Modern Combat 4 Zero Hour

Modern Combat is basically Gameloft’s answer to the Modern Warfare series of console games, but to be fair it has consistently managed to deliver pretty bombastic thrills for a relatively low asking price. The game has also been improving with every new version and thankfully Zero Hour continues this trend. It’s available on both Android and iOS. For this review we used the iOS version.

The back story is still as ludicrous as it ever was. This time around it’s about terrorists launching a bunch of simultaneous attacks around the world and kidnapping the president. Nevertheless, the campaig mode has been tightened up a bit. It still has impressive set pieces, but thankfully the missions are more compact and less repetitive. There are now some ground and airborne vehicle sequences to break up the gameplay, and you also get to play as both the liberators and terrorists. The QuickTime-style events also feel better integrated into the game now and less jarring.

The campaign mode is definitely a lot of fun, but what will ultimately keep you coming back to the game for months to come is the multiplayer mode. You can join 12-player deathmatches or alternatively team up with others in the objective-based modes. There are plenty of variations to the standard play modes – eight in total – and the maps are pretty varied too.

The graphics are grandiose, but Gameloft has obviously made some compromises on the resolution front to keep the frame rate running at relatively smooth levels. Even on the third generation iPad the resolution was most definitely not running at Retina levels. You could see plenty of jagged edges and smudged detail, for example. It’s not hugely distracting though, and if you’re playing it on an iPhone the smaller screen is likely to make this less noticeable.

The controls are still a bit of an issue. There is a gyroscope mode that you can enable for movement, but to be honest we couldn’t really get on with it as we felt it was more a hassle than a help. Still, you do get used to the standard touch controls after a while and it’s not as if Modern Combat is the first iOS FPS to suffer from these problems.

Modern Combat 4 Zero Hour Verdict
It’s not the most original title around, but its big set piece, strong graphics and solid campaign and multiplayer modes make Modern Combat a must have title for iOS FPS fans.