Call of Duty 3

"A promising sign of things to come."

As one of the only FPS games released in the early days of the Wii, Call of Duty 3 is a good place to look to see how this genre is handled and gather you expectations for the future. Despite the oh-so overused theater of war that is World War II, Call of Duty manages to make the experience quite refreshing, mainly due in part to the Wii's unique control scheme.

Story: [6/10] Call of Duty's main focal point of the war is the Battle of Normandy, where allied forces tried to surround German forces around Chambois, in an area known as the Falaise Pocket. You start off as an American soldier, and you periodically get to play soldiers in other armies, like the Canadians or the Polish. Half of the story depicts each army has it's own slew of somewhat interesting characters through cut-scenes. The other half is like a documentary and offers quite a bit of historical information. Although the actual story isn't very deep, it does its job. But, you're not here for the story, are you?

Graphics: [6/10] If you've considered purchasing this game, you've probably heard that the graphics are awful. I find the graphics to be very, very average. Textures are all right, renderings are decent, special effects are mediocre... however, the game does well at portraying an epic atmosphere in the environment. Overall, the graphics are pretty much the equivalent of an above average Gamecube game.

Gameplay: [9/10] This is where Call of Duty 3 really shows off how much fun a Wii can be. At it's core, this is just another WWII shooter than you've seen over and over and over... However, when the great controls of the Wii are added, it's almost and entirely different game. If, for some reason, you don't know what you'd be doing in a WWII FPS, you run around, shoot some Germans, complete an objective, run some more, shoot more Germans... you get the point.

Call of Duty has always been renowned for being able to really immerse you in the game in it's epic atmosphere. This iteration is no different. Almost every battle you get yourself in to is going to be huge. Playing on any difficulty but hard is basically a training mode to get you acquainted with the game's mechanics. You can take a lot of bullets here, and it greatly detracts from the believability of the game. On the hard difficulty, you'll rarely feel like a one-man-army. A few shots will take you down and you'll often be pinned down under enemy fire. You'll have to learn how to use your cover and supporting fire from allies effectively.

One of the stranger mechanics of Call of Duty 3 is the health system. It's kind of like Halo 2's shield system, just hidden. As you take fire, your screen gets blurrier, redder, and all you can hear is the desperate breathing of your character as he struggles to live. If avoid fire for long enough, these effects wear off and you'll be able to take more damage. This system alleviates the stress of having to hunt down health kits and such and keeps your focus on war.

Call of Duty's intense pace is kept intact by the Wii's easy control method. Simply flick the Nunchuck to the right or left to switch weapons and up to reload. Thrust your remote forward to perform a melee attack, tilt it to the side to lean around corners. There's also plenty of special actions performed with the Wii's motion sensing, like planting explosive charges, aiming mortar cannons, and going CQC with an enemy. Another thing you've probably heard is that the Wii's motion-detected actions are less than responsive. As I first played, I had an infuriating amount of trouble getting them to work myself. After reading the little tips in the game's manual, it was simplified significantly and I now have no problems getting the game to respond. If you get this game, READ THE MANUAL.

Overall: [8/10] Call of Duty 3 is an above average FPS with fantastic control. After seeing this, it's obvious the Wii has a great amount of potential just waiting to be cracked in to, and I don't doubt we'll be seeing some amazing FPS games in the future.

Does Sykz approve of Call of Duty 3? YES!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07