"A pathetic launch, but still a fun follow-up to the original Day of Defeat."

Day of Defeat: Source is an upgrade (more or less, I'll get to that in a minute) from the World War 2 themed Half-Life mod, Day of Defeat. The reason I say "more or less" is because of the game's state on the release date. On the day of its release DoD:S came with only 4 maps, as of this writing is still only has 5. Hardcore DoD fans have had trouble getting into the new game, I say new because the source upgrade has affected more than just graphics, sound, physics, and effects in general. Some of the gameplay elements have been changed, some classes have been removed from the system and the maps that have been released so far don't exactly resemble their counterparts in the original. Still, I've found that these changes makes it easier for new players, such as myself, to get into the game. It's much better now that you don't have to worry so much about being so far behind in the game, being cannon fodder while everyone else on your team seems to be having fun.

Gameplay: 9/10

The way you win a round is to capture flags positioned at strategic points throughout the map. A single player can capture 4 of the flags by standing by them, but it takes 2 players to capture the middle flag. Scoring is done by captures and kills, although captures have greater priority. So a person with one capture and zero kills will be ahead of another player with 0 captures but 100 kills on the scoreboard. It's unfair, but it's the way things are.

At the beginning of a round (after the trouble you'll go through to connect through Steam, Valve's online gaming client, among other things) you pick your team, Allies or Axis, and you pick one of six classes to play as. Each class has it's purposes in team play. The first class, rifleman, is something of an all-around soldier. Riflemen carry a (semi-automatic for the allies, bolt action for the axis) rifle (with plenty of ammo, for those of you who are worried after playing Half-Life 2), a knife (or shovel) for melee combat, and a grenade-launcher attachment for their rifle. The secondary fire on the rifle allows players to look through iron sights, a crude sort of scope and act as a sniper to a certain extent. The next class, assault, it another all-around class. But it specializes in close-range to medium-range combat because of the sub-machine gun the class carries. The assault class also has a pistol for back-up and two types of grenades, frag and smoke grenades, which are very useful if you know what you're doing. I don't know what I'm doing, so I usually stick with the rifleman class when an assault on an enemy flag is needed. The third class, support, is, to me anyway, a variation of the assault class. He gets a heavier gun with a lower fire rate and an option for semi-automatic or automatic firing, but there's little difference between the two in my eyes. The fourth class is my personal favorite, although I think most other people hate it. The infamous sniper. As a sniper you are equipped with a sniper rifle, a more powerful variation on the rifleman's rifle that has a more powerful scope but no sights when you aren't zoomed in, a knife (allies) or shovel (axis), and a pistol. Machine gunners, the fifth class, are very team oriented players. They're built for holding flags or positions that you've captured, but because of the high recoil on their gun they must be have their machine gun deployed on the ground or some other surface before they can fire with much of a chance of hitting anything. The last class is the bazooka, the rocket launcher. I haven't seen this class in action much, but it is a very powerful weapon if you know what you're doing and don't kill half of you team while doing it.

Graphics: 10/10

The graphics really are amazing. Day of Defeat: Source uses the same engine as Half-Life 2 which is still churning out amazing visuals. The details on the weapons are great and the "real" look of the game draws you in. Although the game does require a pretty good video card to run at it's best, you will see some amazing things. This is tomorrow.

Sound: 10/10

Instead of using pre-recorded sounds of war as background noise Day of Defeat: Source uses the actual noise of the game as it's happening. If someone is firing a machine gun in the distance you'll hear it, faint, but you'll hear it. It really adds detail to the game. The weapons also have authentic noises as well as looks.

Now you may say "Wait, (10+10+9)/3 doesn't equal 8, what's with your overall score? Get your ass back to 5th grade!" In which case, you wouldn't be the first person to tell me that, nor would you be the first person to get it wrong. You see, you failed to factor in the hidden fourth category. This category doesn't have a name, but I can tell you that the overall score was 8 because of the game's shaky release. By shipping with only 4 maps Valve ensured that gamers would just have a taste of what was to come, unfortunately, we're very hungry gamers. This, along with several bugs and the usual problems with Steam, has brought the overall score to an 8. It's a good game, but if you're stuck between this and another game, you may want to wait a while before purchasing Day of Defeat: Source so that Valve can add more maps and smooth things out a little.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/05