Being the follow up title to the highest selling Xbox 360 game of all time is tough enough, building a new game from the ground up is downright difficult. First some background though, Saving Private Ryan started a trend to cash in on the tragedy that was World War II. Yes we won but many people died during those years and now it has been long enough since to cash in on their deaths. OK, maybe I am being a little bit dramatic but what bothers me more is just the sheer amount of licensing that takes place with WWII. Video games, movies, action figures, next will be WWII branded breakfast cereal. That being said some really good video games have come out of this new genre, the most popular easily being the Call of Duty franchise. First showing up as a PC game and secondly coming to the Xbox 360 as an exclusive console launch title, the Call of Duty games have become a money making machine all unto themselves.
This time around we get a new developer, Treyarch, but the same old publisher, Activision. Infinity Ward, the developer for COD1 and COD2, got their place on the map with these games so it was always going to be interesting to see what a new developer could bring to the table. After spending some time with a preview build a few months ago I was more excited than ever to get my hands on the retail copy. At the end of the day this isn’t the best game in the series, but it is a nice addition to it that will surely keep fans happy until Infinity Ward takes back over the reigns with Call of Duty 4. First let’s deal with the present though and review Call of Duty 3 from Treyarch Studios.
From the second you pop in this disc you will notice that this isn’t simply Call of Duty 2 with new levels and upgraded gameplay. For the first time in a long time we are getting a game with a number 3 on the end that is an entirely new experience from the previous ones. The developers at Treyarch borrowed some small gameplay elements from COD2 to give COD3 that same feeling but there is so much new stuff here that it could easily have been launched under a different franchise. Gamers will get to fight through some famous battles with 2 new armies, the Canadians and the Polish. Add them to the Americans and British and we have 4 mini-campaigns to play.
The campaign mode is deep and interesting and will keep you busy for a good while. It has the basic WWII storyline that everyone is used to by now. Luckily some good cut-scenes and voice-acting keeps you interested from beginning to end. The difficulty modes that made COD a classic hard game are back in full force, beating COD3 on the hardest mode is a feat that any gamer should be praised for. Personally I had a great time playing through on medium difficulty but that’s just me. Controlling your character is very similar to the other Call of Duty games so you should have no problems there. One button shoots, another reloads, ducks, melee attacks, throws grenades, switches weapons, etc. After only about 30 minutes with the game I began to feel at home again and was kicking German ass as if I had never stopped playing Call of Duty 2.
