 Review By: Jared Black |
Developer: | Treyarch |
| Publisher: | Activision | |
| Genre: | FPS | |
| ESRB: | Teen | |
| # Of Players: | 1-4 (24 online or system link) | |
| Online Play: | Yes | |
| Accessories: | Xbox Live (online play), System Link, HDTV 480p/720p/1080i, In-game Dolby Digital | |
| Buy Now: |   |
In my opinion, Call of Duty 2 was the best title at the Xbox 360 launch. It was the first title to really show what Microsoft’s overheating box was capable of, which is not surprising since it was developed and released for the PC at the same time. Call of Duty 2 had a true big budget feel to it, full of memorable moments that quite frankly amazed me at the time, and graphic technology (look at the smoke!) that put other consoles to shame. Now Call of Duty 3 has arrived with more of the same, along with enough tweaks to make it a worthwhile purchase.
This time around, Call of Duty 3 takes a more narrow approach as it looks at part of the overall Normandy Breakout Campaign (which basically began with D-Day), specifically the closing of the Falaise Pocket. Although the game takes place in the countryside surrounding Paris, the game still presents the war from the viewpoint of four different sides: the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Poland.
With this multi-sided approach, the development team attempted to show how the Allies’ actions intertwined with each other, and largely they succeeded. Although you don’t really ever team up with soldiers from other countries (except one or two isolated instances, such as when the Canadians send their radio operator to assist the Polish troops), the game does do a good job of showing how the actions of each unit work together with the others in the larger war.
There’s also a greater focus on the personalities in the war, with a colorful cast of characters on each side. We’re not talking RPG-like character development here, but a few of the main characters do evolve throughout the game. Unfortunately the developers pushed this a little too hard in one respect, with inescapable cutscenes that play every time you load a saved game regardless of where you last left off. So you may be an hour farther into the game than you were when you first saw it, yet you’re still made to watch it in full all over again. The voice-overs are also a little over the top, and in general a little too stereotypical for my liking (scruffy sergeants, broken English from the Polish, etc.).
The other primary addition to the franchise is found in the new mini-games, which also make the war feel even more personal than before. At a few pre-scripted points in the game you’ll literally come face to face with the enemy, where you have to press the left and right shoulder buttons in rapid succession (followed by a swift counterattack with a face button) to survive. While these are easy, they do add some tension and variety to the game. You’ll also plant charges with a series of button presses and perform other minor tasks, but these aren’t implemented as smoothly as the war seems to stop around you while you perform the action.
Posted: 2007-03-10 10:30:30 PST