Reviewed: November 28, 2006
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Activision
Developer
EXAKT Entertainment
Treyarch
Released: November 19, 2006
Genre: FPS
Players: 1
ESRB: Teen
7
7
8
6
7.6
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Call of Duty 3, has arrived and it’s prepared to blow you away with some explosive gameplay, powerful graphics, incredible sound, and a few twists, like the new Battle Actions, that actually help evolve the franchise. Call of Duty 3 breaks new ground in several areas, both technically, and from a design perspective. Unlike last year’s game where you bounced around from campaign to campaign, country to country, you now play a single campaign, the 1944 Normandy Breakout, one of the most crucial and brutal battles of WWII. Along with the US and British troops, Call of Duty 3 also introduces us to the Canadians and the Polish who also play vital roles in this campaign.
The game consists of 14 chronologically ordered missions that are played from the perspective of each nationality, giving you a rare look at how these men actually coordinated their efforts and supported the actions of the others. The level of historical accuracy is like nothing you have seen or experience. Treyarch has gone the extra mile to make every location and every event as close to the actual experience it was based on. Lt. Col. Hank Keirsey, the chief consultant responsible for making sure your Call of Duty experience is the closest thing to real battle, actually went to Buffalo, NY and interviewed surviving Polish soldiers, and many of their stories and heroic actions have been integrated right into the gameplay.
The game avoids getting too personal by not telling the story of any one soldier, but that doesn’t mean Call of Duty 3 is not cinematic. In fact, this is easily the most cinematic Call of Duty ever made. From the open movie to the closing credits, you experience minimal load times and most of these are disguised as movies. Using some clever data streaming technology, the designers will already have a gorgeous cinematic prepared when one mission ends, and while it plays out the next mission will be loading.
Aside from the screen temporarily shrinking to letterbox proportions for these movies, you would never know it was happening. It’s totally seamless and totally immersive. It’s also slightly “dangerous” because it doesn’t provide any natural stopping points. You might just find yourself playing this game a lot longer than you realize.
Easily, the best feature or design element of Call of Duty 3 is the level of sheer insanity going on at all times. Unlike any Call of Duty title before it, the battlefield is alive with activity. There is one moment early in the game that demonstrates this. Just after your transport truck gets hit and flips over you must run to a wall and get boosted over. All of this happens from an unsteady handheld camera perspective, almost like VR. As you (and the camera) rise above the wall you see this sprawling hillside with crumbling ruins and what looks like hundreds of men yelling and charging up this hill. It’s like something from a movie but in about five seconds you’ll be one of those men, and you won’t just be watching.
This is just the first of countless “wow moments” in Call of Duty 3. It’s also one of my favorite levels to load up and just watch somebody else play to observe their reaction. There are so many cool levels and parts of levels in this game, but I don’t dare spoil any of the surprises that wait for you. Many of them, like getting ambushed by an enemy soldier and having to do melee combat with the trigger buttons aren’t even scripted so you never know when they might pop up.
On the other console the AI was definitely taken up a notch or two, but the Wii seems to be a lot more forgiving, perhaps to compensate for the unique control scheme and ample learning curve, but once you get used to the innovative dual-handed controls it’s an experience unlike any other, bordering on the edge of virtual reality.
For the most part, you hold the two control devices in your hands and point with the Wii-mote to aim and shoot. It’s almost like those old light gun games only without the targeting sight. You’ll definitely want to tinker with the sensitivity since aiming and turning are all tied to the movement of the controller in your right hand. It's way too easy to end up spinning in circles, especially when you get knocked to the ground or reload a game and your remote is pointing off at a slight angle.
The game gets really interactive when it comes time to toss a grenade. You tap the minus button on the right controller to “pull the pin” which starts the countdown, then you arc your left arm back and make a tossing motion to actually throw the grenade. This takes some practice and I ended up picking my arm off the ground (aka reloading) my first 4-5 tries, but then you just “get it” and it feels quite natural. You'll need to toggle this new grenade-throwing control on however, as the default is the standard button press - how boring.
