'Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation' Best Mobile FPS On The Market?

First, let's start things off with a confession: I have not played a first person shooter (FPS) on an iDevice before Gameloft's Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation. I have, however, played my fair share on consoles and PC. As a result, I dove into Modern Combat 3 with a healthy dose of skepticism. Will it control well? Will the graphics look as advertised? Will the gameplay let me down like other wannabe shooters on the market? Let's just say it handled better than I expected. The graphics look impressive, the controls are adequate, and the single player campaign will take you to a variety of environments and even have you step into the shoes of an AC-130 gunship to rain death from above. Yeah, like we haven't seen that before. That said, this is the closest to Call of Duty you're ever going to get on a mobile device while riding the MUNI metro to Montgomery street, San Francisco. Unlike other shooters where Russian or Middle East insurgents are the enemy, Modern Combat 3 combines extremist groups from North Korea, Pakistan, and Russia into the game's antagonist faction officially known as the KPR. The KPR have managed to take over a good portion of the United States and it's up to you, the player, to turn the tide as a member of Phantom Squad, a covert military unit assigned to undertake high risk operations. The game wastes no time throwing you into the action in the first mission by having you mow down enemies and destroying tanks and attack helicopters. I died a lot in this level just trying to get used to the FPS controls. This is not a good way to start the game I should say. A more simple, easy going level would have been more ideal as the first mission of the game. But I adapted and overcame this slight setback, took down the pesky attack chopper at the end and whispered  "Hell yeah!" to myself. The overall gameplay in Modern Combat 3 revolves around you following around another AI controlled character waypoint to waypoint carrying out different objectives in the level. This could be planting explosives, hacking a computer terminal, or downloading crucial files to defeat the KPR onslaught. The control scheme consists of virtual buttons on either half of the screen. Touch anywhere on the left side and it becomes your virtual stick for movement. Tap and hold on the right to aim your weapon. There are buttons for shooting, grenades, and aiming down your sights a la Call of Duty. The button layout seemed oddly placed for me at first but since they're fully customizable I wasted no time re-arranging the buttons as I saw fit. The game features a forgiving auto lock on feature that more than makes up for a difficult input method. As long as you're aiming near an enemy, you can tap that ever useful ADS (Aim Down Sights) button to auto lock onto the bad guy and blow his brains out. I might sound like a total n00b, I know, but it really helps! If only I could hook up a controller or a mouse and keyboard to my iDevice... Modern Combat 3 also provides a very Call of Duty-like multiplayer mode. The "standard" modes apply here as well. Team deathmatch, capture the flag, and zone control are playable throughout six maps with support for 12 players at a time. A CoD style progress system is present as well which includes: level-ups, weapon challenges, killchains, perk customization and more.

Despite having plenty of fun playing Modern Combat 3, there were some gripes that I had with it (as I do with every game). First off, some objectives aren't completely clear. Sometimes I found myself spending more time than I should have shooting an endless supply of enemies until sometime later I looked to the left and saw a target who needed to be taken out with explosives. It made me a little irritated to say the least. There were no shouts from AI or any messages on screen informing you of the task besides an obscure waypoint marker. It is just... AHHH! Another issue in the game was very prevalent slowdown with the framerate. To the point it felt like playing an online multiplayer match on a dial up modem (is that even possible?). This is very much due to me playing it on my 4th generation iPod touch and I am sure it will play smooth as butter on an iPad 2 or iPhone 4s. *sigh* I guess I'll have to find a way to get my hands on an iDevice with more processing power for these new power hungry apps coming out in the near future. So what's the bottom line? Well my skepticism has been quelled down a bit as a result of trying out this very well made and polished shooter. It is possible for an FPS to function on a touch screen after all! But it's just not quite good enough. At least with a controller you will never die as a result of missing the trigger button. Despite being derivative of other shooters and borrowing from well established franchises, this may very well be the best first person shooter for mobile devices. I would not recommend skipping this title if you like shooters, Call of Duty, or yelling "BOOM, headshot!" at the top of your lungs. AppPicker Rating 4 / 5 Stars Pick It Up in the App Store: Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation Other apps by Gameloft  

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdF0EvDwH-Y&feature=player_detailpage