Call of Duty: Mobile for PC

Pros

• Free to play
• Official game and emulator
• Fun gameplay with iconic maps

Cons

• Gameplay dumbed down
• MTX and pay-to-win mechanics

Call of Duty: Mobile for Windows gives you COD’s greatest hits on your PC.

This is Call of Duty: Mobile, which was developed by TiMi Studios for both Android and iOS and published as a joint effort between Activision—the company that owns Call of Duty—and Tencent, a Chinese company that has become a juggernaut throughout the video game world.

This is an official game. It is not a knockoff or an illegal APK. Call of Duty: Mobile has performed so well and been clamored for in other markets that Activision and Tencent opted to release it through Tencent’s official Android emulator. That emulator is named GameLoop, and you will need to download and install it separately. Doing so is easy, however, and it delivers fantastic experience.

How do you create a Call of Duty experience that does not compete with the main title released each year for PC, Xbox and PlayStation? Activision had an ingenious idea: mine the entire history of Call of Duty for beloved maps and game modes but also guns, weapon skins, outfits, skills and more.

The graphics are impressive. At max settings, it is not hyperbole to say that Call of Duty: Mobile is one of the most impressive mobile games ever made. Not everyone has the latest and most powerful smartphone or tablet, so there are options that let you reduce quality for more frames. In addition, the developers had the foresight to support PC resolutions. You can set the resolution as high as 2160p, and that only requires a GTX 1060. Better video cards can easily pull that off at 60 FPS or higher.

The game is incredibly well-optimized. Android emulators generally need adjustments made to support a particular app. With an official release like this one, there are in-app tweaks to support the emulator as well, and that means that GameLoop is really the only way gamers should play Call of Duty: Mobile.

Any time you play Call of Duty: Mobile—including in a private match with your buds—you earn Call of Duty Points. This CP can be used to unlock new characters, outfits, weapons, weapon skins, weapon trinkets and much more. You can also purchase CP, which is discussed later.

The game offers loadouts, which you can configure and name. Switching between loadouts is fast and simple. Loadouts can be cosmetic as well as functional in nature, and the loadouts are particularly helpful when switching between the various game modes that are available.

There are many game modes. You have the traditional five-on-five team deathmatch but also a 100-player battle royale intended to compete with PUBG. It has enough uniqueness to stand apart, and you can opt for solo, duo or quad play. Other modes include deathmatch, which is every man for himself; hardpoint, in which you earn score for controlling point A, B and C; domination, which involves capturing and leaving points at a faster pace; and frontline, which is a team deathmatch variant.

Call of Duty: Mobile does support skill-based matchmaking, which upsets some skilled players who inflate their success “stomping PUGs” but is generally a good thing for the wider audience. Since cross-play is supported between Call of Duty: Mobile on PC and on Android, PC players may have some advantage, but generally, as a PC player, you will be matchmade with other PC players.

Perhaps the biggest knock against Call of Duty: Mobile is that the gameplay has been “dumbed down.” You can, for instance, set the game so that your gun automatically fires when a target is in your crosshair, and that is a big difference from the standard game. Making this change for the mobile version is understandable, but it feels less appropriate when playing on PC.

As you would expect from any free-to-play mobile game and a game from Activision and Tencent in particular, Call of Duty: Mobile features microtransactions. The freemium nag screens can be quite annoying at times, but the good news is that you can play the game free without time limitations.

The rub, however, is whether the game is pay-to-win. This is a polarizing topic and a matter of debate, and the answer inevitably depends on your perspective. You can pay to boost your progress, and there are, for instance, perks and the like that you can unlock by paying rather than playing. However, nothing is off-limits to the player who chooses to pay nothing at all. You can eventually unlock all of the perks, characters, weapons and even cosmetics.

Pros

• Free to play
• Official game and emulator
• Fun gameplay with iconic maps

Cons

• Gameplay dumbed down
• MTX and pay-to-win mechanics