looking to seize an extremely powerful artifact belonging to the Judges, a race of ancient aliens Kal encountered in the previous game. Although Kal manages to secure the artifact and protect it against seizure by the invaders, they go to his village and massacre everyone there. An enraged Kal heads to a newly constructed city to confront the invasion's leadership - and ends up in the fight of his life.

In the third game, the Volterites launch an all out invasion

* BigCreepyCrawlies: Judger Fiends.

* DumbMuscle: The Judgers' troops.

-->--'''Rufus''': ''"Kal, STAY MILITARY!"''

* DamageSpongeBoss: Heavy Demons in the first game, Berserkers and Rocket troopers in the second and third games to a lower extent. The Centaur and enlarged Cybertooth you fight as the penultimate and final boss battles in the second game take the sponginess UpToEleven.

Tropes found here are

In the future, humanity has polluted Earth to the point of uninhabitability, forcing humanity to completely relocate to extrasolar colonies, consisting mostly of organic environments maintained on low orbit space stations known as Near Orbitals. These colonies are governed by a body known as the Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance. NOVA maintains a military including space fleets and SpaceMarine types in PoweredArmor. You play as Captain Kal Wardin, a former spec ops marine who starts off the trilogy enjoying his recent discharge into civilian life. In the first game, two other marines in power armor show up to kidnap and shanghai Wardin bAck into active duty. He is given his own power armor suit, weapons and a tactical AI assistant called Yelena. Kal is then tasked with investigating the massacre of marines onboard the ''Colonial Pride'', a troop transport. Kal finds the ship overrun by various kinds of strange aliens. The aliens themselves seem like mindless DumbMuscle, but something or someone appears to be directing them. After being forced to SelfDestruct the ship, Kal finds that these aliens are besieging a marine base on a nearby colony. After relieving that siege, Kal is sent on the offensive, to neutralize a manufacturing facility on an ice planet, before the aliens repurpose it to use it as a springboard to launch attacks on all colonies. At this time, Kal is contacted by Prometheus, a mysterious AI that informs him of the existence of another sister ship that was traveling with the ''Colonial Pride'' and that the NOVA government covered up what happened to it. Prometheus warns Kal to not trust what the government is telling him. Consequently, after the aliens are driven from the manufacturing facility, a NOVA general orders him to get to an extraction zone. However, his "extractors" are actually a hit squad sent to take him out. Yelena is terminated, but Prometheus whisks Kal away to a strange asteroid based citadel, which is apparently the point of origin of the invasion. Over here, Kal must find out the truth behind these aliens' motivations and find a way to stop the invasion completely.

'''Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance''' a k a ''N.O.V.A'' is a game trilogy developed by IOS mass produced game clone maker Creator/{{Gameloft}}. It was developed as a clone of Franchise/{{Halo}}, with some elements in the first game taken from Videogame/TheConduit. N.O.V.A was released in 2008 for only IOS platforms, but the sequel ''NOVA 2 The Hero Rises Again'' was ported over to PC and Mac. The third game, N.O.V.A 3 was released on IOS and the new Apple TV. Due to it being designed primarily for mobile devices, the games felt linear in progression, with one thumb driven"stick" control determining movement and strafing, another thumb driven control for firing or grenade deployment, while the device's accelerometer was used to look around. Therefore, even level progression was straightforward and linear, and many other FPS physics such as crouching, vaulting over obstacles, taking cover etc were ignored. Sprinting and jumping was available, but were uncomfortable to use, requiring the user to stretch his thumbs to activate them. The games occasionally provided platforming challenges, which were unforgiving. Saving could only be done automatically by "saving" checkpoints. The second game featured in game currency and extra weapons that could be looted, while the third game had micro transactions.

* FrickinLaserBeams: Volterites weapons generally are these. You can scrounge some and use them.

* GundamJack: Kal does this during a section in the second and third game.

* TheUnfought: Both the human president and Volterites Overseer who are the dual big bads of the second game are never directly fought. When you encounter them, you kill them easily in a cutscenes. The final boss Overseer in the third game is also killed in a cutscenes.

* FollowTheLeader: This trilogy is a shameless Halo clone. SpaceMarine with PoweredArmor and RegeneratingShields - check! A suit ArtificialIntelligence with a female voice - check! Dumb muscle aliens controlled by an ancient precursor that is judgmental of humanity? Check!

* BoomHeadshot / YourHeadAssplode : How Kal kills the President and the Overseer to end the second game.