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IGN Review of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Mobilized
Call of Duty started its life on the PC, but over the past few years it has expanded to take over just about every gaming platform in the known universe. The Nintendo DS hasn't escaped this behemoth with its third handheld version of the mega-franchise in as many years hitting store shelves. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare -- Mobilized continues the progression of refinement the franchise has seen on DS, successfully delivering the Call of Duty experience on the small dual-screen.
Before getting into the meat of the review, it's important to talk about how Mobilized handles on a DS. This is a first-person shooter -- not a generic action game with the Call of Duty name slapped on it -- and that may be a selling or a sticking point depending upon your approach to handheld gaming. Do you love a technically impressive game that does its best to mirror its big brothers on the consoles? If so, you'll find a lot to like here. If that doesn't tickle your fancy, you'd do well to read the rest of this review before making a decision.
The controls here aren't for everybody. Those gamers that love to gripe about dual-analog controllers ruining shooters for the keyboard and mouse crowd thanks to their less than precise aiming should stay far away from Mobilized. You can play either right-handed or left, using the D-pad or the face buttons respectively to manage where you move. The triggers are used for shooting or tossing grenades, and the touch pad handles the rest. Drag the stylus to the right and the camera will follow. Swapping weapon or grenade types, activating switches, or aiming down the sites are all done by tapping buttons on the touch pad. It's a technically proficient system, but it does require you to hold the DS with your off hand and then lean on it a little with the other. It's an odd posture that left me with a sore wrist after my first play session. And, of course, it doesn't offer the most precision or speed. That left me feeling sour about dying with blame laid on the control more often than not. It isn't a rare occurrence at all to see the enemy and try to aim at him, but not get your shot sighted and fired before he takes you down.
But if you played last year's Call of Duty: World at War, also by developer N-Space, then you'll be right at home with the look and feel of Mobilized. The design follows the same play book, save for a change in scenery and plot. You take on the roles of the British and American special forces on a quest around the modern-day world to track down a missing nuclear weapon. The emphasis is on standard first-person shooting, but in classic Call of Duty fashion that isn't the only thing to keep you interested. Manning turrets, rolling tanks through war-torn streets, piloting unmanned spy planes, hacking into consoles, planting tactical C4 and much more are all in a day's work.
There's a heck of a lot of content to go around in Mobilized. There was no skimping on making a lengthy game, you can go back and replay any again once you've passed them once, and there's even an extra challenge mode to eat up more of your time. I do wish that a little more time was taken to make every level memorable, even if it came at the expense of axing a few levels. Mobilized does a good job of mixing up the action, but it also falls back on old tricks a little too often.
Even when it does fall into routine gameplay, it's still an interesting handheld game. This is, after all, a fully 3D shooter with two or three enemies on screen, occasional bits of destructible environment, and two AI squad mates -- all running on a little Nintendo DS. It's fairly smooth, too, and if nothing else deserves kudos for pulling off such a similar game as to what you can find on the vastly more powerful consoles. The guns are all modeled realistically and handle uniquely -- even peering down the iron sites looks slick. Downed enemies writhe in pain and occasionally rip off a few last stand shots at you, adding to the immersion. Just hop into the mission that puts you in the gunner position on a helicopter skimming a city's skyline and you'll see what I'm talking about. This is a handheld, though, and that means the textures lack detail in a big way, giving Mobilized an overall muddy look to it. While you might marvel at the technical accomplishments, you're equally likely to be turned off by the low-resolution, low polygon count models. It all depends on your point of view. The same problems from last year's World at War are present as well. Nighttime sections, or any that aren't well lit, make it difficult to differentiate enemies from the background.
The audio too is another technical high point. Like past Call of Duty games on DS, there is a whole lot of voice acting here and it's all about as high-quality as you could hope for. My only real gripe is the awful death call enemies make as they fall to the ground. It's the same sound every time and it definitely could use some variation.
After you've had your fill with the campaign and challenges, there's still a multiplayer mode to keep you busy. Gather five friends (and five additional copies of the game) and you can face off in a test of DS first-person shooting skills. You can play over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection online service, but the experience isn't nearly as good as when you play locally. There's no voice chat and the lobby system is pretty bare bones, not to mention that the critical mass of people playing online is unlikely to ever be reached. Finding an online match will be difficult.
