Call of Duty 3

"Decent game, terrible controls"

Call of Duty 3 was my first shooter game I bought for the Wii. I had high hopes for it, as the Wiimote seemed like it would be great for shooters.

Well, maybe it will be, but for Call of Duty 3? It comes up short. Way short.

Story: 4/10

Just like Call of Duty 2 for the consoles, your character (You actually have a name in this one, amazing!) is in a squad of troops stationed in Europe. During "pauses" in the action, you stand still and watch your squad yell at each other, or yell at you, for seemingly pointless reasons. Like COD2, your primary squad mates are invincible during combat, not a scratch can be put on them by the enemy. Because of this, you feel absolutely no obligation to help them or even fight alongside them. They're just invincible bots who die when you advance to a certain point in the level. Any member who doesnt have a speaking role can be killed, but will be replaced momentarly by a bot that appears out of no where.

Gameplay: 5/10

Meh. It's alright. When you have to fight, anyway. I find that half the time, you can go prone behind a wall for a couple of minutes and your invincible squad mates will gun down all the enemies. Then, after thats done, will yell "LETS GO", signaling you to advance up to the next wall and repeat the previous process. But then other times, you're facing over 20 men all hiding in houses that you cant even see (Only machine gun fire bursts, what amazing graphics), and they're throwing grenades at you, and you've got barely any cover...and there's your squad, just sitting still, not shooting anybody at all. There is no inbetween. You never feel as if you're actually fighting with your squad. Either you're an observer or you're rambo. The tank driving is decent, but hindered by the lousy controls.

Sound: 7/10

I had no problem with the sounds in this game. Bullets and explosions and even Kraut's yelling can be heard during entire battles, while your squad mates are yelling and tanks fire their barrels in the distance. It's a pretty good feeling. The music wasnt very memorable. It didnt sound horrible, but you never really notice any good parts. I've never been in a war before, but the overall sound atomsphere seems very good to me.

Graphics: 7/10

Nothing amazing. A standard Wii game really. The explosions are very lackluster. Some guns dont look anything like their real life models.

Controls: 2/10

Ah yes...the controls. The Wii was suppose to change the way we use our controllers. But all I seem to find is that it's impossible to actually keep my gun aimed at even the general area of where I want to shoot. If by random chance I can prevent my screen from doing 360's non stop while I dont even have my Wii-mote in motion, maybe I can hit that German packing me full of lead the entire time I struggled to even get my cursor near him.

A big question I have is why they chose B to be the firing button instead of Z. Too many times I've found myself pressing the Z button to put a bullet into a German's head only to have my guy go prone. The Z button on the Nunchuck just feels like it should be the firing button, maybe it's only me. The Wii-mote struggles to read your movements when attempting to aim your weapon. It can also get very frustrating having to constantly adjust your Wii-mote hand to pick up weapons, use your binoculars, throw grenades or change weapons . You can use the nunchuck to reload and change weapons, but most of the time I find it doesnt respond, or does it when I dont want too. All A does is give you a very poor "zoomed aim" mode that actually hinders your sight more than it helps. Your gun, which moves constantly from slightest shakes of the Wii-mote, blocks off half your camera view depending on where you're aiming it. There's also small parts where you have to fight German soliders in hand to hand combat using the Wii-Mote and nunchuck. They can be either be extremely frustrating or very boring, depending on how quickly you learn what you're doing.

Overall, I find that this game suffered from what COD2 suffered from (Terrible storyline that's force fed into the gameplay, making it seem as if you're not making any difference whatsoever in whats happening), but also a complete lack of decent controls.

If you really wanna play this game, I suggest renting it first. Maybe it's just me, but I regret spending so much money on a game to watch a solider named "Nickel" lose his equilbrium trying to shoot a German.

I give Call of Duty 3 for the Wii 4/10

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 07/23/07