Frontline Commando: D-Day [review]

BreakingModern — Hit the beaches! Heavy fire coming from the bunker. Load the bazooka! Hello again, I’m Puching Zhang and I’m here to review another mobile game. This one is Frontline Commando: D-Day by Glu Games (yes, the same company who made Deer Hunter 2014 and Contract: Killer Sniper).

To be honest, Frontline Commando: D-Day isn’t staged completely on the beaches of Normandy. It mostly covers Operation Cobra, the events immediately following the Normandy campaign. And for what it’s worth, it does a fairly good job. Let’s take a look.

Frontline Commando: D-Day promo

Campagin

The campaign is done in classic Glu Games style. The game is divided into five regions, each representing the five invaded beaches of Normandy, France. Those regions range in difficulty from Juno to Omaha, a reference to the heavy fighting that went down at Omaha Beach.

Solid Arsenal

In historical terms, the campaign itself is pretty authentic. The game portrays both the Germans and Americans in accurate terms, and it even includes historical units like the Waffen-SS. The game also has a huge array of historical American guns that players can equip themselves with. These range from the M1 Garand to the Thompson submachine gun. Not only that, but the game also features guns from other countries. Such favorites include the German Sturmgewehr 44, the world’s first assault rifle, and the Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun (a personal favorite from Defenders at Stalingrad).

Frontline Commando: D-Day explosion

Glu Games is also bringing in fantasy guns like the Tesla (also featured in Contract: Killer: Sniper). I found the large variety of weapons to be awesome because a shooter’s quality is based heavily on the specific arsenal at his disposal. But don’t get excited, this isn’t a mobile version of Call of Duty. You aren’t just going in invincible, guns blazing, classic “’Murica” style. Nope. You’re going to have to stay in cover while fighting or you’ll wind up dead. I like this type of mechanic. It limits the whole one vs. a thousand concept. The hack-and-slash games quickly get tiring for first person shooters.

Levels, Graphics and Multiplayer

Although, I must admit, Frontline Commando: D-Day does get repetitive after a while. The game lacks variety in gameplay with level after level being cover, shoot and move out. To be fair, some of the levels let you operate anti-aircraft guns. And other levels feature enemy tanks. But aside from these two exceptions, the game lacks gameplay variety in its single player campaign.

Frontline Commando: D-Day gameplay

The graphics of the game are good for a mobile game. I wouldn’t say they’re extraordinary, though. The game’s multiplayer option, in particular, is a breath of fresh air. It involves the player staring down hordes of Nazi zombies while having their score ranked among other players from all around the world. I was never a fan of the zombies from Call of Duty, but I find this aspect of the game surprisingly addicting. These zombies aren’t mindless Walking Dead zombies either. They’re armed like regular German soldiers with rifles and submachine guns. Some of them are even snipers.

Overall I would give Frontline Commando: D-Day a 7/10 — it’s a good game, it has nice gameplay, good graphics and is fairly historically authentic. However, the gameplay can get repetitive and it does lack some features. Frontline Commando: D-Day is free to download for Android on Google Play and Apple iOS.

For BMod, I’m Puching Zhang.

All Screenshots: Puching Zhang Courtesy of Glu Games

Featured Image Credit: Reflection on D-Day” by DVIDSHUB via Flickr Creative Commons

Puching Zhang

Author: Puching Zhang

Based in Chicago, Puching Zhang covers the gaming beat for BreakingModern.

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