"Gut, but nicht perfect"

Day of Defeat: Source is a complete rebuild of the fantastic original Day of Defeat half-life mod, and is based on the Source Engine, which powers Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike: Source. DoD is a World War II game in which the player can choose from a variety of different character classes in either the US Army or the Wermacht (German Army, fyi) and join the fray in many non-fictional/fictional scenarios derived from the actual war.

Graphics 9/10
Although the Source engine isn't best known for its graphical prowess, Valve Corporation has done an excellent job of polishing the graphics in this game, although, I must say, the awe is being drowned out by the sight of future games such as the game Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2. However, I will admit that I am not getting top-notch graphics due to the fact that I sadly own a pathetic X300SE Hypermemory. However, even with everything on medium and 2xAA 2xAF, the graphics are rather pleasing to the eye (I am being forced to run this on 800x600 with everything on medium) with nice particle effects and detailed textures. I can only imagine what it must look like with everything on High, Reflect All water, Supersampling, HDR and 16xAF.

Sound 9.5/10
The sounds are excellent. The bass is great and inspiring fear into the hearts of the player and the distance based volume is quite excellent. The sounds are quite detailed, so much that you can hear individual particles falling upon the ground after a rocket detonates. Another plus (but not exactly one for me as I have an Audigy2) for many players is that as the sound mixing for the Source engine is done by the CPU, quality is not degraded by the mere fact that you have onboard audio. The immersiveness of the audio is also quite top-notch, and I feel as if I really am in Carentan or some place being shot at by Germans, but this could be minorly affected by the fact that I own a surround sound system.

Gameplay 9/10
Excellent. It stays true to the original without being too bland. Some minor tweaks to the gameplay have made it much more enjoyable. The stuttering has stopped after the first day, and providing that you find a decent low latency server, the game is very enjoyable. Although only four maps are available for play as of right now, more are bound to be released (Damn, Charlie's gonna kill my computer when it comes out), such as Kalt and Glider.

Overall 9/10
DoD: Source is quite the excellent game, with beautiful graphics an meaty audio. This is a definite buy for any World War II game fanatic, FPS lovers, or Valve Collectors. One thing I must point out is that I really think it's overpriced. I mean honestly $20 for a simple mod?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/03/05