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'WWII is back on track'
 Developer: Treyarch
Publisher: Activision
Category: : WWII FPS
Official Site
Platform: X-Box 360
Might look like: Call Of Duty 2
Date posted: 28 February 2007 -UPDATED!
Written By: Nate
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A new developer, a new game?
Hot on the heels of the very successful port of Call of Duty 2 in 2005 from the PC to the Xbox 360 comes its highly anticipated sequel Call of Duty 3.
Though this new installment to the Call of Duty series takes a big departure from its original creators at Infinity Ward. This time round the reigns have been passed to the developers at Treyarch who are best known for such games as "Ultimate Spider-man" and the previous installment in the COD (Call of Duty) series, "Call of Duty 2: Big Red One" for the Xbox and Ps2. Though will COD 3 live up to the quality of its predecessors, or will it be lost during its transition between developers?
Canadian forces and Polish divisions
To start things off, Call of Duty 3 once again puts you in the shoes of various soldiers during the tumultuous World War II. Along with the usual American and British campaigns, this time around you also take part in campaigns waged by the Canadian forces as well as the Polish tank division.
This new venture allows for a refreshing as well as interesting look into the lesser publicized heroics of both the Polish and Canadian armed forces during the war.
In COD 3 the transition between campaigns is not as sporadic and all over the place like in Call of Duty 2. Though this could be a good thing or a bad thing.
This time the main storyline revolves around the German invasion of France. Therefore, instead of going from fighting Germans in the frigid snow of Russia one minute to shooting tanks in the hot desert sun of Africa the next, the player will always be situated in the French countryside throughout the game.
Each campaign will undertake a different part in the overall liberation of France from German occupation. More importantly each campaign revolves around the single goal of taking out the German forces fortified in and around a pocket of territory known as Falaise Gap.
COD3 Controls
For the most part the control scheme of this game stays the same as the previous COD game. There are a couple differences though, including the ability to throw back grenades using the X button.
Also during certain games sequences a certain button sequence must be performed in order to fend of an attacker with hand to hand combat or to prime an explosive to clear an objective.
With the addition of vehicles into the game the RT button acts as the acceleration button while the B button acts as the hand brake. Though every vehicle handles in the same manner making the vehicle controls easy to learn and easily implemented.
Crip and Realistic Graphics/Audio
Like any other Xbox 360 game Call of Duty 3 looks beautiful with its crisp visuals and realistic textures. As usual each gun is finely detailed and the explosions are well crafted and well executed.
In this game the battles are much bigger and chaotic than its predecessor, for there are an abundant number of soldiers running around at any given time furiously fighting each other and running for cover.
  
Though there are some problems with a few of the visuals found within the game. For example, during cut scenes when other soldiers are talking there is a problem with the synch of the dialogue with the characters. This is because the characters’ mouths do not move in line with the words and creates a sort of Japanese Dubbing effect that takes the player out of the game.
Also the character textures of the German forces all look alike. In each level of the game there is little diversity between the soldiers whatsoever. For instance, in the previous installment of the COD series the German characters varied in size as well as attire indicating rank. This little quirk makes the player feel as if battling a clone army instead of a real life German force.
Now onto the audio.
As with any other COD game the audio is superb and helps to reverberate a realistic feeling of taking part in the chaotic setting of France during the second great war.
To go along with the sound of bullets slamming into concrete walls around your body, there is also a large array of well acted dialogue throughout each level. This helps to add a better sense of humanity and depth to each character you encounter, may it be your comrade or an attacking enemy. Though one qualm with the audio is that the dialogue from your comrades is drowned out by the hectic sounds around you character while in the heat of battle. This makes it hard to figure out what you are to accomplish next and where you have to go. This could be easily corrected by enabling the subtitle feature during the game. Though another problem arises from this as well.
At certain points in the game the subtitles are different from what is actually being spoken at that time. Though these instances are few and far in between. It is just yet another one of those little quirks that helps further distance the player from the game.
Gameplay
Though with all these little problems already you would think that would be it for such a fantastic series such as Call of Duty. Sadly that is not the case.
The main problem found in this game lies in its game play. To begin with the A.I. is somewhat lacking. First of all when running through the levels, the A.I. of your fellow comrades is not very well done. Your comrades constantly are in your way making it impossible for you to move unless they do so first. Also your comrades seem to be completely incapable of taking out enemies for they will shoot and shoot and somehow not hit a single person leaving you to take up the remaining slack.
The enemy A.I. is not up to par as well. You could enter into a room and systematically take out every single one of the enemies without the other even noticing. Though when the enemy does actually notice you they seem to be able to pull of the impossible such as shooting through walls in order to find their target.
All this makes the game very frustrating. Though this is simply not the end.
The real frustration comes when you battle waves upon waves of enemies only to end up not being able to physically proceed through the rest of the level. In some instances a glitch has occurred causing a certain path to be blocked making it impossible for your character to move ahead, and the only way to remedy this glitch is to restart from either the last checkpoint or back at the very beginning of the level once again.
One example of this glitch occurring happened during one of the many battles within a town level. During this battle a truck exploded sending its pieces all over the surrounding area. Sadly one of those pieces blocked the entrance of a house in which your character is supposed to enter, thus making it impossible to continue on with the level.
  
