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Graphics Comparable to CS from 20 Years Ago: What's wrong with COD Mobile in 2024?

12K View2024-04-01

In the ever-surging wave of video game globalization, licensing new works of classic IPs has become an indispensable link in the disdain chain of the video game industry. Some scorn original works bearing old IPs but are entirely different in essence; others deride sequels born under new corporate structures after staff reshuffling, and yet others are critical of spin-offs produced through collaborations among multiple companies.

There has always been a notion that a mysterious force from the East has toppled our beloved shooting games: "Call of Duty players have long suffered Tencent!"

See, since the birth of "Call of Duty Online" in 2012, the series began its subtle decline. Production teams dwindled, narratives lost their luster, shoddy expansions became frequent, and the game even dared to assign missions on a battle royale map, calling it a main storyline. Tencent must be behind this! As for the mobile realm, it's even worse. It's believed that Tencent's development of "Call of Duty Mobile" (CODM) is why Activision has been reluctant to release a next-gen shooter mobile game truly for COD players. If Activision could break free from Tencent's "shackles," the dream of a COD series mobile game for players would surely come true.

Call of Duty®: Mobile - Garena

8.3

ActionRealisticCasualTactical ShooterShooter

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Now, that day has finally arrived. With no interference from Tencent, developed purely by overseas developers, sharing servers with the PC version to brush passes anytime, anywhere, classic maps and battles, the real Call of Duty series mobile game—Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile is here! Without further ado, into the gameplay, I headed straight for the Gulag Hotel!

It must be a mistake in how I launched the game, right?

Let's look at the CG image of the settlement— Oh, it turns out to be Call of Duty. I thought it was CS1.5.

This is the COD mobile game of 2024, a masterpiece from Activision Blizzard, who have never disappointed players when it comes to disappointment. A FPS mobile game can go wrong in many areas: graphics performance, gameplay, shooting feel, program optimization, weapon balance, even the number of players can lead to a major FPS game flop.

But Warzone can almost ignore the vast majority of problems that stump other FPS games because they have a player base of millions, gameplay experience refined over several console and PC seasons; they just need to port the mature content and optimize well during the testing phase. It's no exaggeration to say this is the smoothest starting FPS mobile game of the year. And Activision's optimization result is encapsulated in this rather explosive tip for the mobile gaming world: the more you play, the better the graphics.

Let me explain, this isn't a joke. This explosive concept was pioneered by the "New Modern Warfare" series in "Call of Duty" PC games, and the principle is simple: even though you've downloaded a massive resource pack at game start, it's all a ruse—you haven't actually finished downloading.

The game only downloads the most basic material resources initially, then leisurely continues downloading shader caches and other content while players have already entered the game and started battling, not only consuming bandwidth but also performance, and it can't be pre-downloaded without playing the game and this download process can take weeks.

This design means no matter how much time you prepare in advance, the game is unlikely to offer a good initial experience. Issues like packet loss, lag, map loading errors, and more are rampant, and if you're unlucky, you might never see the high-quality mode.

During this process, if you're not a high-end phone owner, be prepared to become an investigator of the Cthulhu mythos, for the world may become indescribably bizarre at any moment.More despairingly, even if you've finally loaded the high-definition data after a long struggle, its graphics still blur in various details.

For instance, COD Warzone 2 features an extremely popular "anti-gravity anime gun skin" with an ultimate otaku inspection action, even including a little anime wife animation.

In Warzone Mobile, players will be horrified to find that the wife is blurred!

Ahem, I digress. As a port, Warzone Mobile has actually been tested for two years. If you look back at the graphics during the testing period, you'll realize another astonishing fact: even now, the visuals have indeed been optimized.

Besides the graphics, Warzone Mobile also performs poorly in user experience. Animation bugs when pressing the view key against a wall are frequent; multi-finger touch controls malfunction; the device overheats excessively, among many other issues. But these are trivial matters! The real brilliance lies in: as a port that shares data with the PC game, Warzone Mobile perfectly reproduces the "wheelchair guns" (overpowered weapons mockingly called wheelchairs for their balance-breaking).

Weapon modifications that were banned in the PC game for being too unbalanced and disgusting are not yet adjusted in the mobile version. This forces mobile players to endure what PC players have already suffered, ultimately humiliatingly choosing to join if they can't beat them.

All these problems make it hard to say Warzone Mobile has "escaped Tencent's shadow to kill CODM." If it weren't for its ability to hang on to the PC game's pass, who knows how many players would decisively turn to the latter.

After all, no one seeks out suffering. One can only sincerely hope that Activision, taking the reins on the "Call of Duty" mobile game themselves, can learn from the experiences of Warzone Mobile, treating future mobile-specific "Call of Duty" titles with the care they deserve, rather than continuing to add to the stereotype of this IP being "just another mess."

Mentioned games

Call of Duty®: Mobile - Garena

8.3

ActionRealisticCasualTactical ShooterShooter

Get