The legacy shooter franchise returns to the smaller screen (for real this time!) 

Call of Duty is, curiously enough, sort of a latecomer in the mobile space, having been the ultimate first-person shooter franchise since the PlayStation 2 days. I mean, sure, you had earlier mobile Call of Duty titles (such as Modern Warfare 2: Force Recon), but they could hardly be considered proper COD experiences.

Call of Duty Mobile is, for all intents and purposes, a close-to-full recreation of the flagship titles and pushes the boundaries of what mobile devices can offer. 

I’m sure Activision had its reasons for not releasing something like this earlier. The problem remains with how to deal with the controls, so it’s understandable why, from Activision’s viewpoint, having a full-fledged Call of Duty game on a touchscreen would be counterintuitive.

Yet, while a touchscreen will never replace the feel of a controller (and, much less, of the keyboard-and-mouse - in my opinion, the best setup to play these games), I believe Activision did “sufficiently” in the controls department. I did run into some precision issues here and there, but that’s more of a feature than a bug. These drawbacks are expected, so I won’t hold that against this game. Compared to similar games on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, it fares remarkably well.

I do wish there was less UI clutter. Also, Activision committed an unforgivable sin by not implementing physical controller support at launch like most of its counterparts did eons ago. It does now, but you can only pair your trusty Xbox/PS controller, which I guess is better than nothing!

All that said, it seems Activision is taking mobile gaming seriously right now. Say what you want about how greedy Activision/Blizzard is, but it’s undisputed that Bilzzard’s Diablo Immortal was a highly ambitious project, and while it’s not necessarily from the same team that made CODM (since Activision and Blizzard kinda still manage their own stuff, from what I can gather), it gives an idea of the direction both companies are “aiming at” (pun mildly intended).

Back to Call of Duty Mobile, I must decry the lack of single-player campaigns. Some people might get the impression that this is because of the inherent mobile storage constraints, though I’m still not entirely bought on this. Activision already did this with its previous “flagship” console/PC title (Black Ops), so, if anything, this just signaled a shift in the series’ overall direction at that moment, especially following the Battle Royale craze with Fortnite and PUBG. I would go even as far as putting part of the blame on laziness, but I wouldn’t swear by that yet.

Apart from the battle royale mode (arguably where Activision puts most of its money’s worth), you also get the more “old-school” Team Deathmatch (gosh, I’m feeling so “senior” already!) and Domination, which is kind of a “gang war”-type mode, but without “gangs” properly speaking (hope that makes sense.) In other words, Domination is essentially about seizing some zones and making them your you-know-what! Search and Destroy is swell, and I like how it takes a very tactical approach, which is a satisfying change of pace from the shooting frenzy we’re all accustomed to with COD. Frontline will place you at gunpoint by having you spawn inside your enemy’s base and try to fight your way out, and so on.

Changing topic, the game does look moderately polished, though it’s not necessarily groundbreaking in the graphics department. Don’t get me wrong; they look fabulous in their own right. However, they would have shocked me 6 or 7 years ago. Nowadays, graphics of this quality are almost to be expected. They obviously won’t hold a candle to the console/PC launches, but they don’t disappoint.

Lastly, while the game is free-to-play, Activision is outstandingly respectful with its microtransactions offerings. During my playthrough, I haven’t found a single instance of pay-to-win. Now, you may be entitled to some additional items if you buy a premium or elite pass, and the game doesn’t skimp on trying to lure you into purchasing points to obtain guns. Still, these are absolutely not necessary to enjoy the game beyond a certain point.

Call of Duty Mobile is an impressive game that does a degree of justice to a decade-long franchise. Hardcore fans of earlier installments may feel betrayed by the lack of single-player, but I don’t believe this takes away from the experience you get with the game modes available here. All in all, this game is an absolute “net positive,” and I wholeheartedly recommend you give it a shot (no pun intended!)

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