Call Of Duty 4 review

Did you buy Call of Duty 4 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC this week? If so, when you opened the box a little insert may have fluttered to the floor while you were madly slipping the disc into the tray on your system of choice. That slip was an advertisement for Call of Duty 4 on mobile, the first go-go installment of the series handled by Glu Mobile. (Previous editions were released by Hands On Mobile.) A good number of hardcore gamers have likely already dropped the slip in the recycling bin, but to ignore the mobile Call of Duty 4 is to turn your back on a brief bit of engaging entertainment.

The new mobile game follows lock-step with the console edition, stepping out of the past and into a very modern, very horrifying world where Middle Eastern terrorists and Russian Ultranationalists threaten to send the stability of the globe on a permanent vacation. You control members of both the British SAS and US Marine Corp as they globe-trot, tracking down the terrorists before they can use weapons of mass destruction. The tale is told through small dialogue scenes that aren't entirely engrossing -- some of the text is a bit clunky -- but certainly serviceable enough to set each scene.

In most missions, you lead a small handful of fellow soldiers into tough situations against mounting odds, such as terrorist strongholds. You must make use of bravery, stealth, cover opportunities and a variety of weapons to even the playing field and ultimately bring the world back from the brink. (If you have played the console game, you likely know by this point that the world indeed remains on the brink.)

The game uses the regenerative health system from the console/PC game. When you stop and wait, perhaps behind cover or in an already-cleared area, any lost health (seen on a circular meter that surrounds your soldier) is regained. It's a popular way to keep gamers from getting too frustrated in intense situations. I certainly appreciate it when playing both Halo 3 and the Call of Duty games on my Xbox 360. It's good in the mobile game, too, but the pacing of the game isn't necessarily a good match for the mechanic. There are just too any places to stop and breathe, making it far harder to die than to complete a mission.

As you wade across the battlefields, you are often accompanied by AI-controlled soldiers. These guys obviously didn't read the in-game tutorial, because they ignore cover opportunities. While my soldier slams into a wall of sandbags to avoid enemy fire, my compatriots simply stood there and unloaded clip after clip. They died. But it wasn't necessarily a resounding punishment, because it didn't take me long to find more soldiers. The lack of real loss steals some urgency from the game. There are stages where you must keep your men alive, and these are amongst the hardest challenges in the game, because they are either too brave or too dumb to think about personal safety.

Now, with those two complaints on the table, it's important to equally note what Call of Duty 4 gets right. I like the mission variety; you get more than just direct combat stages. You must attack specific targets (radio towers in an earlier mission), escort tanks, and snipe terrorists to protect your team. Because none of the missions are especially long, you get a nice sampling of game play styles during each session with the game.

Your soldier also has several weapons, none of which are underused. (This is something many mobile action games suffer from -- introducing weapons or concepts and then doing little with them.) You must use your sniper rifle often to pick off targets or blow up obstacles/targets with C4 explosives. The bazooka is always a treat. You also have a very useful melee attack in the event you find yourself close enough to an enemy that it's faster and safer to just go for the immediate kill than fall back and empty a magazine.

I also appreciated that Glu did away with ammunition. By not having to worry about finding extra ammo on the field (you do have to reload, though), the game's focus remains on the hunter part of the hunter-gatherer equation.

I tested the game on an LG VX8300, which is a solid gaming handset. The controls were easy and responsive when using the number pad. (You can use the directional pad, but it's actually more difficult.) The visuals are quite good, with lots of explosions, smoke plumes, and moving shadows from Blackhawks screaming overhead. There is an awful lot of gray and brown in this game, but this is one of those times that I won't lament the lack of color -- it fits the theme and setting. The game also is flanked by some solid sound effects. It's always nice when machinegun fire doesn't sound like the a mic was placed in somebody's mouth while they chewed Captain Crunch.