This is war. Or at least as close as you’ll get holding an iPhone on your lunch break.
Created by French videogame developers Gameloft, Modern Combat: Sandstorm is more than a riveting first-person shooter app, it is the future of iPhone games.
Launch the app and you’ll first see a 45-second video action sequence that’s so sharp you’ll wonder whether it’s real combat footage. The game is just as impressive, with intricate levels and duel virtual joystick options that you can customize, practically turning your iPhone or iPod touch into a console controller—minus forward rolling maneuvers to dodge returning fire, a personal favorite.
Set in the Middle East, you are a U.S. soldier working with your squad to locate and eliminate a terrorist group looking to recruit foreign insurgents. They’re also trying to kill you. The game takes you straight to the battlefield of modern war, as you fight on foot through city streets, houses, hospitals, and sewers to complete a series of missions.
Objectives are realistic and attainable, like destroying communication towers and defending the capitol until a convoy arrives to evacuate your squad. But the game also lets you explore levels without just shuffling you along a pre-determined storyline.
Of course, you get guns. Lots of them. Assault rifles, sniper rifles, shotguns, mounted machine guns, you name it. As you can imagine, this isn’t an app for those sensitive to gore, but if that’s the only thing stopping you, the game lets you turn off all its blood-splattering effects.
Oh, and levels are conveniently cleared of civilians, so trigger-happiness is highly encouraged.
