Feeling Sick – Sign of a Great War Game
Feeling Sick – The Sign of an Immersive War Game
What makes the Call of Duty game series so popular? Is it the remarkable graphics, or the gripping storyline? Is it the earsplitting realism of its sound effects or the nauseating horror of its epic battles? It is all of these things combined that humbly immerse us in the dark days of Europe in the 1940s when evil nearly took over the world.
There are dozens of World War II action shooters on the market, and companies like Activision continue to churn out games based on the gut-wrenching history of the last Great War. Their latest Nazi kill fest is Call of Duty 3 (COD3), which sidesaddles the timeline in last years “shooter of the year for the Xbox 360” a.k.a. COD2. This time the battles focus on Normandy and the subsequent skirmishes in northern France as the allies battle their way to liberate Paris from clutches the 3rd Reich. And just like last year, the game lives up to its billing as an unavoidable march through hell on earth.
The graphics in COD3 are nothing short of spectacular. The look of the game is very much the same as it was last year – with its grit and dirty wash of war. The player models, weapons, explosions and vehicles are on par, if not slightly succeeding those in COD2. Desperate firefights through decaying towns and villages, across vast French battlefields in all sorts of weather feel quite familiar. Where the game really shines is the level design. Nazi strongholds seem much more imposing and ominous this time around. The maps feel a bit more open ended – although you still have to complete specified mission objectives to advance your troops. Pounding torrential thunderstorms, countless surges of enemy battalions and extremely intense close range combat make you feel sickeningly close to the real thing. The graphics are not perfect. Some of the drawbacks in this department are the poor facial animations when officers speak to each other and the multitude of “invisible walls” that keep you within predetermined parts of the battlefield. While the character animations haven’t really improved over last year, they still offer enough life-likeness to keep it feeling real.
The sound in this game is truly magnificent. This is the best sounding war game on the market. The patriotic soundtrack, complete with pre-mission briefing montages, and some very 1940’s big band tunes playing on soldiers radios really capture the essence of the time of the invasion. The voice acting is very strong. Commanders barking orders under fire, enemies yelling German obscenities and allies screaming for their lives sound so realistic that it’s sobering to imagine the sheer terror that real WWII soldiers experienced when you consider these things really happened. Gunshots, explosions and vehicles are all “bang on” to their real life counterparts. Turn up your surround sound and duck for cover.
Gameplay. The controls are almost exactly the same as last years Call of Duty - which is to say they are very good. Aiming and firing your weapon uses the standard left and right triggers respectively. In fact all of the game’s controls mimic COD2’s button layout and aesthetic. Activision is clearly going with the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” approach. The downside is that the game sometimes feels simply like expansion chapters of COD2 instead of a brand new game. You continue to use a variety of allied and axis weapons to dispose of the enemy as you make your way to objective checkpoints. A few small supplements have been added since last year. Melee combat involves hand to hand fighting with enemy soldiers by tapping the right and left triggers rapidly and then disposing of him if you gain the upper hand. You can also plant land mines to set traps for unsuspecting Axis platoons. Online play has been substantially improved as well. It’s now possible to have up to 24 players competing in online multiplayer deathmatches. This really keeps the epic scale of messy WWII battles available in all game modes. Private custom matches are finally available this year. With new downloadable content already in development, you can be sure to get all the war you can stomach with Call of Duty 3. COD3 is another excellent World War II shooter. It doesn’t do much in the way to revolutionize the series gameplay or graphics, but a few notable upgrades and same heart-pounding action make this a worth while shooter for the Xbox 360. If you can handle the game’s insistent and overwhelming intensity, you will get many consecutive hours of grueling bloody action from Call of Duty 3. Leaving us to wonder…what more can Activision do with its WWII franchise?
Graphics: 9.0/10
Sound: 9.5/10
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Overall: 8.8/10