Day of Defeat Source

We've seen WW2 shooters all over the d*** place. But, as I've played them, I've noticed one thing. They all suck. Either the gameplay is lame, the graphics are lame, or SOMETHING, but it's like some invisible rule of thumb that a WW2 game has to have some essential flaw. Even the original Day of Defeat had some major flaws, irritating players beyond belief in a torrent of stupid weapons and cheap kills.

This isn't that. Day of Defeat Source is like Valve took all the good things from DoD, doubled them, and took out anything hard to use or irritating. Obviously it's the same game, but Valve knew what they were doing. Let me explain.

First I need to do the all-too-obligatory rant about the graphics. Valve has been popping around the stuio a technology called HDRL- High Dynamic Range Lighting. Essentially, it just takes the boring old lighting we're used to in games and makes it s***loads better by making it REAL. Tack this on with graphics that'd make you cry in joy and fluid animations, and this game is BEAUTIFUL. Hell, just watching this game is worth the game itself. I wonder if you turned it black and white it'd look like one of those old WW2 PSAs.... I guarantee you it'd look close enough.



Now, if you've never played DoD before, Day of Defeat is essentially a World War 2 shooter based off the Half Life engine. So basically, the same way you play Counter-Strike or Half Life, you played a multiplayer online shooter in WW2. However, in the old game, it had a lot of problems. The maps generally sucked, the weapons sucked, and it was somewhat hard to get used to. No longer, my friends!

DoD Source fixed the big problem I had with the original game- the weapons. Every single weapon in this game is now officially useful, instead of everyone running around with the same thing. Assaults actually are good for assault, and now, suprise suprise, Machine gunners no longer become moving tanks. You could realistically be assigned any weapon in the game and do decently in the battlefield in your own little niche, which is nice, because the old game had maps where people using Rocket Launchers or Sniper Rifles had a hard time getting a good vantage point, but no longer.



As well, the ass-ugly GUI that many are familiar with is gone in Source, now replaced with a pretty simple GUI that gets the point across. Very nice, easy to glance at, and one hell of a lot better then the old one. Of course, the "Stamina" system still exists, but I really didn't run into it as a problem (I'm not a player who likes the "Run" ability). Of course, that meant I couldn't bunny hop, but...

The game also just plays smoother. The controls are tight and responsive, and every weapon's kick feels real. Playing this game, with the mix of the graphics, sound, and tight controls, I felt like I was IN the game, instead of playing some multiplayer killfest. Explosions going on around me from grenades and rockets as smoke grenades blow all over the place and I run through them trying to desperately take out a sniper... I love it.



Overall, this game deserves 5 stars. If you have the power-computer to run this, this is definately something that should be on your to-get list. The superb graphics, great gameplay, and the ability to actually play a Nazi just turn this game into one great time killer. Hell, I might go as far to say it's better than Counter-Strike Source! But that's blasphemy....

5 star(s) out of 5

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