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It’s been some time since we last heard about Modern Combat 5, the latest in Gameloft’s iPhone and iPad military shooter series. In fact, we played the game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo last June and came away impressed by the brief demo, and it was slated to debut last fall—but never appeared.
Now the newly branded Modern Combat 5: Blackout is “coming soon” to iOS, says the publisher, which revealed additional details about the game’s single-player campaign today. The story-led quest begins in Venice, Italy — which we played in our hands-on last year — where hero Phoenix attempts to procure WMDs from a terrorist cabal. Gameloft says the story then spins from there to various other worldwide locales, including a chaotic skirmish in Tokyo (teased in the concept art above), with an emphasis on brief and impactful missions.
Admittedly, the “Blackout” moniker can’t help but remind us of last year’s underwhelming Call of Duty: Ghosts on consoles and PC, which set its action in the wake of attacks that took out America’s power and communications en masse. Granted, the Modern Combat series has never been shy about its inspirations, with Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour especially feeling like an homage of sorts to the then-recent Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
Hopefully it’s just a coincidence, but story is rarely a drawing point of the series as it is — and our demo last year showed an impressive new tilt towards creating tension and emotion with cinematic effects, which has us curious to see how the final experience turns out. And of course, that doesn’t even touch on the game’s multiplayer action, which has been the standout element in past entries. With luck, it’ll be made even better via the addition of iOS 7 MFi controller support, but we’ll have to wait and see until it launches in the seemingly near future.
