Call of Duty Mobile – Review and Impressions

As I was downloading Call of Duty Mobile to my Samsung Galaxy S10+, I have to admit that I was quite skeptical. How can a multiplayer, first-person shooter like Call of Duty actually port over to mobile phones? How can it maintain the same gameplay without a controller or some hard-to-use on-screen control scheme? After a 1 GB download, I was thrust into a training session that helped me discover the answer to those questions.

Training and Tutorial

During the initial tutorial, you learn the basics like creating a class, modifying your weapons, and making various upgrades. To my surprise, there weren’t any annoying adds or pop ups telling you that you can start with more for a small price. Once you enter the initial training match, you’re put into a small, makeshift map where you learn how to control your player, how to crouch, shoot, and aim. There are actually two controller schemes – one with an autoaim-like function and another in which you have to aim yourself. After training, I chose the latter.

Over the period of about five minutes, you learn how to take out various enemies at close, mid-, and long range. You learn how to use your various kill streaks and, once the match is over, you learn the value of upgrading your weapons (earning attachments) and leveling up. After about five minutes, training is over and you’re now able to play in 5v5 online multiplayer. After you level up enough (level 7), you’re able to compete in the more modern battle royale mode.

Call of Duty Mobile Online Play

Right after training, the game guides you through your first upgrade (I chose to add a sight to my gun), and then you’re left to play 5v5 multiplayer. To my surprise, the very first match I played was actually in a toned-down version of Nuketown 2025. It featured the same houses and vehicles, albeit without the futuristic touch that you probably became accustomed to from Black Ops 2. Match making for my first match was outrageously fast. It took no more than 20 seconds for me to land in a lobby and start playing.

Despite the quick but thorough training tutorial, I expected to get my ass handed to be. However, that didn’t happen. As it turned out, I was the one kicking ass, and I kicked ass well. Maybe this comes from a long history of playing CoD online or perhaps I was simply placed in a lobby with other newbies that didn’t quite grasp the games function as quickly as I did. Either way it was fun. My first match, I played through without dying. My consecutive matches I died a few times, but I came out as the top player each time. I have a feeling this won’t be the case as I continue to level up and get put against more seasoned players. After all, the game had only been out for a few hours when I started playing it.

Leveling Up in Call of Duty Mobile

Leveling up in CoD mobile is the same as it is in any CoD game. The more points you get – i.e. kills and assists – the more you level up. With each match, you earn coins that can be used to unlock other weapons, attachments, perks, etc. As is the usual case, leveling up came quite fast with my first couple of matches moving me up to level 4. From here, I should be able to unlock a new primary weapon, however, I haven’t made it that far yet.

For now, I have to admit that I’m impressed with how well a game like Call of Duty can actually play on a mobile phone. I did experience a couple instances where lag came into place, however, I assume that was the result of a few players having a slow wireless connection. I would recomend using Wi-Fi if possible, however, on a good 4G LTE signal, I had no issues with connecting or playing. This is definitely a fun game to play on the fly and the fact that it’s free-to-play is even better. I haven’t tried the battle royal mode yet, but I can’t wait to give that a shot. Stay tuned for updates.