Last year I reviewed Call of Duty: Declassified for the PS Vita. It was the last time I picked up a Call of Duty game on the go. I gave Declassified a whopping score of 30. To put it bluntly it was an awful game. At the time I felt it had little in the way of redeeming qualities. I also believed it was a lost opportunity for Activision, Sony and fans of Call of Duty games alike. So when the opportunity surfaced to review another portable Call of Duty game, honestly, I wanted to run for the hills. I just could not stomach another disappointment given I am a fan of the console versions of series and I hate to see the franchise tarnished. Well much to my surprise Call of Duty: Strike Team was quite enjoyable and much better than I expected. Granted it doesn’t hold a candle to the console CoD experience, but as far as mobile games go I enjoyed playing this brand of Call of Duty on my iPhone 5.
What makes this mobile Call of Duty game work is how it blends the traditional CoD first person shooter experience with some third person strategy elements. Sure the first person elements are a little more miss than hit but the third person strategy elements are a nice surprise and something I did not expect going in.
In first person, Strike Team feels and looks like Call of Duty. Everything is accomplished with the touch screen, and in my case a somewhat smaller iPhone 5 touch screen. A big part of me wanted to play the game on an iPad for the sake of a larger screen. In fact, given the beefy 2GB size of the game it is obviously much better suited for the tablet. There were times I felt like I was ‘all thumbs’ on that tiny screen but in the end I only felt that way when I played the game in the first person perspective.
While in the traditional CoD first person mode, moving your character about and looking around is accomplished with your thumbs on the right and left sides of the screen. A shooting icon remains onscreen and you can snap onto your enemy targets by pressing on additional icons that appear on the left and right sides as well. You can replenish your ammo by swiping the bottom right hand corner of the screen and you can even crouch by tapping yet another on-screen button. I have to admit I was bit overwhelmed at times as using the touch screen does not feel as natural as using a controller, but after an hour or two I was starting to get the hang of it. That being said, don’t expect that same level of precision or accuracy you get with the console experience.
The first person elements in Strike Team are frustrating at times and there is a bit of a learning curve as I suggested above. Thankfully, the enemies are not so proficient when it comes to shooting at you so you will have time to learn some of the touch screen controls which can be finicky and awkward at the best of times. What I did enjoy however was how I could switch back and forth from first person to a third person overhead view via a UAV drone. When I found myself frustrated with the first person controls, all I had to do was switch to the over-head controls where I then found myself directing my two man squad to the objective while taking down enemies in the process.
It is in this third person mode where the game truly shines and feels like a different game altogether. I did find some occasions where one of my two soldiers would get stuck and I would have to switch back into first person view, but the third person strategy elements to the game ran without much of a hitch. In this mode you can move your soldiers throughout the map from indoor and outdoor locales. You can command one of them to sneak up on the enemy with a knife or command another dispatch your foes with a sniper rifle. I felt more in control of the battlefield and enjoyed the level of strategy involved. The result is satisfying especially when you hit that final objective.
The game is mission based and there is a story to be had here, and much like the game itself the story is more involved than I anticipated. That being said it is nothing incredibly original. Strike Team is a surprisingly deep game as there is a built in XP system, weapon upgrades, perks and other in-game bonuses that are found in the console experience. You can even customize your loadout. There are also some tokens you can use to purchase things like armor and perks. You can buy tokens with in-app purchases (real cash) but if you are patient enough you really shouldn’t have to purchase any. I found the game rewarded me with enough tokens as I plodded along. There is even a single player Survival mode which is also equipped with many of the franchise’s weapons, perks, ranks, and prestige levels.
After everything is said and done, Call of Duty: Strike Team was much better mobile game than I anticipated. Being able to switch back and forth on the fly from classic first-person action to a top-down third-person perspective made for a decent and varied mobile CoD experience. For a $7.00 dollar mobile game this is a nice effort from Activision’s new mobile development studio The Blast Furnace. Strike Team is far from a perfect experience and there is certainly room for growth, but there is plenty to enjoy here and plenty to keep you occupied for hours on end, especially for those CoD fans looking take the franchise on the road.