You can also use the controllers as a steering wheel by holding them much like you would grip a wheel. This provides uncanny realism while driving and probably some better steering control. But the best moment has to be the close-quarters battle where you engage in something quite special. When you are jumped by an enemy you immediately extend your arms out and rotate the two controllers so their tops are facing you. You then begin to alternately pump your arms simulating a grapple or struggle. If you get the timing right you shove the enemy back and then you put the controllers together, end to end, and simulate a jabbing motion at a downward angle. Since you don’t have a bayonet I can only assume you are pummeling the guy with your rifle stock.
Mission structure has been radically redesigned. While Call of Duty 2 offered a few missions where you had multiple objectives and could tackle them in the order of your choosing, almost every mission in Call of Duty 3 features mission branching requiring special tactics for each path you might take. This gives the game a more open feel with greater replay potential.
If you have ever felt like a coward for turning and running away when that grenade indicator appeared on the screen, while simultaneously cursing the enemies ability to throw your own grenades right back at you, now is the time for rejoicing. Call of Duty 3 finally allows you to pick-up and throw enemy grenades back at them. Payback at last! Just watch for the grenade in a fist icon and don’t blow your arm off trying it.
From a gameplay perspective, everything you loved about Call of Duty 2 is back and better than ever with plenty of new tactical tricks to learn and exploit. The ability to return grenades and the close-quarters battle system, and other engaging battle actions all combine to put you in the throes of war like no other game before it.
Visually, Call of Duty 3 is at the bottom of the system comparison heap, even more depressing than the PS2 version. While I don't expect the Wii to compare to the 360 or PS3 it would be nice to at least look better than last-gen consoles, but alas, Nintendo is focusing on gameplay versus graphics, so anyone who own a Wii needs to expect some visual sacrifices when it comes time to play games, especially third-party ports.
Call of Duty 3 takes on an almost stylized visual style, swapping out photo-realism with a surreal watercolor approach to the graphics. At times it's almost like playing an interactive painting. Textures are highly compressed or removed entirely, and all of the cool lighting and other special effects like fire, smoke, and debris, are taken down several notches. On its own merits, the game looks good, just as long as you don't go comparing it to the other systems.
The widescreen and progressive scan keep things looking smooth and there is never any shortage of action. The world is in constant combat action, even though you'll see far less troops on the battlefield, but again, you can only spot these differences in side-by-side comparisons of specific battle sequences.
Battle Chatter, that fantastic speech system that really sold the war experience in Call of Duty 2, is back, bigger and better than ever with more speech, hand gestures. There is some truly excellent dialogue that shows the quickly formed bonds of men during wartime. After my third time of getting knocked down by explosions and getting carried to safety, I had to laugh when my new buddy actually said something about it. The foreign accents are excellent and the script is very well written.
As always, Call of Duty 3 comes with a stirring soundtrack that includes battle-ready music for the menus and real-time scoring for the gameplay that cues to the action. It will be deathly silent as you creep through the cricket laced forest at night but once you sky lights up orange and the AA guns go off, your sub-woofer is in for the ride of its life. And if you listen closely you can even hear subtle sounds coming from the speaker in your Wii-mote.
Expect a solid 12-15 run on the Normal skill setting and unless you are a member of the Treyarch game test team I’d reserve a solid month or more to finish this game on Hard or Veteran. The good news is that you’ll be loving every second you spend with this game, even when you die. Call of Duty 3 continues the use of intelligent checkpoints and you can hard save those checkpoints at your discretion and resume the campaign when you return from R&R.
The lack of any multiplayer is a huge detriment to the longevity of Call of Duty 3 on the Wii. I'll blame Nintendo for the lack of online, but having no split-screen combat is a sin that Treyarch will have to bear. This could have been the "GoldenEye" of the Wii if the title hadn't been rushed out the door to meet the system launch date.
The best thing I can say about Call of Duty 3 on the Wii is that after playing I actually felt like I had been through a war, both emotionally and physically. The designers made good use of the new control scheme to really immerse you in the action. Sure, it seems gimmicky at times, but that doesn't mean it's still not fun.
There were moments when I would catch myself physically ducking or leaning my body as I tried to look around a corner. I started to appreciate the men in my unit and a sense of loss when somebody died. Signing up and going off to war might not be for everybody, but playing this game will certainly make you respect those who did and those who still do.