Maybe the last intense shooter for PS2.
[Sometimes missions enable you to choose which path you want to take, such as allowing you to choose to storm the bridge or go through the forest and storm the enemy flanks. It's not that a big deal to choose because choosing different paths won't affect the outcome or give any special benefits.] [Many games portariat you as some brave soldier, a hero, who destroyed german bases, armies, alone. But CoD3 isn't that case. Throughout the game, maybe you wouldn't be able fight huge battles very often, but you'll always be backed up by some CPU-controlled soldiers. They die and kill by you side. You may most of the time be clearing out most of the enemies, but your company does do a good job, or at least make you feel more confident in yourself to kill more. There really is a feeling of "You are not alone". ] [ Don't expect too much variety of weapons to use and vehicles to drive, otherwise you should play battlefield 1942. Common machine guns, snipers and cannons are always there, but where did the pistols go? Anyways, most of the weapons of WWII are there. You are only allowed to have 2 weapons with you, but choices aren't that much so 2 slots are pretty well enough. Grenades are also must-hves in all WWII games, and CoD3 enables you to cook a grenade, which is not seen before. You pull the pick, and a timer pops out indicating when the grenade will explode. It is advised to throw it before it explodes in your hands of course. However, it you use this skill well-enough, you can always throw a near-to-explosion grenade at your enemies, decreasing the chance of running away or throwing it back. Apart from the normal grenades, smoke grenades are at your disposal as well. These things are not used for multiplayer purposes only like in other games where after throwing them your enemy could still shoot you in the right coordinate. The AI, after you throw a smoke grenade in front of them, really dont know where or even what to shoot. This adds a bit of strategic depth to the game.] [The enemy AI is okay. They do what most shooter games do, like leaning behind stuff. But sometimes they really dont know what the hell they are leaning on. They sometimes lean on crates with a space in between which allows you to shoot them throught the hole. Difficulty also increases the enemy AI, you'll be weaker, enemies stronger and much more aggressive, like you killed their dad or what.] [The game featrures something new to the series--close combat. However, they scripted events in the single player campaign and you cannot trigger it whenever you want. Once triggered, an uglu soldier will charge at you, try to pull your gun, while you keep preesing buttons to hold him off. There are sometimes cool actions performed, but the buttons to press is pretty well the same everytime. To be mentioned as well, you will only face theses situations for...uhh...six times?] [You can focus mainly on the action because you seldom have to use your brain. Except from throwing smoke grenadesand where to hide to avoid gunfire, there really isn't much strategic depth. You can't command your men, give orders for reinforcements and such.] [You will also find that you do not have a health bar. Trying to give some cool first-person experience, CoD3 indicates that you are near death when you're screen go blurry and some blood stains surrounding the middle. This is an awesome effect. You will die if you recieve more damage when you get this kind of display, but if you avoid fire for a few seconds you get healed thoroughly. That's also a reason you will never find health packs in the game.] [Another gameplay addition is that you would find yourself often pressing some buttons and turning the analog stick. Whenever you stick a bomb to something, you have to press a series of buttons. It really isn't essentiall and is sometimes time consuming, but there are times that it could be fun. An example is trying to row a boat across the river before you get smashed by a german bomb, you have to move your analog stick in a certain pattern--and real quick. ] [The graphics do already look good on PS2. You really can't expect anything booming in a game made for a console that is wearing out because of the next-gen consoles. However, the backgrounds do look wonderful, thanks to the level design uniqueness. You would often find the battlefields huge but actually they are only background boards. Path restrictions often give you a good reason, for example you can't get upstairs in a house because some furniture fell down on the stairs, and was stuck by a cubboard. The effects in the game look good too. Dirt and other particles do there jobs, smoke grenades and explosions look realistic as well.] [The explosions and the firing sounds magnificent and even if the graphics don't give you the feeling of war, close your eyes and just simply listen to the sound. There are a few soundtracks which are well-written and well-composed, creating a great atmosphere while playing the game.] [Too bad CoD3 has a campaign that could take around 8 hours to finish in easy, and max. 12 hours for the hard difficulty. You would seldom play the games levels once in a while to train up some skills or just for plain fun. There is multiplayer to the game as well, but many PS2 owners dont have the correct kind of network to support PS2, including me as well. So if you don't have multiplayer support, this game could easily wear off, and soon it would be left collecting dust.] [In conclusion, Call of Duty 3 is a fun game, especially it may be one of the last big budget shooters for PS2 as so-called next-gen gaming platforms take the whole gaming market. It may not be long-lasting, but at least it gives some unforgettable experience and a few hours of what an epic shooter should be like. Call of Duty 3 is a good start to re-recognise the Call of Duty series. It does deserve playing.]