If you have ever wanted to play an FPS on your mobile, now you can. Combat Squad FPS Mobile does exactly what it says on the tin. You control your own squad and can go up against other players in the online multiplayer game. This one was a pleasant surprise for me in terms of mobile gaming. It really does surprise me how much creators can do nowadays. Of course, no game is perfect but lets jump into this one and see what it has on offer.
Storyline
Okay, so first of all, there really isn’t a story here. Much like Call of Duty multiplayer doesn’t have a story, neither does this. Combat Squad is simple about loading out your team with the best equipment and then testing their skills against other players. It’s a straight forward concept with little need to go into much more detail. Since there is no story, it won’t count towards the final score for this review.
Gameplay
Now, this is the interesting part. The whole idea behind Combat Squad is that you have a team. But, you can, if you choose, to control one of your team members which then explains the FPS part. The tutorial shows you how to manoeuvre and shoot. Mostly, it is automatic as long as you are pointing your gun at the enemy. There are also several game modes to choose from, from Team Deathmatch to Demolition it is abundant with content. The only unfortunate thing is, most of the game modes feel very samey. For example Demolition mode requires you to plant bombs to destroy the enemy base or defend your base from the enemy bombs. If however, you manage to eliminate all the players on the other team, you win the match. This is essentially just like Elimination mode except you can plant bombs. I was finding that I was killing all the players before I could plant both bombs.
Aside from that, it is actually quite a fun game to play. Especially if you choose to control your team rather than leaving it on auto. I also recommend doing this because the AI isn’t overly sophisticated. For a mobile game, I was rather impressed with what you could do. The one other issue I had was the awkward UI in the lobby page. It felt horrible to navigate and there is so much on screen, you don’t even know where to look first. There were tabs on there I didn’t notice until the game pointed it out to me.
Graphics & Sound
Remember, this is a mobile game. So, I hope you aren’t expecting high end graphics. However, this game was made using the Unreal 4 engine so it actually looks pretty good. The music and sound design feels quite generic but that’s coming from someone who really doesn’t know much about audio design at all. Overall, it isn’t bad; especially for a mobile game (I know I keep saying it but it’s true!)
Controls
Mostly, the control system worked fine. The only really problems I had were trying to turn quickly when facing an enemy. When playing in first person mode, the controls are actually pretty smooth on the whole. As I said before, the UI was awkward to navigate but I don’t really have many complaints about the control system overall.
Difficulty
If you are playing against the AI, let’s just say it really isn’t all that hard. Of course, should you choose to actually play against other people, the difficulty is completely dependent on how good the other player is. It does also tend to find other players close to your level which does make things a tad easier. But, the higher the level you are, the tougher your opponents tend to be. Which makes perfect sense and I much prefer this type of system. Sometimes you will come across players who are worse than you and sometimes you’ll come across players who are better than you. That’s how life is I suppose.
Replayability
This is definitely a game you can come back to time and time again. It does however take up a good chunk of memory so make sure you have the space for it. Since you can just jump back in at anytime and face off against an opponent I would say replayability value for Combat Squad is fairly high.
