Call of Duty: Mobile offers countless weapons, many modes, and even a Battle Royale reminiscent of the Warzone predecessor Blackout from Black Ops 4. MeinMMO shows you the BR mode and makes comparisons with Warzone.
With the free-to-play title Call of Duty: Mobile, the CoD franchise successfully went to the smartphones of this world and provides its players with plenty of content and a mature shooter experience for on the go and/or in between.
In addition to the standard multiplayer mode, CoD: Mobile comes with a Battle Royale that we took a closer look at. Because the BR mode is not just a stripped-down mobile version of a real Battle Royale, but a complete BR experience where you can compete for victory with up to 100 players with sufficient reception.
To give you an impression of the to-go battle, we present the mobile BR here a bit, show you strengths and weaknesses of the Battle Royale, and make some comparisons with the big brother Warzone, which excites many players on consoles and PC.
For an insight into the BR gameplay, check out the short video from YouTuber “Wizey”:
Gameplay of the Mobile Battle Royale evokes Blackout memories
The first few seconds of a match make you feel like you’re in Warzone. The scene during the approach to the map is strikingly similar. But as soon as you leave the plane heading towards the combat zone, the Warzone predecessor Blackout immediately comes to mind. Because you glide towards the ground with a wingsuit and then deploy your parachute, keeping your target in sight, a little later, which lets you glide gently to the ground.
And that’s far from the end of the similarities. The loot system, healing, and even gunplay remind you of the Battle Royale from Black Ops 4 and make the BR on mobile a complete “Call of Duty” experience that lacks nothing.
On YouTube, the channel “AnonymousYT” released a video comparing the two titles directly. The video is somewhat older (September 2019), and there have been some adaptations since then, such as the approach scene. And zombies are not always in the game. However, the mobile BR still retains many similarities with the Battle Royale from Black Ops 4:
With the release of Warzone, the mobile BR doesn’t have to measure itself against the spiritual predecessor Blackout but against the big and successful Battle Royale, which provided extremely high player numbers for CoD in the last fiscal year of Activision Blizzard – on PC, for example, CoD played more than 10 times as many players as in the previous comparison period.
Benchmark Warzone – Can the Mobile Battle Royale keep up?
Yes, the mobile BR can keep up with Warzone. It’s a standalone Battle Royale that brings its own rules and is not a stripped-down copy of a real BR:
- Mature CoD gunplay and movement
- Complete Battle Royale without compromises
- Various team sizes
- Many weapons, attachments, and items
In terms of graphics, however, the mobile version cannot keep up, that’s for sure. But otherwise, the smartphone shooting game brings a real Battle Royale to your touchscreen that you can tackle with a controller or play on PC without any problems. In the following video from the YouTube channel “GamingRfan,” you can take a closer look at the graphic comparison with Warzone:
In some aspects, the mobile variant even offers a bit more depth. However, Warzone comes with innovative mechanics that enrich the game and set it apart from the competition.
CoD Mobile relies on tried-and-true “Battle Royale” mechanics that, for example, PUBG (the first truly big Battle Royale) helped in its rise and also work well on smartphones.
This makes CoD Mobile better than Warzone
There are even a few things in CoD Mobile that would also suit Warzone well:
- Regular events
- Collectible attachments that you can use to improve your weapons at any time
- The match pace is just right
- Ranked mode
Why are the events better? One of the significant advantages of the mobile version is its frequent events. Warzone shone here in the first half-yearafter release with almost complete absence. The first real live event that offered many cosmetics and adjusted quite a bit in the game, was the Halloween event.
In CoD Mobile, there always seems to be some action online that provides players a break from normal gameplay. At the time of the article, for example, you could play the Blackout DLC map “Alcatraz” in the Battle Royale, including intrusive zombies. This is where Warzone could learn a lot.
What do attachments bring? In the mobile Battle Royale, you are entirely reliant on the loot you pick up during the match. However, unlike Warzone, you can also modify your weapons. If you find suitable attachments, they can be fitted to your weapons to improve them a little.
This offers more depth and encourages you to engage more with the weapons and attachments. While this is also possible in Warzone outside of matches, all weapons during an ongoing round are fixed and a bad piece of gear remains bad.
Furthermore, there are a few exciting mods with which you can further enhance your weapons in CoD Mobile. These increase your ammunition capacity, allow you to run faster after aiming, or even reload your weapons after sliding. Depending on your loot luck, there are some considerable buffs that can support you on your way to victory. If you also find one of the best weapons of CoD Mobile, you can clean up.
What is so good about match pace? Mobile CoD offers more continuous action in the Battle Royale than Warzone, which can sometimes get quite sluggish in the mid-game.
The short rounds of a maximum of 15 minutes are often more motivating and bring pace to the Battle Royale. In Warzone, matches last around 30 minutes when you get to the endgame. This allows for more tactical approaches but can also quickly lead to frustration and boredom if you get unlucky.
