The best FPS on the DS

by Pramath Parijat

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy

‘Call of Duty: Mobilized’ is the best first-person shooter on the DS, bar none, with its sharp gameplay and boundary pushing graphics.

It’s quite strange, but the Nintendo DS hasn’t seen a lot of first-person shooters that actually stood out. True, we had Dementium: The Ward, and Moon, which were both pretty good, at least on a technical level, and of course, we have Nintendo’s very own Metroid Prime Hunters, which not only is the best shooter on the system so far, but also is one of the very best titles available on the system. But by and large, and barring the increasingly rare exceptions, good shooters on the DS have become somewhat of a myth -- oft talked about, never seen.

What compounds the confusion accompanying the situation is the fact that the DS’s control scheme is theoretically ideally suited for first-person shooters -- the touchscreen, used in conjunction with the face buttons and the D-pad, is as close to replicating the PC keyboard and mouse experience as you can get. And yet developers have fumbled -- possibly, the lack of power under the DS’s hood is to blame. But it may be that the DS itself is not suited to a genre as demanding as FPS’s, even though initial impressions tend to dictate otherwise.



However, developer n-Space seems to be out to prove all the naysayers wrong. Having released the DS versions for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War (both of which were indisputably the high points that the FPS genre has seen on the platform), they now bring us Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized, their third Call of Duty game, that acts as a “companion” to the recently released and wildly successful Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. You really have to admire their effort -- not only is Mobilized their best game on the system yet, it is also, without doubt, the greatest shooter on the DS.

Very Call of Duty-esque but distinct

Before I proceed with this review, it is imperative to clear one thing up: Mobilized is not a port of the console versions, and nor is it meant to be. So if you’re looking for the seamless experience that the console games provide you with, well, you’re looking in the wrong place, and really, get realistic -- the DS is simply not capable of doing stuff like that.

Having said that, however, it must be noted that Mobilized comes as close to the console versions as is possible without sacrificing its own distinct identity, and all the while, playing to the strengths of the DS, and keeping its limitations in mind. Much in the manner that Chinatown Wars brought us the purest GTA experience on the handheld earlier this year, this game brings us the quintessential Call of Duty experience that could never be mistaken for anything else, without actually taking on anything which it would have been impossible to pull off.

Nowhere is what I just said more evident than the game’s graphics -- the developers are evidently very confident in working with the DS, and completely familiar with it. They are also, apparently, extremely talented, for they have managed to churn out gorgeous, detailed 3D visuals from the DS’s 3D challenged hardware, that not only qualify as the best graphics on the system. That they are is without any question, but they also are consistent, and run at a smooth 30 frames per second, never suffering any manner of a slowdown, even when the screen is filled with numerous enemies and explosions -- something that surely must be taxing on the processor... Indeed, you can almost hear the DS whirring and wheezing, as it struggles to keep up with what the developers demand of it.

And yet, there never is any compromise in the quality; never do you feel that there were any corners cut. The developers adopted a couple of ingenious techniques to mask the game’s inherent graphical vulnerabilities, trading of detail in character models for a steady frame rate. And yet, because we rarely have occasion to actually observe an object up close for any length of time, we don’t ever really notice this inconsistency. That’s not to say it isn’t there, because it is. But it is rarely ever noticeable, and never detracts from the overall experience.



Also impressive is the game’s sound. This is the unadulterated Call of Duty experience, and the sound emerges unscathed in its transition from this generation’s most powerful systems, to the weakest one. We have top notch, high quality voice acting here, and loads of it. We have enemies with their own war cries and guns that not only all look different but sound different too. Each weapon has its own distinct auditory identity. It’s commendable that n-Space was paying so much attention to detail.

Apart from the voice acting, there’re also the vehicles that, again, all sound as authentic as they should. Accompanying this entire audio wonder is the game’s soundtrack, which quietly hums away in the background, adding considerably to the atmosphere. When you’re through with the game, it is highly possible that you won’t remember a single tune that played during the course of the campaign, and yet without the music, the experience would feel hollow, soulless; it simply wouldn’t be the same.

There are a couple of niggles even here, though... For instance, it becomes grating to hear our enemies repeat the same thing every time we face off against them, in the same mechanical voice. I’m not asking for much here, but a few variations would have been welcome, in inflection and intonation if not in dialogue.

A few issues won’t stop this trooper

Accompanying these technical feats is the game’s gameplay, which remains largely unchanged from the last two COD games -- you still control the character using the touchscreen while you move forward or strafe sideways using the D-pad. The L trigger is used for shooting, and the action buttons are used for interacting with objects throughout the course of the game. It does emulate the PC’s tried and tested keyboard and mouse control scheme (that is ideal for this kind of a game) admirably well, though it results in cramps if you play for extended periods.

There are some jarring oversights on the developers’ parts when it comes to controls, which really are inconsistent with the otherwise high level of polish the game boasts. For instance, to change weapons you must tap on the touch screen. And yet, lifting the stylus suddenly in the midst of a heated clash with a horde of oncoming soldiers can be quiet distracting, if not downright disorienting, and can often result in totally undeserved (and consequently frustrating) deaths. Conversely, you might often find that you tapped one of the weapon buttons by mistake when you didn’t intend to, so that you’ll suddenly realize that you’ve thrown a grenade when you didn’t mean to. Not only is that loss of valuable ammo... but it can also result in almost certain death if you’re a bit slow and don’t immediately catch on to what you’ve done.

So yes, there are some problems even with this control scheme, but you basically get used to them over time. That doesn’t excuse the developers for not trying something a bit better though, even though this probably is the best compromise that they could come up with.



The game has a single player campaign that should last you eight to nine hours to finish, but you’ll probably want to go through it again since it is quite a ride to be had. But even if the single player mode bores you, you’re in luck, because Mobilized has of one of the meatiest multiplayer modes ever to be found in any DS game, and certainly the best we’ve had so far in a DS FPS.

So we have local multiplayer for up to six players, with all the standard shooter fare. You have your variations of Deathmatch, King of the Hill and Find the Flag, with a decent selection of maps that are all varied and offer something different as far as tactical advantages go, but the problem here is you need all your friends to have their own copy of the game too, and that is highly unlikely, seeing how the first two DS Call of Duty games never did catch on. There is no option for Download Play, and that’s a shame because it would have added considerable value to an otherwise flawless mode.

However, there is an online mode, which surprisingly keeps up with the local mode, and offers remarkably efficient matchmaking. There also is no lag to speak of, and during the few times that I went online, I found it easy to enter a match with players of my own skill level. The online here works largely like the online in last year’s World at War, only without the lag.

Summary

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized comes as a genuine surprise. It is the best shooter on the Nintendo DS, though that is nothing special seeing as how shooters on the system are generally disappointing. But it also comes across as a compelling gameplay experience, one that holds your attention from start to finish, and one that you will keep returning to, even as you blast through enemies in the much shiner HD versions of the game.

Really, you should give this one a chance... developers n-Space have outdone themselves with their best game yet. They managed to make the DS dance to their tune. If ever there was a case of a third party completely mastering a gaming system, Modern Warfare: Mobilized is it. So the next time you’re off to the hills for the weekend, be sure to take your DS along with you, because this game will bring you the purest Call of Duty experience on the unlikeliest of all systems. And it will do it all whilst simultaneously retaining a distinct and memorable identity of its own.