The much-awaited Call of Duty Mobile is here on Android and iOS devices. The game is brought to mobile with a familiar experience for the veteran COD players and is sure to please the young fans alike.
The Call of Duty Mobile version is currently in early access at the time of writing. We can expect changes and updates as the development team releases the final build.
We tested the Call of Duty mobile game on the Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone which is powered by an EXYNOS 9820 chip and here’s our first impression of the game.
Call of Duty Mobile: Gameplay Impressions
The first important change that users will notice in the Call of Duty Mobile game is the neat control layout. Given that I was playing on a big enough screen, it took me only 10 minutes to adapt my fingers to the onscreen buttons.
The movement stick can be controlled by clicking anywhere on the left side of the screen. This eliminates the need to place my hand at exactly the right spot on the screen if I want to move my character.
Control customization is deep and simple at the same time allows users to map their gameplay experience exactly how they want. The basic firing control is of two types: players can either choose auto-fire or manual touch fire.
In auto-fire mode, the gun automatically shoots if the enemy is in the crosshairs. In order to keep this from becoming an unfair advantage, there is a slight pause between when you target the enemy and when the gun fires.
Another important point to be noted here is that in manual fire mode (advanced mode) players can change the camera angle simultaneously while holding the fire button and moving it left and right.
I noticed a small bug as well. During the gameplay, the automatic fire couldn’t spot the enemy even when I was directly pointing at them.
The actual gameplay is fast and smooth, just like the modern Call of Duty title. Players can slide, jump, sprint and crouch using on-screen controls. The default controls aren’t as touch sensitive as I’d like them to be and work sluggishly while switching between the Iron sight and the Hip sight.
You can, however, turn the sensitivity way up in the settings but I still prefer using the custom layout as the difference between High and Medium sensitivity preset is almost unnoticeable.
The core play still consists of perks and progression. Early on in the game, players don’t have the ability to equip any perks. By the time they reach level 6, special secondary weapons and perk attributes become available. The mobile version of Call of Duty also features Scorestreak, which allows the user to customize different kill-streak rewards.
The progression system worked well as I reached level 8 just by playing 9 or 10 rounds. The players can also change their appearance in the load-out menu but they do need to reach a certain level before they can ditch their default skin.
The Call of Duty mobile game currently suffers from texture pop-ins and a number of server issues. For example, if you’re already connected to a Wi-Fi, you’ll have to switch it off and on in order to login to the game.
Furthermore, the loss of even one signal bar results in network disconnection.
Call of Duty mobile also has an upcoming Battle Royale mode. It allows users to play both in the third person and first-person mode. However, currently finding players for Call of Duty Battle Royale takes more than 3 minutes.
Call of Duty Mobile Maps
The Call of Duty Mobile version brings a number of famous maps from the Black Ops and Modern Warfare series alike. The current roster of maps includes:
CrossFire: It is one of the most famous maps from the Call of Duty Modern Warfare. CrossFire is particularly famous for its sniper-friendly long corridors. The map features a few small corridor fights and sniper gameplay. Thus Shotguns, SMG’s and Sniper rifles work well on this map.
NukeTown: This famous map appears in Call of Duty Black Ops Multiplayer mode. It is a tightly packed map and is generally full of chaos if more than 4 players are present on each team. The map is an improvement over the Shipment in Call of Duty, which had no place for a sniper. Thus, all the guns feel equally powerful on this map.
Kill House: This map is one of the smallest in the game. It is only as big as the shipment, meaning a shotgun feels quite overpowered. However, skilled players can even use an SMG or AK-47 to make the best out of this map. Kill House first appeared in the Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
Crash: This map is particularly useful for sneaky players who prefer blind corners instead of open corridors. It is a small map by size but still bigger than the Kill house and the shipment. Air Missile strikes are less effective on this map due to a number of empty houses which provide overhead protection.
Hijacked: This location involves a hijacked yacht in the middle of the ocean. It is a pretty straight forward map and has several areas where every weapon feels overpowered. In tight corners, Shotgun can easily decimate other players out on the deck and an assault rifle or a Sniper can easily attack enemies from a long range.
Call of Duty Mobile Game Modes
The Call of Duty Mobile game currently has 7 Game Modes. Each of them is detailed below:
Frontline: Maximum number of players are playing in this mode right now. In this game mode, players are given a kill target and whichever team reaches it quickest, wins the match.
Team Deathmatch: The objective of this mode is to kill as many people as possible on the enemy team within a specific time frame.
Search and Destroy: It is an elimination-based mode with several rounds. Each team is given a specific target to either destroy or protect. The team that completes its objective first or eliminates the other, wins.
Domination: This game mode is a variation of capture-the-flag. In order to win the players need to control all the specific points located across the map. A player can control a region by standing next to the point for more than 10 seconds.
Hardpoint: In this mode, both teams are given a common point on the map which they need to control. This point changes several times during the course of the game and players receive points for controlling it. The team which scores the maximum number of points wins.
Free-for-all: In this mode, every player fights for themselves. The only objective is to eliminate everyone you encounter. The player with the most kills at the end of the session is the winner.
Call of Duty Mobile: Expectations
The Call of Duty Mobile version delivers on what it promised. A smooth and fast FPS experience for your smartphone. However, the series could use a little more variety of maps like the Showdown from Modern Warfare and better network support to completely annihilate the competition.
The game is still in early access and hopefully, the final build will have these problems sorted.
