Cover Fire: Offline Shooting Game | Review | Switch

Mobile games usually aren’t anywhere on my radar for a multitude of reasons. The lack of physical buttons natively is one of the biggest setbacks for me. Needless to say, I was a bit apprehensive when trying out Cover Fire: Offline Shooting game on the Switch. A mobile game at heart, this game is available on Nintendo’s platform for free, but is it worth your time amongst a myriad of other gaming options? That’s what we’re here to talk about.

Gameplay

Whether you are playing handheld mode or docked, Cover Fire on the Switch requires you to use the right control stick for aiming the on-screen reticle. You are able to use the touch screen while playing the game in handheld mode, however, touches are limited to menu prompts. Some people might want a little bit more with touch screen support for games on the Switch, but I think this works fine - a gyro option would have been a nice addition.

Once you are thrust into the action, the shooting begins. To initiate the action, you simply press one of the trigger or face buttons. Using the right analog stick controls where you will shoot…and that’s pretty much it. There are a few different options with weaponry, with an assault rifle, sniper rifle and rocket launcher. Missions can be cleared by simply taking out enemies, each level offers additional challenges that will net you points that you need for upgrades. Overall, the gameplay is actually pretty fun. Simple, yes, but enjoyable. 

While I think that the gameplay is pretty smooth, I think an option to switch to the left stick for controlling the reticle is needed. Given the fact that you aren’t using the left joystick for movement or really at all, it’s kind of an odd choice. Of course, this is something that could be covered in a later update to the game.

Modes

Things are kept simple when it comes to modes. Although the main screen of the game has quite a few options, the meat and potatoes come in the form of the campaign. This is made up of multiple chapters with a dozen or so missions in each. You’ll need to work through these to further the story as well as gain in game items for upgrades. Additionally, there are zombie and “Skirmish” options. The zombie mode puts you up against dozens of zombies as they are trying to take you out. There are only a handful of these levels that you can challenge every day. Skirmish puts you head-to-head against another player as you try to take out the most enemies in a time limit. All of these modes offer very short missions and can usually be finished in a minute or less. 

Being a mobile game in nature, you will find yourself re-playing many of the levels. The leveling system plays a part in this as you will need to unlock various upgrades to gain various boosts and buffs that will help you against the increasingly difficult enemies. Things are pretty easy at first, but you’ll either have to put the time into the game with your limited number of free plays or throw down some real world money to fast track things. This is very clearly a mobile port for better or worse.

Visuals, Audio & Performance

Don’t let the icon art for the game fool you. Things here are pretty simple when it comes to visuals. Character models are pretty basic and the environments can be a bit simple, but they get the job done. Even with that said, the game runs pretty smoothly and I can’t think of any instances (so far) where I ran into any issues on that front. There were a few wonky animations when it came to taking out enemies in melee combat. The reaction of the enemies, namely in the zombie mode, was just pretty bad. Everything else was more or less fine. 

Presentation is actually pretty good here. The developers put in a cool (Sniper Elite-like) effect that slows down the final shot of the mission to show it taking out the last remaining enemy. The “story” features some comic book-like images used to push along the narrative. Audio is decent here, too. It might be a bit generic, but the epic tunes thumping throughout the game are fitting of the genre.

That isn’t to say that everything was perfect here. There were a handful of times where I did run into some glitches that required me to exit the game and restart. For example, on one of the earlier stages in the game, you are being taught how to take out incoming grenades from enemies. The action is just getting started behind the menus, but I found that if I pressed a buttons too quickly, the action would continue with the on screen prompts remaining on screen. Other times, the levels themselves just simply wouldn’t start. This wasn’t a huge deal, but it could get annoying - especially when one of your play tickets gets used without having actually played the mission.

Conclusion

I had more fun with Cover Fire than I ever expected. Is it a perfect game? No. Is it going to give you the ultimate warfare experience on the console? Probably not. However, if you’re looking for something that’s easy to pick up and play and is actually fun, it’s worth a look. Hopefully it’ll get some more updates over time to smooth out some of the glitches. It’s free, though, so the only thing you’ll  be losing out on if you don’t like the game is time.