Introduction

Day of Defeat is one of the most popular Half Life 1 mods available today, but with the release of Valve’s Source engine gamers everywhere could see that DoD was in great need of a makeover. Day of Defeat: Source is a remake of the hit HL1 mod, but this time around it has a completely new look while still delivering the intense close quarters combat that WWII fans fell in love with. With a price tag of only $20 for Half Life 2 owners, Day of Defeat: Source is the perfect title for anyone seeking WWII multiplayer mayhem.

What is Day of Defeat: Source?

Day of Defeat: Source is a multiplayer, squad-based tactical shooter WWII shooter available via Steam. Six different weapon classes are available, and picking the right class is vital to the success of your team. Playing as a German soldier of a member of the US Army, a team must do their best to control flags in their possession while also attempting to gain control of new territory. Only by having a well balanced team setup to protect key routes while also having soldiers sleuth around through hidden passageways will your team be able to possess the entire battlefield and eliminate the enemy threat.

Technical Standpoint

Like Half Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source also has modest minimum system requirements in order to be played. While a 1.2 GHz processor with a DirectX7 is technically all you will need to play, any kind of decent system will allow you to play with high settings. On a Radeon 9600XT with 1GB of RAM and a P4 2.53 GHz processor, we were able to play the game at 1280x1024 with high texture and model details without experiencing any difficulties whatsoever. Day of Defeat: Source is run on an optimized engine that shouldn’t put too much stress on your PC, even if you decide to turn the settings up.

Visually Breathtaking

Utilizing the capabilities of the Source engine, Day of Defeat has been completely redone in order to create a visually stunning masterpiece. The character models are meticulously detailed and have smooth animations, even from a third person perspective. The environments are overflowing with detail from little chunks of debris lying in the streets to the delicate texturing of a cobblestone path. The maps themselves are designed to incorporate different styles of gameplay. For instance, the center of Avalanche is an open battlefield with very little cover, but there are so many cramped passageways and secret rooms to travel through to allow even the most alert games to receive a surprise attack from time to time. The weapons are also intricately designed, so it’s easy to discern an M1 Garand from an MP40 from quite a distance. Best of all are the weapon effects, especially exploding grenades and blasting bazookas, because they were simply light up the battlefield with a destructive flash. The ragdoll effects have been overdone a bit, so if you happen to be standing to close to a live grenade you can expect the ensuing result to be rather comical. It’s not that unlikely to see a corpse fly clear across a street and wind up hanging from a ledge in an awkward position. Day of Defeat: Source also supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting effects, so if your video card can support this you’ll be able to experience the best lighting effects currently available. Overall, Day of Defeat: Source contains the same flashy visual style that other Source games possess, and the final result is truly commendable.

Audio Department

Sound can be a very dangerous weapon when implemented appropriately into a game, and luckily Day of Defeat: Source presents some of the most realistic sound effects heard in any FPS game. Veterans of DoD will recognize some of the same effects, such as the victory song played at the end of a round and the shouting of the soldiers. However, the new Source engine has built upon its audio foundation to create an immersive listening experience. To start off, all of the noises sound depth-appropriate, so you’ll be able to neglect far away explosions and pay close attention to floorboards creaking nearby. Clarity has also been greatly improved, so you can hear an enemy shout out team commands or rejoice when a flag has been captured and actually be able to determine where he is. The clanking off various backpack items is also a fatal mistake if you don’t learn to keep quiet when sleuthing. The distinct weapon sound effects have also been recorded with precision, so if you’re a good listener you’ll be able to tell if a machine gun is deplyoued right around the bend or if it is a mere SMG soldier. No matter what the scenario is, Day of Defeat: Source is filled with authentic sound effects that make the entire gameplay experience much more enjoyable.

US Army vs. German Wehrmacht

The American and German teams are both made up of 6 different soldier types that have slightly different weapon layouts than their international counterpart. The first type of soldier is the standard rifleman with a secondary ability to use a scope. The rifleman is extremely vulnerable in close quarters combat, but if he has the opportunity to crouch his accuracy will be great enough to take down the opposition if he can manage to get a quick shot off. The assault troops will come equipped with either an MP40 or Thompson sub-machine gun, which is excellent for fighting your way through small halls and enclosed areas. The secondary fire here is actually a melee punch that only comes in handy if you run out of ammo, but if you ever come across a camping sniper or machine gunner it’s fun to embarrass them with a punch to the back of the head. The support infantry units are equipped with high powered assault rifles that have a lot of recoil. While it’s still possible to use this weapon effectively in close quarters, assault troops will easily overpower the support soldiers in small areas. Instead, the support units should use their rifles for long range attacks for the most part. The sniper class comes equipped with a powerful long range weapon that won’t help you advance too much, but if you’re team needs a certain flag to be protected you can easily go prone in a nice hiding spot and pick of enemies one by one. The snipers also come with a pistol, and although it doesn’t deal a lot of damage, it is certainly better than nothing. The machine guns have an unbearable amount of recoil while mobile as well, but once they deploy their bipods they are practically unstoppable. In any head to head confrontation, the machine gunner will almost always come out on top if he is deployed and has ammunition. The only real way to take these suckers down is to throw a grenade or sneak up from behind them. The last class is the rocket class, and these can easily use their bazookas to take out a pesky sniper or machine gunner with a quick shot. The rockets require much less accuracy than they did before to be effective, so as long as you fire somewhere near your target, he will be as good as dead. In short, there are plenty of different weapon loadouts to choose from depending on your own personal style, but you can be sure that even the toughest obstacles can be overcome if you come prepared with the right arsenal.