Better Multiplayer ?
So far throughout this review there has been many negative things said about this game, but one thing that is far from negative about Call of Duty 3 is its multiplayer. Like in Call of Duty 2 the multiplayer in this new installment is just as good if not better than its predecessor.
The multiplayer consists of the usual modes fans have come to love such as elimination and team elimination, capture the flag, and headquarters. Though Treyarch decided to add another mode know as ‘War‘. This mode pits teams of up to twelve players against one another in a mad dash to secure three key areas on a map. This allows for a truly chaotic experience as each team goes back and forth fighting over these three areas. The first team to capture all of them wins.
Treyarch has also made another tweak to the multiplayer with the introduction of vehicles into the maps.
Vehicles such as motorcycles, tanks, and jeeps can be easily accessed on most of the multiplayer maps. This adds yet another layer of excitement to each map as you try not to be run over while trying to pull off a headshot with your rifle. To help compliment the addition of vehicles there must be a large enough map for them to traverse, and with COD3 it is no exception.
Every multiplayer map is extremely large and perfect for large scale twenty-four person battles. Each map is well crafted and finely tuned to suit each of the players unique fighting preferences.
Overall the multiplayer is very satisfying and will keep you always coming back for more.
Amazing new COD3 content available
To further improve upon Call of Duty 3’s already amazing multiplayer, Treyarch has recently released another five large scale multiplayer maps over the Xbox Live Marketplace for 800 Microsoft points. These five maps help to further diversify the locales in which you may choose to battle upon.
Ranging from the open farmland of ‘The Crossing’ to the rusty train yard found in the map ‘Ironclad’.
Each map is vastly different from one another providing a refreshing reprieve from fighting on the same maps all the time. Within the map pack there are two other maps that help cater to the sniper in all of us. One of them is ‘Wildwood’ a listening post for the allies set atop a tree filled mountain. This level has a purely organic feel for the area is mostly made up of only vegetation aside from the sniping posts hidden amongst the trees.
The second level is ‘Stalag 23’. This level consists of a prison camp surrounded with guard towers prime for picking off enemies from afar.
The last level ‘La Bourgad’ is by far the largest of the new maps. It makes for the perfect place for larger battle groups and the ‘War’ game mode which fully utilizes the whole map. This map centers itself in a French village making it perfect for more close combat to medium range fighting rather than purely sniping.
These maps are a welcome addition to the already existing maps of COD 3, and hopefully more maps will be released later down the road.
Conclusion
In the end, Call of Duty 3 is a decent addition to the Call of Duty franchise.
Though it is not the best installment in the series by any means. The small graphical and audio quirks to the frustratingly glitched solo campaign prevent this game from truly taking off. If only a little extra time was taken to address these problems with the addition of a little more polish, this game would have instantly been a must have.
On the other hand, the only valid selling point about this game is its amazing multiplayer aspect. Although with games such as "Gears of War" and "Lost Planet" out on the market now its hard to compare this game to the likes of those.
Who knows maybe a patch over Xbox Live will be released in the near future to fix these problems and allow this game shine as it was meant to.
Hopefully the next installment in the Call of Duty series takes these things into account and the developers steer this franchise back onto its tracks before it heeds the way of the Medal of Honor franchise and falls from grace.
Though maybe it is simple just a case of mistaken identity, and hopefully the reigns return back to its original creators at Infinity Ward and goes on as the staple head of WWII shooters as it should be.
-Nate
Ratings
Manual:
79 % |
Graphics:
83% |
Music & Sfx:
80% |
GamePlay:
79% |
|
This game scores
 
on our 5-point Rating System
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