Review of Modern Combat 5

I do have one more ongoing concern with Modern Combat 5 , and this might be a deal breaker for many of you. You need to have an internet connection to play the game—yes, even the single player. Frankly, I can't think of any good reason other than (maybe) combating piracy. The game comes with the first zone when you download it, but the others are loaded when you unlock them (a nice feature, actually). So of course you need a connection for that, but I'm talking about levels you are currently playing. If you lose connectivity for even a moment, the game pauses and tries to reconnect. You cannot play until the server has been reached.

With a controller, It is a fun game. The difference is so stark that I can really only recommend buying it if you intend to play with a controller.

The story didn't really strike me as interesting or relevant to the gameplay, but it seems to have been deemphasized this time, which I'm fine with. The lack of IAPs is a total win, though. It's refreshing to play a game with unlockable content that isn't tied to a paywall. Yes, MC5 is a $7 game, but you get everything for that price—and there is a lot of content here. So you should consider picking up Gameloft's newest shooter, but only if you have a controller or hate yourself a little bit.

The various on-screen control of Modern Combat 5

If you've played any of Gameloft's previous shooters (especially Modern Combat 4), you won't find many surprises in the controls for Modern Combat 5. The various on-screen control schemes rely on some arrangement of dual thumbsticks. Drag on the left side of the screen to walk forward/backward and strafe side to side, and use the right side to aim. Here's where things get weird—when you want to fire, you pick up your right thumb and press the floating trigger button. While pressing this, you can still drag around to refine your aim, but nothing is going to make that process completely smooth.

Modern Combat 5 has extremely aggressive aim assistance on by default, and frankly, I can't imagine playing this game on a touchscreen without it. I say this as someone who plays a lot of shooters with a keyboard/mouse and a controller. Once your crosshairs find a target, your aim will actually stick there, even if the enemy should run a short distance. It's weird, but you'll wrestle with the controls enough even with the auto aiming. Sometimes it can get incredibly frustrating as you switch back and forth between swiping and tapping the fire button, always feeling just a little disconnected from the action.

The bottom line is that on-screen FPS controls are awkward, but I will grant that Gameloft has done the best job of making a shooter enjoyable on a touchscreen. I guess you could say the controls are good... in the context of other mobile first-person shooters. If you're not wiling to settle for barely passable controls (and you shouldn't), your best bet is to pair a controller with your device. I tested Modern Combat 5 on the Nvidia Shield, which is fully supported as a controller. Most other HID devices with the standard layout should work too.

Using a controller instantly makes MC5 more playable (you need to increase the sensitivity, though). The difference is actually huge. With touchscreen controls I feel anxious and off-kilter playing Modern Combat 5, but I'm instantly at home with the controller. That's not just because I'm used to a controller, but the precision of a physical thumbstick is higher, and (importantly) you can fire while aiming without moving your thumb from the stick.

Modern Combat 5 Review

Like a great many developers, Gameloft has resorted to rolling in-app purchases into most of its games. One notable exception to that de facto rule is the new installment of the Modern Combat series. These games have much more production value than any other mobile first-person shooter, but this is a genre that's notoriously hard to adapt to touchscreens. So, can a big production budget make Modern Combat 5: Blackout worth your time?

Modern Combat 4 focused on an intricate and ultimately uninteresting story about a terrorist who took every opportunity to remind us he was the bad guy through the use of torturously long cut scenes. Modern Combat 5 is still about terrorists blowing stuff up and shooting people, but there's less time spent on an attempt to flesh out everyone's motivation for shooting stuff. If you ask me, that's a good thing. The story is no more compelling in MC5, but it stays out of your way more than in the last installment.

The game's story mode takes place across six different zones including a Buddhist temple, a bustling metropolis, and a military base. Each area has 4-6 missions that advance the story, which is mostly about figuring out what these terrorists types are up to (it doesn't really matter—you still just shoot all of them). After finishing those missions, there are a few "spec ops" levels to go through in the same zone. These are quick one-off missions that might call upon you to cover your team from a sniper perch, breach and clear a few rooms, assassinate a target, or rescue a hostage. The level design is reasonably good, and the spec ops stuff is surprisingly fun. I actually replayed some of these missions just because.

Modern Combat 5 approaches its multiplayer.

‘Bigger and better’ is probably the best way to succinctly describe how Modern Combat 5 approaches its multiplayer. Maps are larger and feature more multi-leveled arenas as well as more places to hide and prepare for battle.

There are four classes now, each with their own weapons to unlock and ability trees to invest in. For example, the Heavy uses shotguns and grenade launches and can be trained in damage reduction while the Sniper (aside from the obvious sniper rifle specialty) can be trained to launched decoys in multiplayer. There’s enough variety in terms of traits and level selection that makes each class viable in multiplayer.
Of course, game modes, maps and customizability are all well and good, but doesn’t amount to much if the game itself doesn’t play well. Thankfully, MC5’s multiplayer players pretty awesome. The game plays incredibly smooth, even more so than its single player component (most likely due to the fact MP minimizes the occurrence of visual effects to dedicate more resources to framerate). Controls work as well as they can for being touch-based, with plenty of on-screen button customization and gyroscopic aiming which works better in this sequel. I’ve also encountered next to no lag in the dozens of MP games played since launch.