Like always, Day of Defeat: Source has the same fast paced gameplay that any FPS gamer is sure to enjoy. The four available maps all have the same objective; capture and control the five flag areas throughout the level. For the most part, each side has two flags that are relatively close to their spawn and then there is one capture point in the dead center amidst the chaos. Most capture points require only one person to remain in the capture zone for a few seconds, but the central points will require two soldiers on the same team to be in the zone for a relatively long time period. Also, if an enemy soldier is also in the capture zone, your team won’t be able to gain control until he is taken care of. Aside from just killing people, your team can gain points by securing flag locations for an extended period of time. Once all five flags are captured, the round is over and the victorious team will have a little bit of time to seek out and destroy defenseless enemy troops. Afterwards, all players are returned to the spawn area where it will be an all out rush to gain a quick lead over the opposition.

While the capture the flag theme isn’t exactly innovative in the FPS genre, Day of Defeat: Source’s flow of gameplay is nothing short of extraordinary. As mentioned before, the maps are simply full of hidden pathways, alternate routes, and hidden rooms that will constantly have you checking over your shoulder. For instance, the map entitled Anzio has a main route from one spawn to another that crosses through some open city sections with an extremely dangerous bridge battle zone. One man isn’t strong enough to just run through the main route and take down an entire army, so instead an alternate path must be taken. In Anzio, you can travel through an underground sewer system and pass through some dilapidated buildings and arrive at the opposing spawn point fairly quickly with minimal confrontation. On the other hand, there are winding pathways in the opposite direction that are ideal for close quarters combat, but you can still expect to see a sniper or machine gunner hiding in the top story window of a seemingly empty house. Not only do these alternate routes allow for soldiers to possibly go unnoticed, but the various environmental conditions throughout one map easily allow for all of the weapon classes to be used effectively in the right positions. A team can’t rely on one class if they expect to win, but instead they must have an appropriate balance of attacking and defensive classes if they plan on capturing all of the points. An ideal class would have assault troops for the closer situations, support troops for those long ranged attacks, and a rocket soldier to blast away bothersome snipers and machine gunners. In addition, snipers and machine gunners should be deployed around major traffic areas and centralized flag locations to ensure the safety of such capture points. While having a team like this that can outgun the opposition and remain focused on the objectives isn’t too likely, the impact of an individual combined with the necessity for an interdependent team makes Day of Defeat: Source offer an amazingly well done online first person shooter experience.

The Future of Day of Defeat: Source

With it’s retail price of $20, Day of Defeat: Source is clearly your best bet if you’re looking for an intense WWII game online. Like always, Valve has promised to release more maps in the future because the 4 currently available can become repetitive after long hours of gaming. The mod community has taken matters into their own hands already with the release of several custom maps, but most of these maps can’t deliver the same tactical gameplay that the Valve maps have to offer.

The current release has some issues to be worked out, but again we can expect most of the quirks to be worked out in future updates. For example, there have been several instances in which two players got stuck on one another, and one of them was forced to commit suicide so they could both be allowed to move again. Online, gamers were complaining out problems with weapon balancing, such as the fact that the rifleman should’ve been given some sort of close quarter’s combat skill instead of having a scope for secondary fire. Luckily, the hitboxes in Day of Defeat: Source are much more accurate than the one’s in Counter Strike: Source, which certainly leaves DoD fans with something to rejoice about. In the past, Valve has managed to address most of the issues that gamers have faced, so you can rest assured that most of the bugs will be fixed in future updates. Still, right now Day of Defeat: Source is still an amazing online game that will definitely be around for years to come, making it worth every single penny.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Day of Defeat: Source is clearly an excellent choice for anybody looking for a great first person shooter. Its fast paced, tactical gameplay that stresses the importance of a collaborative team is complimented nicely with impressive audio and visual elements. The maps currently available beg you to discover every nook and cranny, and it’s so addictive that even the most demanding gamers can play for hours on end without breaking their concentration. Minor setbacks, such as a lack of maps and balancing issues between weapons, can make the game feel wearisome at times, but for the most part you can expect to receive a solid final product. Simply put, if you’re looking for the greatest WWII multiplayer game, look no further than Day of Defeat: Source.

Game play	18/20
Graphics	19/20
Sound	18/20
Value	18/20
Preference	18/20
Overall	91/100

 

Contacts: Reviewer: Andy "Vesper" Levine