Modern Combat: Sandstorm

Modern Combat: Sandstorm is a mobile first-person action shooter that drops the player into a modern military conflict in the Middle East and has them make their way through linear missions full of firefights, cover, and objectives, modeled on the big console and PC war shooters of the time, which then dominated the gaming market. The game combined on-foot firefights with occasional operation of vehicles or heavier weapons and tried to evoke the feel of cinematic military action with gradually escalating missions and tougher fights against superior numbers.

On Java and Symbian this was a technically demanding title — Gameloft's 3D engine allowed smoother movement through the environment, shooting from different angles, and nicer lighting than older shooters on the same platform, which made the game one of the technically most advanced offerings of its time on keypad phones. Movement and aiming controls on the numeric keypad were handled by a combination of directional keys and buttons for shooting and taking cover, while the music and sounds of explosions and gunfire gave the game an appropriate urgency matching its military theme.

Sandstorm laid the foundation for the successful Modern Combat mobile series, which later continued primarily on smartphones with touch controls and became one of Gameloft's flagship action brands on smartphones. For players on classic phones it represented one of the last major attempts at a full-fledged military shooter before the arrival of the smartphone era and the mass shift to touch controls. Today it's interesting mainly as a transition point between keypad and touch controls in mobile action games, and as a predecessor to the much better-known series on touchscreen phones, through which one can trace how quickly mobile gaming was changing at the time.

Why play it: For fans of the Modern Combat series who want to see the transition point between keypad and touch controls in mobile action games, just before the arrival of smartphones.