Spawn of Shooter Checks Out Modern Combat 3

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And now for something completely mostly different. Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation. Now this isn’t the sort of something mostly different that I usually enjoy (due to the fact I don’t usually enjoy touch gaming for FPS'…FPSes…whatever), however Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation surprised me. Developed by Gameloft, MC3 is one of the only, if not the only good first person shooters out there for iOS and other touch-screen devices.

BLUF: Great for an phone game. Not as good as what the trailer makes it out to be, but definitely not a waste of your money.

Modern Combat 3 is actually a very polished game once you get past the terrible controls. I’m used to FPS on a PC or console, typically only playing touch games like Angry Birds or Battle Nations (the kind of game that is fairly easy to manage with a touch screen).

The premise of the game is wrapped an attack on the United States by a coalition force of North Koreans, Pakistanis and Russians called the KPR. Oh, and there’s a terrorist group too. Obviously MC3 couldn’t choose a good stereotypical villain so they went for a buffet. Unfortunately all your hostiles pretty much look alike and they don’t really talk, so you can’t tell one nationality from another. It doesn’t really matter, though. The back story doesn’t affect the game a whole lot.

Not sure how they all got over here to attack, or what happened to NATO, the Indians and the South Koreans. If the thought of PAK troops charging through LA (not driving taxis) bothers you, just don’t think about.

It’s still a fun game to play, though, and it seems like it really pushes the graphic limits of the iPhone. The graphics and detail look like a game that might have come out on the console in the early 2000s, which is impressive for a game meant for such a small device. It’s not an arcade shooter, you actually move from place to place and once you clear each location you move on to the next. There are some areas in between zones that are sort of like cut scenes. There you’ll have to swipe on the screen to fastrope or crawl or whatever (like in BF3 when you’re hitting A as fast as you can to climb up on the subway car).

In multiplayer you earn money to purchase new weapons and loadout. You can also buy it with money irl, which might unbalance things if you’re playing people willing to drop cash on better gear. Multiplayer can be played on a local wifi connection or on the Gameloft servers, with up to 12 people playing at a time, on larger maps than were available on MC2.

Single player has several missions and multiple difficulties. I like single player better because for me it’s something to fight boredom when I’m not at a regular game. Also, you’re not getting shot in the back constantly by other players and you’re just dealing with an AI (so you can set the difficulty). Anyway the only reason I’d be playing it multiplayer would be if I had some friends over and we were killing time while waiting on something else.

Game play is awkward. I play the easiest difficulty with aim assist on, because the controls are so difficult. Without lowering difficulty and using the assist I’d never clear a level. Of course, I’m not as competitive with this particular game because it’s just not well polished for an fps (though it’s a great iPhone game). There’s not too much to the game besides looking down the optic and shooting people. I mostly just play to kill time while killing Pakistanis. And Russians. And North Koreans.

All of whom look like poorly detailed white MilSim airsofters from a distance, though the corpses look okay up close.

Picture courtesy of iLounge.

If you have to have a controller or a keyboard to play your games this isn’t the FPS for you. If you’re looking for something to kill some time without falling into a sillier genre like Angry Birds then Modern Combat 3 is good to go. It’s about as serious a mode of gaming as you can get on a mobile device.

Tango Victor Mike for reading.

Spawn of Shooter

Spawn of Shooter is a military dependent and a gamer. His great-grandfathers, grandfathers, dad, uncles and the other arguably suitable role models in his life present a wide mix of military (some now LE) personnel from all four branches. These include a grunt CSM, a gunner’s mate, a retired Gunny from JSOTF-P, one green-side corpsman, a couple of MSGTs, a STA Marine, one FO, a couple MPs…you get the point. He likes first person shooters, gets his dork on in WoW and Skyrim and can competently shoot basic qual courses with a shotgun (20ga. not 12, yet) and pistol (still working on the rifle). He understands the advantages and disadvantages of living in the fishbowl that is base housing, loves Anthony’s Pizza and thinks the brassards on the base Courtesy Patrols are kinda jumping the shark. He's on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SpawnofShooter