When duty calls, you'd better pick up the phone--or the mobile, in this case. Wireless has always been in need of a quality real-time action strategy title, and despite its several peccadilloes, Mforma's Call of Duty fits the bill.
Call of Duty, while not as pretty as one would hope, represents a very successful transition between the worlds of PC and mobile. Set on the muddy battlefields of World War II, COD is a challenging game that demands resource and squad management that begins even before the mission does. Before setting into battle, you must tailor a team to fit your mission objectives. Your three-man operation can be staffed by any of several officers, each with his own statistics and special abilities. An infantryman can throw grenades and has good health; medics can heal other officers; snipers can hit baddies from farther away than their comrades-at-arms; squad commanders have great health; and engineers--usually essential to the success of a mission--can blow things up, from tanks to entryways. Once you've selected a team and set out on a mission, you will control only one officer at a time, although you can switch on the fly. Your main man can bark orders at his AI-controlled brethren, telling them to take cover when the situation calls for it and to follow him when it's advantageous to do so. With enemy fire coming from all directions, and medkits scarce, you'll probably have to decide which members of your squad you need to stay alive. For example, you might be heading into heavy combat but need your engineer to destroy a tank for you later in the level. It would therefore be a good idea to have your engineer take cover while, say, your infantryman knocks some heads.
Call of Duty's weakness is audiovisual. Its graphics are subpar, and its repetitive sound effects fail to evoke the confusion and mayhem of war. Since all of the game's soldiers use the same sprite, with a different color representing hostiles, it's impossible to tell your units apart without switching your control to them. Throughout the game, your ears will be assailed by the unrelenting rat-a-tat-tat of machine guns, although their source is unknown. Oddly enough, actual guns fire silently in COD's wacky world of topsy-turvy--so silently, in fact, that enemies sometimes won't notice that they're being shot at.
While far from perfect, Call of Duty is exactly what real-time strategy lovers want in a mobile game. It is a thinking-man's shooter, packing thrills for grognards (serious wargamers) and casual fans alike. Simply put, its team-management features and level designs are visionary. It's a highly recommended game.
