On technical grounds, it's pretty hard as a gamer not to simply be amazed by Modern Combat 5 – it is, pretty much, a fully-functioned, first-person shooter to rival Call Of Duty and Battlefield, only on your phone rather than a dedicated home console.
That's not just talking in terms of visuals – although they're the most immediately impressive thing about the game. As well as the graphics, there's the amount of single-player missions, the multi-player and the plethora of side-quests, weapons upgrades and loadout options available also.
Unfortunately, visual and technical elements are not the only things carried across from classic console shooters. Grunting incoherent hero? Check. Endless room/corridor/room single-player repetition? Check. Horrifically steep learning curve online, playing against those who've already invested lots of time grinding up their weapons and class stats? Check.
On top of that, MC5 adds a specifically mobile wrinkle too – its control schemes. Transferring games which normally take all ten fingers to control and a gamepad honed through decades of design iterations to a screen and two proddy fingers is a thankless task, no doubt. But the game still features far too many "oops I just hit grenade instead of shoot" moments and too much time looking around at the floor, or slowly moving sights in on an enemy while they pepper you.
Android gamers at least get to use "HID" gamepads for controls – although this means an extra cost. But no such luck for iPhone or iPad users yet.
Ultimately, the result is uncanny – a superbly accurate copy of Modern Warfare on a far tinier screen than normal. But whether aping games that are so derivative, incoherent and aggressive is a good thing depends on your tolerance for the genre, and for some ropey mobile controls.
- Modern Combat 5: Blackout is out now for Android and iOS. Published by Gameloft.
- Read other gaming reviews on theartsdesk
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