Personally, I was looking forward to this review for a while. It's been the game I've been primarily playing and I think I have a fairly good understanding of the gameplay and game-mechanics so this should be good.
Day of Defeat is a member is the very large family that is official Half-Life 1 mods. It is a team based World War 2 online shooter, the two sides primarily being the Americans against the Germans. The one thing I notice in this game, and it's very welcome, is that it doesn't do all of that Nazi-bashing bullshit games like Medal of Honour has a habit of throwing into our faces. The game just plonks you down into a variety of towns or places that were fought in during the second World War 2 and expects you to fight to the death while capturing locations or blowing up the enemies equipment.
There are a variety of weapons, each different to their side. The Americans are kitted out with the basic Garand, Thompson, Bar selection but also have the Grease gun, 30. Cal, M1 Carbine, Springfield sniper and bazooka. Some useful, most filled with poor accuracy and recoil with the exception of the Thompson. The British (Yes the British, a feature missing from Day of Defeat: Source) have by far the least selection but maybe the best weapons of the bunch. The Sten is accurate and is good for a range but don't expect to be taking out a sniper with it or charging a room because 1: It isn't that accurate
2: It isn't that strong
The only real redeeming feature of it is the very small recoil. The Enfield rifle and scoped Enfield, they can double stack their ammo to hold 10 rounds instead of 5 and are fairly accurate, but I really want to meet the wanker who designed the scope sight on the scoped Enfield. It is poorly designed and crap for almost every reason. It's like a mix between the German and American sniper. It has the + shaped sight from the American scope without the vertical line and the centre aiming pillar of the German sniper. I'll show you some pictures;
American Springfield Sniper
The British Scoped Enfield Rifle
The German Scoped Kar98 Rifle
You see! The Enfield's scope is confusing! Sure after a while you get used to it but it's impractical and as soon as you put it down you'll forget where to aim when you use it again. You see, when aiming at anything, you have to obscure it with the tip of the main pillar. The effect grows according to how far away the person is to the extent that it's a complete guess!
Apart from that, the weapons are balanced and well done. The Germans have by far the largest amount of weapons. They have....let's see.... 9 weapons not including the pistol or knife. It's immense! Think of this in car terms: The British are the mini-cooper. Small but packs a well thought out punch. The Germans are the Volkswagen Polo, well built and reasonably good performance but doesn't have that buzz and the Americans are the Saab 9-5. It's average for the most part with one or two highlights, but is slightly over done in other parts which make it un-usable.
In fairness now, they aren't all bad weapons. The MG42 for instance, you think it can only be used correctly when the tripod is used.
WRONG!
The MG42 is the perfect weapon to use to Rambo in those tight corridors or when ambushing someone around a corner. Almost every weapon has a secret double purpose, you just have to think outside the box to find them.
I guess I must move onto the other aspects of this game. I'll put them in bulletins for your reading pleasure and sloth:
The bottom left of the screen looks like a Da-Vinci bomb.
The ambient noise is expertly done, but it IS Valve so go figure.
The default maps are balanced and generally unbiased to any side.
The weapon selection gives you enough choice to keep you occupied.
The addition of bots could help.
The addition of bots could harm gameplay.
I'm running out of jokes, gimme a fucking break.
This game is a must buy for any avid online gamer, even those cheap bastards I keep banging on about should get it as an excuse to get Internet. Or buy it on disk for an excuse to buy their own fucking computer. It will give you endless fun if you find the right server and it will finally teach those fucking 8 year olds to realise that spawn camping isn't fair play, even if it's your birthday it's no excuse you immature ostentatious cunts.
"How hard can it be?"
