Call Of Duty: Mobile has Fortnite in its crosshairs

Mobile shooters are not usually known for their slick controls. But Call Of Duty: Mobile’s upcoming free-to-play, multiplayer-only game for smartphones, wants to be.

“This is all about trying to make the definitive multiplayer experience on mobile, and really tapping into our Call of Duty heritage,” Chris Plummer, VP of mobile for Activision, told us when we went hands-on with the game recently. “Whether it’s the gear and the characters, and the weapons, and the way all that feels, it’s a very unique experience.”

Call Of Duty: Mobile offers both online multiplayer, and battle royale modes, and brings it all to your phone, in a games-as-a-service model that will see the game consistently updated after its release.

In this mobile version of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4’s Blackout battle royale, you drop in from a helicopter onto a huge, open map. As you hurtle toward the ground below, different familiar, locations from the COD universe of games come into view. All of these locations, which have been recreated for mobile, exist on one massive world map – you must aim yourself at one to start the match from. It’s a huge world that feels far more wide-reaching than we’re used to with mobile games. The screen might be small, but the game sure feels big.

“It was about trying to get the placement across a believable world space where those points of interest are visible within eyeshot of each other. But then, once you get into a point of interest, it’s those familiar battlegrounds that you know from Call of Duty,” explained Plummer, of the map setup, which is made up of familiar maps from the entire series, including Killhouse, Nuketown, and Crash, it’s a Call Of Duty Greatest Hits compilation. A ‘Now That’s What I Call Uzis’.

“The environment itself is really designed as a showcase of all the greatest firefight locations from the Call Of Duty history, organised throughout this map,” explains Plummer.

In the demo we played, it’s clear that the mobile shooter makes full use of its Call Of Duty history – not just in locations, but with classic modes like Team Deathmatch and Search and Destroy, and quintessential COD features, such as kill streak and challenge bonuses.

It’s going to up the ante when compared to its big free-to-play,…