CALL of Duty: Strike Team for iOS is a refreshing and surprising new CoD experience thanks to its innovative ability for the player to switch between first-person action and bird’s-eye tactical modes.
Despite its flaws and limitations, and its iOS-only exclusivity, Strike Team is arguably the most fun we’ve had with CoD for some time, given the console series rarely strays from its tried and tested formula.
Strike Team begins like any other CoD game in that you are thrown into the thick of the action.
It’s here that you’ll discover how to use the touchscreen to control both the FPS and tactical perspectives.
Anyone who has played Modern Combat on their iDevice will immediately feel at home. But it’s fair to say that CoD has more refined controls.
For example, I found it easier to zoom using a sniper rifle, and to lock onto enemies using the targeting arrows that adorn the left and right hand side of the screen.
Tactical mode is carried out in real-time and you can switch between perspectives with the touch of an on-screen button.
It’s the crux of the experience, and an amazing one at that. But unfortunately it’s not perfect.
While I was clear on how to move my squad into position (there are as many as four squad members) there were times where I didn’t feel as though the AI knew what to do when in position.
Gripes aside, tactical mode is still a breath of fresh air. It adds a layer of strategy to approaching situations that CoD and most other military FPS games (bar Band of Brothers) are not known for.
It is a clever idea, too, to implement it on an iPad. With generous screen real estate, you can zoom, pan and rotate the camera, place squad members in cover, select targets for each of them, make them sprint to points, pick up and hide bodies, collect intel, infiltrate buildings and take breach positions on doors, and much more.
It is essential to flank enemies, too. During one mission I encountered multiple hostiles guarding a base. I tried to take a turret with just one member, expecting to mount the turret and chop suey my way to completing the objective. Needless to say, I was wrong to assume this would be the case, and at least seven enemies put my guy down on the deck, just as he took the turret.
In tactical mode, you can heal squad members. So as my turret guy recovered, I used another squad member to flank and create a distraction, giving my other guy the time to reposition behind the turret and start mowing down enemy troops.
Visually, I was playing on an iPad Mini and I found that the game ran reasonably smooth with no noticeable slow-down as I’d experienced in Modern Combat 4.
The visual polish is arguably better in Modern Combat 4, but the graphics are still great in Strike Team, and the gameplay is far more engaging.
I imagine a later generation iPad with a Retina screen would do the game even more justice, although I’ve always preferred the Mini to hold.
Between missions you’ll get a progressive count of your XP, be notified any level increases, and any new unlocks as a result.
You’ll be able to kit-out your four-man squad with a variety of preset or customiser kits, and the currency you earn by completing missions will allow you to restock grenades, mines and other necessary equipment.
There’s also a Perk system that appears to function similarly to Perks in mainstream CoD games, but it’s difficult to qualify the actual impact it had on gameplay.
Should you finish the story and wish to play further, there are Challenges available – but beware that you need to sign up to ‘Activate’, Activision’s own gaming service.
Established CoD players can also link an existing CoD account to the game to receive currency bonuses.
To a lesser degree, I guess CoD Strike Team resonated with me because of my fondness for Eidos’ old Commandos series of games.
If Blast Furnace, Activision’s mobile developer, can buff out squad members with a Commandos-style dependency on each member’s survival, imbue them with exclusive abilities, as well as improve some of the control and AI issues, then Strike Team could become the premier shooter on touch-enabled devices.
It’s great fun to replay missions with an emphasis on using the FPS mode only. It’s much harder at times, but a great way to extend replay value and ensure you get to enjoy your quota of FPS action.
Overall, Strike Team is an excellent game, and interestingly it’s a darn sight better than the Vita’s Call of Duty: Declassified.
So much so that it left me scratching my head wondering why Activision wouldn’t release Strike Team on the Vita, too, which has a 5-inch touch-screen, traditional analog controls for shooting, and a player base who would certainly pay $7 for such a unique experience.
If you own an iPad or iPhone and consider yourself an FPS gamer, then Strike Team is a must-have title.
RATING: 9/10
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