In CoD Mobile, the match is over in a maximum of a quarter of an hour, making it feel significantly shorter. While Warzone also offered something like this with the cool Mini-Royale, it was only a limited-time mode that you can’t always select.
Why is a ranked mode interesting? Whether for multiplayer or Battle Royale: CoD Mobile offers you a ranked mode with strict skill-based matchmaking and regular rewards.
This feature is not available in the multiplayer of Modern Warfare, nor in the Battle Royale Warzone. However, many players desire such a system that matches them with strong opponents at their level and distributes rewards when a ranked season is over.
This makes the Mobile BR not as good as Warzone
However, the BR experience on the smartphone cannot shine everywhere. A few aspects could also be learned by the mobile version from Warzone:
- Missing 3-player teams in the mode selection
- Randomness in the equipment is significantly higher
- Specialists determining special abilities
- Contracts and cash
What’s up with 3-player teams? That’s not a big deal overall, but it’s very annoying when you go in as a trio. Currently, CoD Mobile’s Battle Royale only offers solo, duo, and four-player games.
This was also a problem at the release of Warzone. The BR started only with 3-player teams and gradually added more team sizes. In particular, the duo mode took a long time to arrive. But now all team sizes from 1 to 4 players are available.
Why does randomness play a role? In mobile CoD, you are almost entirely reliant on your loot luck within a match. If you particularly enjoy playing a certain weapon, you have hardly any way to deliberately search for it.
Unlike in Warzone: Here you assemble your loadout before the matches and then have to acquire it via supply crates. This brings more fairness in terms of weapons and equipment and allows virtually any soldier to run around with the best weapons of Warzone.
What’s wrong with the specialists? With the specialist system, you can choose a soldier with a special skill before the match. This concept has also existed for a while in the big CoD premium titles but has since been abandoned.
The problem with this system in a Battle Royale is the limitation. In the match, you have no way to adapt your extra gadget to your situation throughout the round. In Warzone, these functions are taken over by so-called “field upgrades.” This could be a trophy system that protects you from explosive shots, but also an armor box that allows you to supply your team with armor plates.
One advantage of this system is that you can reuse your equipment. After a certain cooldown, the gadgets are available to you again, while in Warzone, the items are consumed upon use.
What’s with contracts and cash? With contracts and cash, you can earn advantages in the Warzone match. This fits very well with the Battle Royale concept, as there are often “downtime” periods in which you encounter no opponents for a while. If you’re up for action, you grab a bounty contract and hunt an opponent. If you want to proceed more quietly and planned, you activate recon to get information about the game circle.
You can then spend your cash on useful items at the buy station or buy back your fallen comrades. This allows for many interesting tactics and noticeably loosens up the gameplay within matches.
Although the matches in CoD Mobile’s Battle Royale are not as long, and correspondingly, there is often less “downtime”. Nevertheless, these mechanics work well in Warzone, and here the mobile BR could learn a thing or two.
Pros and Cons of CoD Mobile Battle Royale compared to Warzone
A topic in itself: The controls
We intentionally left out the controls on the mobile, as there are fundamental limitations for mobile games. But also because you have many options to improve the handling for yourself:
- The 6-finger claw system of the pros for the touchscreen
- Use PS4 & Xbox controllers for CoD Mobile
- Easily play CoD Mobile on PC
If you enjoy the Battle Royale, you almost have free choice of which input device you want to use. The game recognizes how you start the BR and only brings players into your lobbies who control the game in a similar way to you.
Furthermore, especially at the beginning, you’ll encounter many bots. This evokes mixed feelings for MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn, but it helps at the beginning, as you can often easily take down the NPCs. If you’re looking for some beginner tips for CoD Mobile, check this out:
Personal conclusion: Different, but really good
As a big Warzone fan, I approached the Battle Royale on mobile with some skepticism and had seen little about the game beforehand. But already after the first few minutes, it was clear that CoD delivers a complete BR that has a lot to offer.
After some practice with the touch controls, you’ll be sliding, jumping, and shooting over the map in the familiar CoD manner, and you can almost forget that you’re on mobile. The unusual sitting position during longer mobile gaming sessions reminded me of that again, but all in all, CoD Mobile offers a surprisingly large Battle Royale that barely lags behind the PC and console counterparts in terms of gameplay.
If you are fans of Battle Royales or want to try a complete shooter on mobile, install CoD Mobile. The standard multiplayer mode is also packed with content and offers many hours of action when the Battle Royale doesn’t appeal to you as much.
But in the end, it remains a smartphone shooter, which generally limits graphics, control & screen size. However, if you are looking for a full-fledged game that you can play on mobile for a long time and that constantly offers something new, I can only recommend CoD Mobile. Similar sentiments are echoed by MeinMMO colleague Noah Struthoff. While everyone is playing Warzone, he’s sitting in front of CoD Mobile.
