Day of Defeat (retail)
This is for those who don’t own Half-Life, and don’t have a fast net connection to download Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory.
Tags: Day of Defeat (retail) Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Harold Foundary on Aug 21st, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Day of Defeat (retail) (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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There was a time, long ago and far away, when Day of Defeat was the only real first person shooter to bring home an Online World War II experience. But those days are long gone now. The market is positively flooded with World War II shooters today, so it’s extremely difficult to rate Day of Defeat on the merits of memory and originality.
Yes, this is the grand daddy, and yes, it’s still free. As a Half-Life mod, Day of Defeat is an easy, albeit 130 megabyte, download. This makes it an attractive steed for the armchair Patton who itches to drop some Krauts with a Tommy gun. Yet, despite its freedom, Day of Defeat has stiff competition: Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is completely free to download, plus it runs like a champ under both Windows and Linux.
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This raises an interesting comparison: Wolf:ET is 100% free while DOD requires a copy of Half-Life. Of course everyone should already own a copy of Half-Life, it being possibly the greatest PC game ever made. But for those of you that don’t own Half-Life, Activision has released a CD version of DOD which is also capable of running all those other great Half-Life mods. Thus, if you’ve not got a fast internet connection, buying this copy of DOD might be the ticket you were after. Unfortunately, WOlf:ET is not available at retail in any form: you’ll be stuck downloading the 230 megabyte installer.
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DOD does has one more large advantage over Wolf:ET. It has some of the best urban combat maps ever created. Caen, the best and oldest map in the bunch, is the apsolute appotheosis of sweetness: it’s filled with nooks, crannies, and wickedly nasty sniper locations. Overall, DOD’s maps blow every other WWII shooter out of the water.
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But this is where the victories of DOD begin to fade. Perhaps it is wrong to spread praise upon Wolf:ET since many of its features were taken directly from DOD; but when played side by side, Wolf:ET is simply a better Day of Defeat than Day of Defeat itself. The weapons are more responsive, the combat is more rewarding, and the system of promotion and RPG experience gaining makes Wolf:ET a much more enjoyable experience. While DOD is certainly more realistic and historically accurate, the fun factor is simply not as high as it is in Wolf:ET. This is a tough call: both games are an absolute blast to play!
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If you’ve never played DOD before, and you don’t already own a copy of Half-Life, this boxed version of Day of Defeat will be a good addition to your arsenal. The game is undeniably fun, and will keep you twitching for a long time. But if you’ve already got a copy of Half-Life, just download the mod from the Day of Defeat website. It’s not really worth shelling out the cash for it, esspecially when you can also download such a competent WWII FPS in Wolf:ET.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| The Maps rock. You can download the whole game for free as a Half-Life mod. Very realistic weapon models. | 7 |
| What Doesn't | |
| Why pay for this when you can download it for free, or download Wolfentein: Enemy Territory for free? | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| If you don't already own Half-Life and don't want to, this is a good buy. Otherwise, just download it for free. | |
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Tags: Day of Defeat (retail)
Posted by Harold Foundary on Aug 21st, 2003 and is filed under PC Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
