Commando One Secret Mission Review

Free Fire Zone

ZE Actions Shooting & Simulation Free Games want you to know that their FPS game, Commando One Secret Mission: Free Shooting Game is free (we shortened it for our review’s title because we find overly long game names profoundly dumb). Not only is the word free in the game’s title and the company’s name, but it’s also mentioned 10 times in the game’s description. Unfortunately, that’s about the biggest selling point in a first-person shooter that’s otherwise as basic as it gets. You’re a commando, and you shoot terrorists, and that’s it. There’s no story beyond that, and there’s very little in the game beyond shooting terrorists. But hey, it’s free.

So Many Ads

In Commando One Secret Mission there’s an ever-present bar at the bottom of the screen which features ads. While I didn’t find it distracting, it detracts from the overall experience. When you start a level you have to watch an ad. Then, when you finish the level, you also have to watch an ad. You can skip some of them, but for most part you’ve got to watch the whole thing. This gets tedious very quickly, and there’s no option to spend money to avoid watching them.

So Few Features

The screenshots for the game show paragliding, helicopters, and supplies being airdropped. I didn’t see any of that in the game. Instead, you have one of three zones to choose from: city, subway, or industrial. The first two have 10 missions each, while the last has 20. The levels themselves are pretty Spartan. The city has wide open spaces, the industrial zone is a maze of shipping containers, and the subway is, well, a subway. The levels are largely empty, except for the terrorists. You’ll occasionally find a gun you can pick up, but there are no health kits or ammo or any of the other things you’d commonly find in an FPS.

At the start of the game, you’ll get eight different weapons to choose from. However, four of them have to be unlocked with gold. You can buy gold using real money, but there’s really no reason to do so. You pick up both gold and the locked guns pretty readily in the game. Also, there doesn’t seem to be anything else to spend gold on. You’re also given the option to spend cash to buy colorful special weapons and weapon packs. They’re expensive, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason to buy them unless you really want a day-glo striped assault rifle.

Look and Feel

The graphics in Commando One Secret Mission are serviceable, but not exceptional, and they don’t look as good as the screenshots suggest. It reminded me a bit of Half-Life, particularly the rag-doll way terrorists collapse when you shoot them. The subway is probably the best looking level, as it looks like an actual subway. There are no civilians in the game, and few terrain features. As a result, playing the game proves an arid experience.

You move using a thumbpad on the left side of the screen, and fire using a button on the right. If you want to turn or aim you have to sweep your finger outside of and around the thumbpad. I found the controls extremely frustrating until I got the hang of them, after which they were just frustrating. Turning is a real chore, much less turning quickly. Too often, I would try to move, only to end up pointing my gun at the ground. Other times I’d try to turn, and would end up moving instead.

Commando One Secret Mission also sports a few bugs as well. Bullets pass through walls, and on a few occasions the game froze up when I died, forcing me to restart. In addition, I found that enemies that got too close to me sometimes got confused and stopped attacking. These aren’t major flaws by any means, but they contribute to the slapdash feel of the game. It’s that haphazzard quality that’s really the biggest problem with Commando One. The game feels like something that was thrown together quickly and pushed out into the market. And really even on mobile there’s no reason to settle for something that feels undercooked and out of date. If you’re looking for a satisfying FPS experience, there are better choices out there.