

Just facing yourself in the right direction can be tough at times, and you will often find yourself firing your gun when you just wanted to turn your head. Moving around feels slow and unresponsive, and swiping to turn and look around is also tricky. There is little freedom in the missions, though, with most guiding you along a set path almost automatically – although this makes sense when there are obvious limitations in the virtual joystick controls. You won’t be stuck doing the same thing over and over for too long, either: there are a selection of vehicle-based missions, sniper sections and more that add some variety to proceedings. Gameloft have obviously attempted to tailor the missions to suit the platform – most gamers on mobile devices are looking for a short, quick fix, and that is what Blackout delivers.

That is what the title does well: it takes the over-the-top explosions and collapsing buildings that punctuate the Call of Duty series, and squeezes them successfully onto the smaller screen.Įach single-player mission is fairly brief – mostly delivered in five minute chunks – making it perfect for jumping in and out of and playing in short bursts. We see straightaway that Modern Combat 5 is going to be a linear affair, but this seems intentional to reduce the difficulty of touchscreen controls, and to enable the scripting of dramatic action set-pieces. Characters aren’t properly introduced and the game constantly references past events in the series – which isn’t great for players looking to pick up a Modern Combat title for the first time, although story is rarely the most important feature of an FPS. You are thrown straight into the action, with a tutorial flashback mission set in Venice. The Call of Duty series has never managed to make a mark on mobile devices, but Gameloft have tried to adapt the fast-paced, action-packed gameplay of Activision’s flagship title and condense it down for mobile phones and tablets, and perhaps piggy-back off the success of the Modern Warfare series a little at the same time. Gameloft make no attempt to disguise the fact that their Modern Combat series for mobile devices is inspired by the Call of Duty franchise.
