Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Mobilized Review
Call of Duty gets mobilized.
By Ben Salter
It’s November and that means one thing; it’s Call of Duty time of year. When the handheld version is released along side the console smash hits, and even the watered-down Wii version, it’s easy to simply brush it aside. But for those of you looking for a quality FPS on the DS developer, n-Space, is once again closer to showing us the perfect way to do it. After Metroid Prime Hunters the genre never really progressed – if anything it went downhill. However, Activision look intent on changing that, and they may well have achieved it with another instalment in the COD series on DS.
Believe it or not the DS is actually ahead of the Wii when it comes to the Modern Warfare Call of Duty series. Two years ago a version of the highly acclaimed Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare came out on Nintendo’s handheld, it has only now been released on Wii, and it wasn’t half bad. Like that game Mobilized features a unique story to its big brother Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The game follows the interwoven story of the US Marines and the British SAS, both of which lead to investigating Prince Farhad, who is suspiciously collecting nuclear weapons. The story itself isn’t fantastic, but it’s meant to be an action game and not plot driven. On the contrary it’s actually told quite well. Most of the cut-scenes are still image-based, with a little action thrown in, but they do feature complete voice-overs. It’s a nice touch, as it’s often the first thing to be omitted in annual DS instalments.
The controls are similar to its predecessor, but very different to any other platform, so there’s a bit of getting used to if you’re a regular player using the keyboard, dual analogue or Wii Remote control schemes. The touch screen is used for aiming, while the D-Pad or face buttons (for leftys) controls movement. The trigger buttons are used for firing, and buttons around the touch screen control everything else. It isn’t the best control system in the world, but it’s the best the DS has to offer when it comes to first person shooters, which is perhaps why they are so rare on the console. It does offer precision, but at the expense of comfort. Your wrist remains at a strange angle for full control on the bottom screen; as a result you won’t want to play for more than an hour at a time, but that’s not really a big issue, as it is meant to be the portable, quick play, version of the game.
Once you’ve got the hang of the controls you’ll notice this is a real FPS, not another quick cash-in that we see so often on the DS. Most of the missions are on foot, but you’ll also be required to man turrets and take control of vehicles throughout the campaign. Being a DS game, a greater emphasis is placed on tactical mini-tasks that are implemented between the shooting. At times you’ll have to crack codes and disarm weapons in mini-games that take place on the touch screen. This is something that isn’t in the main console games, and it really helps to establish the DS version as something different.
There’s heaps to do in Modern Warfare: Mobilized, with a fairly lengthy campaign and extra challenges once you’ve completed that. All-in-all there’s over 10 hours of single player experience to be had here, and possibly a lot more if you play on the hardened difficulty. Maybe we should have taken the hint from the name but it’s really hard! The level design begins to become a little boring towards the end of the game, but it’s a lot better than World at War. Last year we felt like each level was just a tiny box, rather than a fully blown videogame level. That problem has certainly been fixed, as the levels are much more spacious and closer to its console counterpart.
Nintendo are the kings of social gaming. That is multiplayer gaming in the same location, which is perhaps why they have such weak support for online, as they consider it to be anti-social. Considering that, the DS has really lacked quality multiplayer titles in recent times. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Mobilized looks to rectify both of these issues. It features 6-player local play, as well as online. Both are fantastic, and up there as some of the DS in a long time. You can choose Deathmatch, Hunter/Prey, Capture the Flag, and Sabotage game types in either free-for-all or team modes. The only real problem is that hardly anyone plays online, making it hard to find matches unless you prearrange it with mates. If you and 5 mates have 6 copies of the game, local wi-fi is the way to go.
At times Mobilized really feels like it’s pushing the DS to its limits, in a good way. There’s normally no more than 3 enemies on screen, with 5 the absolute maximum, and at that point it suffered from some serious frame rate issues, so we see why, for the most part, it was kept down. Having only 3 enemies in each area wouldn’t present the biggest challenge to more skilled gamers, so once you kill them more keep coming. As a result, it does feel like there’s some type of spawn point you need to destroy, ala Halo, but that isn’t the case.
Despite some frame rate issues Modern Warfare: Mobilized is an impressive piece of software, and really shows of what the DS can do. Albeit a scaled down version, Mobilized essentially does the same thing as COD: Modern Warfare 2 on consoles and PC. There are fewer enemies, and the levels are more basic, but the core gameplay is almost the same. The weapons all handle, and feel different, and in essence this is one of the few 3D FPSs on the DS that actually feels like one.
The character models and weapons look fantastic. It doesn’t have the same polished feel as say Zelda, but we’re finally getting some decent 3D games on the DS – it only took 5 years. Unfortunately the textures are very muddy, and ruin the graphical experience a little, but overall it’s a technically impressive game and looks nice.
As we mentioned earlier, the game has complete voice acting, for every single piece of dialogue. That’s amazing for the DS, as it’s often cut to save space on the game cart. Not only is it complete, it’s also very good, with appropriate accents and is high quality; none of that muffled rubbished. The in-game sound effects aren’t quite as good, but they do the job well enough.
The Final Verdict
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Mobilized is the best first person shooter on the DS in a long time. Like all games in the genre, the controls become uncomfortable after extended play, but the whole idea is that this is the portable, quick play, game in the popular series. With a long campaign, and great multiplayer, off and online, Mobilized is jam packed with content. Like the Wii, the DS is deprived of quality FPS games. But if you’re looking for one this year, it’s hard to look past Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Mobilized.
Gameplay
8.5/10
The controls are uncomfortable after a while, but as a portable game there’s heaps to do in single and multiplayer.
Graphics
8.0/10
A great 3D FPS. The character models and weapons are fantastic, but let down a little by muddy textures and frame rate issues.
Sound
8.0/10
Complete and quality voice acting! It’s a little shocking that we’re so surprised by that in 2009, but the DS is finally catching up.
Value
8.5/10
The single player campaign and challenges will take you a while, then there’s the multiplayer, which is best played locally with a few mates.
Overall
8.1/10
Submitted by ICC_06
30/11/2009
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