Sequel to the best selling game on the Xbox 360, and a different dev team at the helm. How does CoD3 compare to 2?
Let's get the baics out the way. CoD3 is basically CoD2, however, it has a few gameplay additions and somewhat upgraded graphics. It takes on the same format as the other titles: you play as different allied forces against the Nazis. However, despite these similarities and additions, the game is inferior, and quite a bit so, to Call of Duty 2.
Sure, the presentation has been amped up a bit. More textures, pretty lighting effects and partial rag doll effects on dead bodies. However, at the base of it, it IS just an upgraded CoD 2 look. At this stage in the 360's life, 1 year on, and looking at titles such as Gears of War, Lost Planet and Rainbow Six looking as terrific as they do, you couldn't be blamed for looking past CoD.
The gameplay has been added to. You can now throw back grenades and cook them, but apart from that, all the other additions feel thrown in there to try and make the game more interesting. There will be numerous sequences when you have to take control of a certain vehicle or emplacement and use stupid little minigames and on screen prompts to utilise them. It's a totally pointless addition: not being fun or intuitive. If I have to move a crane in a WWII game, I want to press X, then get on with fighting, not rotate thumbsticks and all that nonsense. Perhaps the factor that brings down CoD 3 the most is the total lack of immersion, due to the abysmal level and mission design. You no longer feel part of the action, partially due to the afore-mentioned on-screen prompts, but also because of the boring, cliched surroundings and A to B objectives without any kind of impact. Any CoD 2 fan will remember fondly charging the German HQ as the Russians, screams of "For the Motherland!" all around, in CoD3, the best you get is some random running to fix a charge, then it going off next to him; it's more funny than anything else. Veteran is also now, more unfair and frustrating than hard. Shoddy level design means that you'll be getting shot by enemies that can see through grass which is blocking your vision. Not only that but enemies will endlessly respawn out of absolutely nowhere, often in front of an objective point. Glitches are also a-plenty; not only in the atrocious team-mate A.I., but all around the levels. You'll often find yourself stuck, or floating across cover because a team mate has tried to take it up.
Treyarch have also included in-game cinematics, which tell the story of WWII at that time; why try to fix what isn't broken? The black and white stills with the sincere sounding narrator in CoD2 were just fine, but in an attempt to make the game look better, they have made boring cinematics and cheesy dialogue which, by the way, you can't even skip.
It's not all bad. The CoD2 engine is mainly intact, so it plays quite similarly in that respect. The voice acting is also fairly good, and the sounds of battle whizzing about can sometimes get you into a frenzied state. Playing through on veteran will last you about 12 hours, and the multiplayer is enough to keep you going for a little longer.
CoD3 is immensely disappointing. It fails to emulate or capture any of the magic CoD2 created for the 360, and simply falls at just about every hurdle that it tries to take on.