I've played CoD3 on and off since I purchased the game when it was released last year. At first Gears of War and Rainbow 6: Vegas were taking up all my time. Then it was Guitar Hero II.
In the last few weeks I've been playing more and more of CoD3 and I have extremely mixed feelings about the game.
My first impression is that the WWII FPS genre needs to take a break. It needs to go back to the drawing board and only come back when it has something new and fresh to bring to the table (note: I'm still looking forward to Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway, since that game looks great and I'm a fan of that series).
CoD2 was a great experience on the 360 because . . . well, it was the first good game for the console and was a whole lot of fun. But do we need a follow-up only a year later? Probably not.
My first annoyance with the game is that it runs very dark. Whenever I play this game I have to change the picture settings on my TV, otherwise some of the darker sections are unplayable. A bit annoying since I do not have to do this with any other game I own (mostly because other games offer an option to adjust brightness from the game menu, but CoD3 doesn't. I think every next-gen game needs this option, since brightness settings vary from the different tv technologies (LCD, Plasma, CRT, DLP, etc.).
Another huge annoyance is that every time you fire the game up, you have to sit through that particular level's opening cinematic. Sometimes they are a bit long. After watching a certain cinematic four or more times, it just becomes aggravating. To clarify, you do not have to watch it every time you die, just every time you turn the game off and then on again. I'm assuming the game is loading during this time and if so, this game requires some long load times and it is very annoying.
Another issue I have (and this one might be my fault) is that the game can be pretty frustrating. I am playing on the hardest difficulty and the game is still playable except that a lot of the checkpoints are very far apart. And there is this VERY annoying occurrence in the game (on this difficulty at least) that if you get caught in machine gun fire, your character just freezes while he is getting pummeled and you die because your character is not responding to your controller input to take cover. It might be realistic, but this game is not about realism. It is very frustrating to be far along with an objective, hoping to reach that damn checkpoint, and some Nazi jumps out from around a corner with a machine gun and unloads on you and you cannot do anything but feel your controller vibrate since you cannot move your character.
My last nitpick is that your character tends to get stuck on a lot of objects. This can lead to frustration when trying to move backwards to cover, but you can't move further because there is something as simple as a small bucket behind you. You usually die as a result.
The game does have some fun moments. The game moves blisteringly fast like its predecessor. The controls are great. The graphics - while not amazing - are good enough. The cut scenes that I previously mentioned as an annoyance are actually very well directed, with fantastic motion capture and some of the best voice acting I've heard in a long time. Shame you grow to hate them because you're forced to watch the same ones over and over. The driving sections (especially the jeep portions) are very suspensful and entertaining.
Overall, the game is hit or miss. It might be improved in a lot of areas, but the experience and total execution just isn't the same (after CoD2). I really hope we don't see CoD4 for at least a couple of years.
And just because I love giving ratings to games, here we go:
Graphics: 7.5
Sound: 9.5
In the last few weeks I've been playing more and more of CoD3 and I have extremely mixed feelings about the game.
My first impression is that the WWII FPS genre needs to take a break. It needs to go back to the drawing board and only come back when it has something new and fresh to bring to the table (note: I'm still looking forward to Brother's in Arms: Hell's Highway, since that game looks great and I'm a fan of that series).
CoD2 was a great experience on the 360 because . . . well, it was the first good game for the console and was a whole lot of fun. But do we need a follow-up only a year later? Probably not.
My first annoyance with the game is that it runs very dark. Whenever I play this game I have to change the picture settings on my TV, otherwise some of the darker sections are unplayable. A bit annoying since I do not have to do this with any other game I own (mostly because other games offer an option to adjust brightness from the game menu, but CoD3 doesn't. I think every next-gen game needs this option, since brightness settings vary from the different tv technologies (LCD, Plasma, CRT, DLP, etc.).
Another huge annoyance is that every time you fire the game up, you have to sit through that particular level's opening cinematic. Sometimes they are a bit long. After watching a certain cinematic four or more times, it just becomes aggravating. To clarify, you do not have to watch it every time you die, just every time you turn the game off and then on again. I'm assuming the game is loading during this time and if so, this game requires some long load times and it is very annoying.
Another issue I have (and this one might be my fault) is that the game can be pretty frustrating. I am playing on the hardest difficulty and the game is still playable except that a lot of the checkpoints are very far apart. And there is this VERY annoying occurrence in the game (on this difficulty at least) that if you get caught in machine gun fire, your character just freezes while he is getting pummeled and you die because your character is not responding to your controller input to take cover. It might be realistic, but this game is not about realism. It is very frustrating to be far along with an objective, hoping to reach that damn checkpoint, and some Nazi jumps out from around a corner with a machine gun and unloads on you and you cannot do anything but feel your controller vibrate since you cannot move your character.
My last nitpick is that your character tends to get stuck on a lot of objects. This can lead to frustration when trying to move backwards to cover, but you can't move further because there is something as simple as a small bucket behind you. You usually die as a result.
The game does have some fun moments. The game moves blisteringly fast like its predecessor. The controls are great. The graphics - while not amazing - are good enough. The cut scenes that I previously mentioned as an annoyance are actually very well directed, with fantastic motion capture and some of the best voice acting I've heard in a long time. Shame you grow to hate them because you're forced to watch the same ones over and over. The driving sections (especially the jeep portions) are very suspensful and entertaining.
Overall, the game is hit or miss. It might be improved in a lot of areas, but the experience and total execution just isn't the same (after CoD2). I really hope we don't see CoD4 for at least a couple of years.
And just because I love giving ratings to games, here we go:
Graphics: 7.5
Sound: 9.5
Gameplay: 7
Story: 3 (Story? In a WWI FPS?)
Overall: 6.5
Overall: 6.5
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