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Call of Duty 3 review by Simon

By Simon

Call of duty 3 is a World War 2 shooter, the sequel to one of the Xbox 360’s best sellers since November 2005. However, unlike its prequel, it is made by Treyarch and differs from it quite a lot.

If both, Call of Duty 2 and 3 were being played next to each other, most would not believe that call of duty 3 follows the brand. The visuals in the game have improved significantly, improving the atmosphere greatly of war. Along side this; the amount of action on screen at once has improved fantastically as well. Shells dropping at your feet every few seconds, soldiers dropping and bits of building breaking down on you will give you the feeling, “good god, this IS war”. The atmosphere is fantastic, on the single player, but also on the multiplayer.

The single player focuses on the Normandy breakout, 1944. The single player starts with a frustrating un-skippable cutscene. Your first task in the game, like CoD2, is to complete the basic training. After this, you go straight to battle and suddenly meet a very different game. Artillery falling everywhere shocks the player being used to the occasional artillery strike on previous WW2 games. The amount of players on screen also shocks the player with many bodies dropping like fish. New features are also available, such as the ability to throw back grenades. This is a neat trick, but also with devastating consequences for example, when the grenade indicator pops up, and you are looking for the grenade to throw it back but can’t find it resulting in it blowing up in your face. However, this feature is a nice little touch to the game. As well as this, we can say hello to a all new feature, hand to hand combat. However it’s not what it all seems. There are certain points in the level where you will have to press certain buttons at certain times, to beat the German soldier into submission. This is a nice touch, varying the game play from the run and shoot tactics.



The game also focuses on a more of a ‘drama’ theme than CoD2’s basic run and gun, which proved to be successful. You will have to wait through cut scenes every time you play the game, and watch in some parts, a cheesy storyline. Not nice, huh? However, on the single player, you fight on the American, British, Canadian, and Polish side all running at the same time, from level to level all with their own un-interesting storylines. However, being several different nationalities is a nice touch, taking you to different settings of the war. Unlike Medal of Honor games, you will not need to seek health packs if you receive an injury from a stray bullet. All you need to do, following Halo’s technique, is take cover for a few seconds and gather your health back. The use of vehicles in single player are available again at certain points in the mission, and like CoD2s vehicle parts, are mediocre and nothing exiting. From a tank chase mission, to driving in the countryside of France. The single player is shorter than the CoD2’s single player, and although there is more action and you are able to do more things, is not as strong as the CoD2’s perfect campaign. CoD3’s campaign, unlike CoD2’s campaign does not make the player feel the same vibe as when playing CoD2, of ‘I can’t put this down’. That said, the campaign has its strong points that are extremely impressive and makes it better than most other WW2 game campaigns.



Online, generally being more popular than the single player, we see a large change from Call of duty 2’s multiplayer. First off, we have the significant rise in the amount of players. From CoD2’s 8 players on screen, we move on to 24 players on screen. This is a good move, as it improves the amount of action on screen but more importantly, makes the game more exiting. As well as the player change, we also now have ‘player classes’. This follows sweetly, the successful Battlefield 2: MC scheme, allowing different players to have different ‘roles’ in battle. We can now see players to have the ability to become for example, a Medic being able to heal fallen soldiers; a scout, whose class enables the player to call upon artillery strikes on a designated area and a couple more from heavy infantry, light infantry and support. Different classes, giving different abilities gives the game a nice touch.



Unlike the run and gun, technique from CoD2, more tactics are needed. Standing still in the open for more than 20 seconds will generally end up in you being shot, or run over. Yes, run over. Yet another feature, again reminding us of battlefield 2, are vehicles. As well as the large amount of players running freely around the battlefield, there is a new threat. Tanks, generally being the most frightful enemy as they are ‘killing machines’ Two or more players are able to enter every vehicle. Soldiers are now able, to ride in Jeeps with a gun attached to the back, motorcycles with a side car and as stated before, tanks. Not all is bad as a simple change in class, will get you a rocket launcher, a new addition to the CoD franchise. During each game, your character will ‘level up’ thus carrying more grenades/smoke grenades. However, unlike Rainbow 6 Vegas, you will lose your level up at the end of the game.



Already, new maps available on the marketplace make the game a great buy. The maps already featured in the game are greatly designed; places for sniping and covering are well placed. There are large maps and very large maps available. There are no maps the size of burgundy, on CoD2 which would have been interesting playing. The game modes have also been altered. ‘Deathmatch’ and ‘Team Deathmatch’, has now been changed to ‘Battle’ and ‘Team battle’ but the idea of the game remains the same. Other game modes, such as ‘Headquarters’, have also been changed, you now able to spawn, even if you have been killed on the defending side. This makes the game faster, and some would say harder. Search and Destroy no longer exists, which for some was an awful move as it was popular on CoD2. However, a game (possible replacing it) called ‘War’ has entered the franchise. In this game, each time battles it out to command a certain point across the map. Once that point has been taken, the point will move. The idea is to successfully take over the whole map being quite a nice addition to the game modes. However, a feature many greatly miss is the ‘Kill Cam’, the feature enabling you to see how you were killed. A frustrating move for many, by Treyarch. Games however can be ruined by lag, and also the fact it is extremely hard to get into lots of games. However, with an update this can be resolved. Ranked matches are already easier to get into than when it was first released, proving that Treyarch are trying to keep their customers happy.



Call of duty 3 is an impressive game, however many of the features have been changed for the worse. Call of duty 2 was a fantastic game itself. Why change what is great already, many say.

Overall, Call of Duty 3 will impress new player to the series, but perhaps disappoint a little to Call of duty 2 veterans because of the large change to the game. With a above average single player and a successful action packed multiplayer, this game only suffers from a few great points. However, if you're looking for a game most like war, this is the game for you!
Gameplay 88%
Visuals: 90%
Sound: 90%
Value 85%

Overall

88%