Score
Gameplay:	8
Graphics:	8
Sound:	9
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	8
Overall:	8.2

Day of Defeat Review
October 11, 2003 by Scott Parrino

by Scott - October 11, 2003 Day of Defeat is not a single player game. It�s an online multiplayer game set on the West Front of World War II. Once there, you have a choice. Are you going to be the Germans, defending your land? Or are you going to be the British or Americans trying to push the Hun back? Just remember you are not alone, as there are many others in this fight along with you and you must work together as a team to bring victory to your side!

I am not a stranger to this type of game or even this game. It started out as mod for Half-life about two years ago. Then in May, it went �public� and became v1.0 through Activision. This marked a monumental step in the mod as it started out as a fan�s work, and then turned into something this amazing.

The Gameplay

If you�re looking for furious, excitement filled keeping you on the edge of your seat action, then you�ve picked the right game. DoD gives you a feeling of being in a soldier�s boots through WWII. There is no ridiculous health packs, no medic to heal you, no power-ups, nothing. Anytime and anywhere someone will draw a bead on you and kill you. That is what makes this game fun. You and your group of guys are trying to capture all the flags in the map, capture objectives, or just hold the beaches and the solders on the other side know that to win, they have to get through you.

And here is where the learning curve comes in. If you are just starting on DoD with no experience in online FPS (First Person Shooter), be prepared to die, a lot. There is a core community of DoD players (in which this writer is happy to be a part of) that has been around DoD since it was beta and therefore has experience with the game and such. As you become more and more accustomed to it, you�ll be able to guess where incoming fire is coming from, how to adjust to recoil, and learn the important flanking positions.

So how do you play this game you�re wondering? Well, with a current release of Steam, you load up and select your server. Usually, you�ll want to choose the one with the lowest ping for better connections. After you�ve selected a server and connected, you will be brought to the map description and the choice to select which side of the war you want to play. From there you select your class, which determines your weapon load out. A rifle is great for larger, more open maps, where as a submachine gun is perfect for run and gunning. If you�re planning on being a machine gunner, be prepared to waste a lot of ammo and having helpful teammates to supply more and more ammo as you expend rounds. And finally and not the least, for those lone wolfs and death dealers, the sniper rifle. Also, depending on the map and objectives, you will be provided with the bunker busting powerful bazookas, PIATs, and panzershrecks.

The Looks

Keep in mind that DoD is using the Half-Life engine, which was released five years ago. However, the current development team was able to push this engine to its very limits, giving detail and texture that pleases the eyes. However, compared to other such games like Medal of Honor, Unreal Tournament 2k3, and the upcoming Call of Duty, the graphics show their age. There are some clipping issues with models, and sometimes if there is a thin wall, models will stick through.

But what is this game known for in its graphics department? Its attention to the detail of the models is what makes the graphics great. The soldiers carry their equipment in the right places; soldiers have their spades, their ammo boxes, and even the gas mask container. And depending on the map, there will be certain player models. For example, a paratrooper map will have the players in their para-gear, complete with para-weapons like the folding stock carbine. Some maps have the Americans vs. the Germans, or the British vs. the Germans, and they do look the part; the Germans with their modern helmets and the British style flat helmets.

The weapons are modeled quite well too. You�ll see bullet casing eject from rifles and submachine guns, muzzle flashes, explosions, dust kick up from bullets, everything you see in war.

The battlefields you will play on will be scattered with debris, tanks, sandbags, even cows....all for your use. Every spot in the map could be used for defense, launching an attack, or hiding. Each map varies from a town, to a glider drop zone near a bunker zone. Always be careful and watch your step.

The greatest aspect though is the amount of custom work that is done for this game. You don�t like the way the Enfield looks? Download a custom model. With this, there is an endless way for you to customize the look of your DoD

Hearin' it

Ever wondered why troops feared the MG42? Because not only did it pack a punch, it sounded like hell was ripping through. You can hear the plodding of bootsteps from behind you as your teammates run up, screaming for covering fire. You unload a clip from your M1 Garand, and then you hear the loud �ding� as the last round is fired.
The sound quality is top notch. Research was done to find the right sound for each little thing in the game. Germans speak German, British have the accent, and bullets hitting dirt sound like, well, bullets hitting dirt. This is also another customizable aspect of DoD. You can download sound-packs or if you want to be specific, just one sound file. It�s all up to you on how you want your ears to be pleased.
The only downside is that the footsteps are just a little too quiet, and unfortunately there is no distant firing sound or the like. This sometimes makes it hard to judge where the battle is, but luckily surround sound is supported, so turn it up loud!

 

The Big Update

Forthose who are very much familiar with DoD or becoming new to it, you might notice a few problems. There are hitbox problems for the M1 Garand, where the arm hitbox is blocking the chest hitbox, preventing the one shot kill that its enemy Karabiner 98 and Enfield enjoy. Along with a few other bugs and graphical glitches, an update is well on its way. The update, v1.1, will prove to be the greatest update ever and will hopefully prove to join the �update kings�. What I mean by that is that since its beginning as beta, DoD had problems with the 2.0 and 3.0 betas, and the updates to .1 status improved it to greatness.

For those wondering what was lost from b3.1 DoD to v1.0 was a few much loved aspects. A major change was �jumpshooting�; where the player could jump and still fire their weapon. This was rid of because it was something that the development team always wanted to take out, but support and code was hard to do until the support of Valve in going gold. Another missed extra was bleeding. In previous versions, if you were hit somewhere vital, you would �bleed� and you�d have to lower your weapon and bandage yourself. This gave the weaker weapons a chance against the more powerful weapons. This loss was felt by many of the core group of players and is something still debated on the forums months later.

Last and not least, the addition of icons over the friendly players created uproar in the community. This took away from the realistic feeling of trying to guess if the enemy down range is friend or foe. Although it is toggle able, having it off puts you at the disadvantage that someone else is using against you.

 

Wrappin

Although an old engine, this is still one of the top multiplayer games on the net. A great community populates the forums and the game itself, offering a multitude of friendly (or sometimes non-friendly) help. On certain servers, you�ll never find a tighter bond of men, on some you�ll find a bunch of �noobs� blumbering around.

If you�re looking for some quick action, a round or two can help you, or if you want, stick through it and enjoy the fight. It�s all up to you which is what makes this game great, your game, your looks