Local play can be a lot of fun if you get the right crowd together. There are a handful of maps, as well as the standard game varieties including deathmatch, capture the flag, capture and hold, hunter/prey, and the team-based sabotage where one group defends a point that the other is attacking. The feature set is about what you'd expect out of a mid-level console game, which is pretty darn good for a handheld.
©2009-11-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Before getting into the meat of the review, it's important to talk about how Mobilized handles on a DS. This is a first-person shooter -- not a generic action game with the Call of Duty name slapped on it -- and that may be a selling or a sticking point depending upon your approach to handheld gaming. Do you love a technically impressive game that does its best to mirror its big brothers on the consoles? If so, you'll find a lot to like here. If that doesn't tickle your fancy, you'd do well to read the rest of this review before making a decision.
The controls here aren't for everybody. Those gamers that love to gripe about dual-analog controllers ruining shooters for the keyboard and mouse crowd thanks to their less than precise aiming should stay far away from Mobilized. You can play either right-handed or left, using the D-pad or the face buttons respectively to manage where you move. The triggers are used for shooting or tossing grenades, and the touch pad handles the rest. Drag the stylus to the right and the camera will follow. Swapping weapon or grenade types, activating switches, or aiming down the sites are all done by tapping buttons on the touch pad. It's a technically proficient system, but it does require you to hold the DS with your off hand and then lean on it a little with the other. It's an odd posture that left me with a sore wrist after my first play session. And, of course, it doesn't offer the most precision or speed. That left me feeling sour about dying with blame laid on the control more often than not. It isn't a rare occurrence at all to see the enemy and try to aim at him, but not get your shot sighted and fired before he takes you down.
But if you played last year's Call of Duty: World at War, also by developer N-Space, then you'll be right at home with the look and feel of Mobilized. The design follows the same play book, save for a change in scenery and plot. You take on the roles of the British and American special forces on a quest around the modern-day world to track down a missing nuclear weapon. The emphasis is on standard first-person shooting, but in classic Call of Duty fashion that isn't the only thing to keep you interested. Manning turrets, rolling tanks through war-torn streets, piloting unmanned spy planes, hacking into consoles, planting tactical C4 and much more are all in a day's work.
There's a heck of a lot of content to go around in Mobilized. There was no skimping on making a lengthy game, you can go back and replay any again once you've passed them once, and there's even an extra challenge mode to eat up more of your time. I do wish that a little more time was taken to make every level memorable, even if it came at the expense of axing a few levels. Mobilized does a good job of mixing up the action, but it also falls back on old tricks a little too often.
Even when it does fall into routine gameplay, it's still an interesting handheld game. This is, after all, a fully 3D shooter with two or three enemies on screen, occasional bits of destructible environment, and two AI squad mates -- all running on a little Nintendo DS. It's fairly smooth, too, and if nothing else deserves kudos for pulling off such a similar game as to what you can find on the vastly more powerful consoles. The guns are all modeled realistically and handle uniquely -- even peering down the iron sites looks slick. Downed enemies writhe in pain and occasionally rip off a few last stand shots at you, adding to the immersion. Just hop into the mission that puts you in the gunner position on a helicopter skimming a city's skyline and you'll see what I'm talking about. This is a handheld, though, and that means the textures lack detail in a big way, giving Mobilized an overall muddy look to it. While you might marvel at the technical accomplishments, you're equally likely to be turned off by the low-resolution, low polygon count models. It all depends on your point of view. The same problems from last year's World at War are present as well. Nighttime sections, or any that aren't well lit, make it difficult to differentiate enemies from the background.
The audio too is another technical high point. Like past Call of Duty games on DS, there is a whole lot of voice acting here and it's all about as high-quality as you could hope for. My only real gripe is the awful death call enemies make as they fall to the ground. It's the same sound every time and it definitely could use some variation.
After you've had your fill with the campaign and challenges, there's still a multiplayer mode to keep you busy. Gather five friends (and five additional copies of the game) and you can face off in a test of DS first-person shooting skills. You can play over the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection online service, but the experience isn't nearly as good as when you play locally. There's no voice chat and the lobby system is pretty bare bones, not to mention that the critical mass of people playing online is unlikely to ever be reached. Finding an online match will be difficult.
Local play can be a lot of fun if you get the right crowd together. There are a handful of maps, as well as the standard game varieties including deathmatch, capture the flag, capture and hold, hunter/prey, and the team-based sabotage where one group defends a point that the other is attacking. The feature set is about what you'd expect out of a mid-level console game, which is pretty darn good for a handheld.
©2009-11-10, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved