There are times when being attached to a highly regarded franchise is more of a problem than you’d expect, given the hefty standards of fans; Call of Duty Warzone is a textbook example. The FPS battle royalhas been critically panned on Steamby fans who feel it doesn’t stack up to what was expected, given its subpar graphics, frequent crashes, aggressive monetization, and horrible interface. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the mobile port, Call of Duty Warzone Mobile, has had an equally lousy reception on the Play Store, sitting at a pitiful 3.3 review score at the time of writing. Outside theoff-putting monetization features that plague Google’s platform, the game is just an unremarkable battle royale with nothing special to set it above the rest.
Call of Duty Warzone Mobile is a soulless battle royale that isn’t any fun
Poor matchmaking ruins the game immediately, it’s sweat city
I think it’s safe to say we all need a refresher on the myriad of superior experiences out there,games that dominate the battle royale gameplay loopwith precision and creativity. These are our favorite battle royales on Android that leave Call of Duty Warzone Mobile in the dust.
Blood strike
Experiment and crush the competition
In terms of gameplay, Blood Strike handles remarkably well for a touch interface shooter, with ample movement and combat inputs for the uninitiated and additional commands for the more seasoned players. The latest update optimized the crosshairs on a few weapon types and abilities, giving more incentive to experiment and make some interesting loadout calls in combat. Hero classes help to provide various edges in-game, from air strikes to poison clouds, keeping things interesting even when you’re out of bullets. Said bullets and abilities come in handy through the app’s excellent selection of game modes, including battle royale, search and destroy, gun game, team deathmatch, training range, and even more coming soon, as the game is actively developed.
While it sucks that the title lacks controller support right now, Blood Strike’s touch interface works beautifully in its current build, and we can always hold out for future updates. Plus, the graphics are superb, and the performance is top-notch, two very important things COD Warzone Mobile failed to deliver.
PUBG Mobile
The original battle royale pioneer
Arguably the progenitor of the modern battle royale experience, Player Unknowns Battleground (PUBG) shines in its fluid combat, in-depth weapon customization, and well-exploited popularity. The main game mode drops 100 players into one of several maps for a fight to the death, resulting in a mad dash to scrounge together as many resources as possible. Utilize the intuitive touch interface to traverse terrain and take out enemies quickly, whether you’re sniping from a distance or getting up close and personal. Using firearms optimally in the game will allow them to be upgraded with a wealth of customizations and cosmetics. The gameplay also extends beyond vanilla battle royale, which shakes up the core loop in interesting ways, from incentivizing cooperation in Domination to messing with weapon progression in the Gun game.
Despite the stiff competition from other battle royale apps like Fortnite, PUBG has maintained its well deserved popularity; still enjoying an awesome community and frequent patches, and this all comes down to the game remaining accessible and fun without relying on gimmicks.
Fortnite
The multimedia juggernaut
By far one of the most popular battle royales, Fortnite exploded onto the scene and seemed to dominate the genre overnight with its tight combat, content-rich events, and endless customizations that range from sweet to ridiculous. Collaborations and cameos from popular media are so common as to be part of the base experience; there’s always something new to try and content to experiment with, even if it’s just to embrace the memes. One notable feature of Fortnite is its crafting system, which allows users to rapidly build structures at a moment’s notice during a firefight, which grants a remarkable verticality to the ranged combat.
Since Epic’s legal scuffle with Google and Apple has removed Fortnite from both stores, getting an official download of Fortnite on mobile is nowexclusive on Epic’s site, which is annoying but worth sideloading.
APK on Epic Games: Download
The Epic Games Store is coming to Android by the end of the year
It will have the same revenue-sharing split as its Mac and Windows counterpart
Free fire
Fast-paced hectic action
Free Fire is a battle royale that throws you headfirst into huge battle arenas with a horde of other players in a mad panic to succeed before time is up. The gameplay loop naturally uses a time limit alongside progressive area denial to promote combat between players, but Free Fire’s time limits only span 10 minutes in the vanilla mode. This works wonders by forcing players to think on their feet and make quick decisions about how they’re going to defend themselves and outrun the clock. Players can approach combat from a multitude of different angles, snipe from a distance, strike like a viper hidden in the grass, fight head-on in honorable tests of skill, or storm in on a vehicle and flatten opponents.
Free Fire makes for some excellent high-intensity battle royale action, with a great variety of weapons, vehicles, maps, and characters with cool designs and unique attacks. While the touch interface is slightly lacking, when it comes to performance you have two version to choose from, Max and Chaos. Players of each version can compete against one another; the main difference is that Max offers top-tier graphics for those that can push them.
Showing Activision how it’s done
The Battle royale genre has been extremely popular both on and off the Play Store for a while now, boarding on overexposure if you ask me. But that also means that the general standard for this brand of shooter is higher than ever before, and what’s good is only getting better. From excellent original IPs to modern critical darlings available onyour best Android gaming phone, this corner of the gaming scene is thriving with content.
Now’s the time to jump into a battle royale game with a focus on intuitive controls, quality match-making, and imaginative stylization; things that Warzone could learn a thing or two about.
