Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus review

Review of Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus for the Blackberry Playbook

So it’s finally here, the review for Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus for the Blackberry Playbook that I’ve been promising you here on my Blog now for a while.

MC2 is a First-Person Shooter for the Playbook that redefines the genre for handheld gaming on the Playbook! It truly breaks boundaries in terms of graphics and sound and gameplay, you aren’t likely to find a First-Person Shooter this good on any mobile-gaming handset for a few years yet (except MC3 which has already been released for iOS.)

When you first begin the game, you are given a very nice cut-scene that I THINK shows how you get to where you are when you begin the first mission, however it could just be a trailer for the game! After this you’re taken to the main screen where you’ll obviously find all the buttons to get you around the game. There are 5 buttons to choose from (excluding the “more games” option & only after you've started the game and “continue” is an option.) These five buttons are Continue, New Game, Multiplayer, Select Level and Options. Now Continue and New game are pretty self-explanatory.. Multiplayer however isn't so normal and is a very nice addition to the game, however I didn’t get to test this feature out as I couldn't seem to find any games. However, it does look like there is a levelling system of sorts as I saw ranks, but who knows, maybe it works better on an iOS and Android due to more people on the systems. Anyway, you can choose which levels to play after having played them which is a really nice feature! And then you have your final button of Options, in which you have Language, Controls, Sounds, Advanced & Help. Now quickly I want to mention the controls, you can customise your own controls to have them wherever you want on the screen which I thought was a brilliant feature as it allowed for those with smaller hands to move the joysticks close to the edge of the screen!

MC2’s storyline is hard to follow, from what I picked up, you are basically a bunch of soldiers who are trying to take out different terrorists in different countries, however the storyline isn’t something you’re likely to indulge yourself in. The campaign however is fast flowing and the action never stops and at points it does feel like Call Of Duty with the amount of enemies you sometimes encounter and having to duck behind cover and the like!

The game’s presentation is very nice with the menus being very easy to navigate and the controls being very easy to use. The controls will be familiar to you if you have played a FPS game for a phone or tablet before, you have a joystick to move around and you drag the screen you aim and then there is a fire button. In-fact, the controls are almost identical to N.O.V.A. if you’ve played that before… Except in this game you have different grenades and you can crouch and aim down the sight which is a really nice feature! All-in-all the game plays and runs very nicely and you won’t find yourself getting frustrated with the game due to controls.

The graphics in this game are quite stunning, the environments feel in-depth and there’ll be times when you’re driving through an environment with bullets firing everywhere and barrels exploding at the same time with blood on the walls. It’s a pretty impressive looking game if you take into account the fact that it is merely a hand-held FPS. The sound in this game is incredible too; with headphones on you really feel like you’re deep in the war. With surround-sound, the bullets fire everywhere, dramatic music plays, soldiers shout commands and the delicate sounds of your footsteps all really add to the atmosphere of being in a war environment.

This game in general is simply one of the most fun, best looking and best sounding games I’ve played on any hand-held handset! Gameloft have once again published another beauty into the Playbook App World. Don't worry those of you who don't own a Playbook, I know this game is available for ipad, iPhone and any Android phone! Considering this game is only £1 in the App World, I honestly can’t see any reason not to buy this game!

Presentation – 9.2

Graphics – 9.5

Gameplay – 8.8

Sound – 9.0

Lasting Appeal – 8.7

OVERALL – 9.0