Article Type: Review
Article Date: February 25, 2002
Product Info
Product Name: Day of Defeat
Category: WWII FPS Mod for Half-Life
Developer: Day of Defeat Mod Group
Release Date: Released
Files & Links: Click Here
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The latest version 2 release of Day of Defeat (DoD) was eagerly anticipated to say the least, and when D-Day finally arrived nearly every server hosting it ground to a halt. After the initial rush died down, I got my chance to download it and try this wildly popular World War II Half-Life modification. So what’s new with DoD version 2.0b? Let's start at the beginning.
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Sunset on Anzio  |
Installation
I initially had some problems getting DoD 2.0b, after three attempts from three different servers I was still getting a corrupt media file. Fourth time's the charm, however, and I managed to get a clean download—installation was quick and easy. Here’s my no-fuss prescription for installing DoD: Make sure you have a copy of Half-Life and it’s patched to the latest update (Currently 1.08), then a fresh install of DoD 2.0b. This should see you through. If you do encounter any problems, then a visit to COMBATSIM's very own First Person Shooter forum or the official DoD site will see that you are sorted out.
Note: A retail copy of Counter-Strike will be enough to install DoD. Install to the same path i.e., ...\Sierra\Half-Life\; except for Counter-Strike owners the path will be ...\Counter-Strike\ instead of ...\Half-Life\.
DoD installs an excellent HTML manual that would leave some full game manual editors ashamed. Easy to understand and read with plenty of illustrative graphics.
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| The Briefing screen |
Gameplay
As before, World War Two is the theme of the day and DoD presents the player with ten well made maps based on varying versions of Capture The Flag (CTF) objectives. One new twist on the standard CTF approach are area capture and team capture objectives: points are only awarded if you hold an area for a certain period of time or if you get more than one of your sides' players around a specific flag. Each map varies in style from the legendary and ever popular Overlord (Omaha Beach) to night fighting in the streets of Ramelle. Whichever map you choose, the route to getting into the gameplay is very easy; staying alive, on the other hand, definitely is not as easy. DoD is still multiplay only, but with playability the way it is, you shouldn’t be interested in single play.
You can be either Allied or Axis and there are the different classes of soldier. From rifleman to machine gunner. Each type of soldier has his own capabilities and with around twenty weapons you’re not short of weapons choice.
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| Class selection screen |
Gameplay
Don’t ask, just join as you please. Whether you’re in a clan or just a solo gamer, you’re spoilt for choice with the amount of games in play and it couldn’t be easier to join a game. Here’s a quick and pain free way to play DoD for the first time:
- Start Day of Defeat.
- Click “Configure” and configure the commands and make yourself aware of the key commands.
- Click “Multiplay”.
- Click “Internet Games” to get the list or join a specific server
- Click “Filter” and check the boxes “Have People Currently Playing”, “Are Not Full” and “Are Responding”.
- Once you’ve done your filtering click “Update” list and presto! you should get a list of servers.
- Click a game from the list and click “Join”
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| Mean streets of Ramelle |
That’s it. It couldn’t be easier. I forgot how quick this game starts and loads. When starting DoD later on you won’t need to filter the games.
Major Changes
It’ll take you a while to get the knowledge of the maps and here’s a tip: after joining a DoD multiplay server, take a tour of the map as a spectator. You don’t interfere with gameplay and you get to look around the maps a lot quicker. They are extremely well done. There are plenty of side streets and alleyways to hide, sneak and shoot from. There are stairs and rooms to use everywhere.
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| Machine Gun on Omaha |
If you have played DoD before, the change you'll notice first is the enhanced weapon recoil. Your first burst on a Thompson will have you firing into the sky like a madman. It’s been remarked by many on the forums as being somewhat overdone. I’ll take it and learn from what I’ve been given.
The best weapon improvement for me is the sniper. When you click to the scope it’s initially black then it will focus in. That’s the easy part. Being a sniper models body movement and the rifle will sway in time with your breathing as you try to shoot at someone. This effect, for me, is the best modeling of a sniper's view I've yet seen.
There are also numerous changes in the weapons class. If you have been playing Medal of Honor forget about doing a Rambo down the middle of the street, it doesn’t work. Weapon accuracy across the board has been reduced while you are moving. If you favoured the bum's rush approach in the past, you may find your tallies will drop and you'll need to mover slower to compensate. In order to tell how much your accuracy is being affected by movement, there's a new dual crosshair system that mimicks both the front and rear sights of your weapon. See the manual for a fuller explanation. Of course, if you’re a machine gunner, you’ll need to go prone to control the heavy recoil, right? Thankfully, DoD v2.0b delivers!
You can, if you wish, simply stand with your machine gun in hand and spray bullets in the general direction of the enemy, but the new weapon recoil and reduced accuracy while moving will make this a pointless exercise. If you like to actually put lead in the enemy, you can now go prone and deploy the machine gun's bipod for extra stability. Cool? wait, there's more. You can skip the going prone step and deploy the bipod on the ledges of bunkers and in specific window openings. You'll know where these are because a special machine gunner icon appears when you stand in these bipod-friendly deployment areas.
Graphics and Sound
Graphically it was never going to look like Return to Castle Wolfenstein (RTCW), but don’t think that this means DoD looks sub-par because it doesn’t. The graphics still look good and although somewhat dark in spots, they enhance the overall mood of the game quite well. Speaking of mood, you can set the fog type (Valve's version of OpenGL or regular OpenGL flavour) and amount of fog yourself. No one is forced to view fog but you can tweak your settings to make it suit your needs.
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| Hell |
The new and improved HUD is a virtual work of art. The health and stamina indicators are beautifully rendered with a moving animation of your ribcage and vital organs: green is good, red is bad. There are also indicators to give you information on your ammo supply and timers, which in my opinion are unobtrusive, leaving your field of vision uncluttered.
My old favourite from the previous DoD was the voice commands. I absolutely love them and to my relief, they’re still in v2.0b. The voices for the Americans and Germans are perfect. DoD 2.0b also introduces the VGUI which is an on-screen, pop-up, drill down, graphical menu system that will let your character utter pre-recorded, standard voice commands and even hand signals. Also new to v2.0b is actual voice comms for anyone with a microphone.
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| Ruins |
The new bullet sounds are spectacular and when a .50 cal whizzes by it'll scare the pants off you the first time you hear it. There’s also a new ambient sound system that lets you hear others around you as they walk and their gear rattles about. The Overlord map ambience is much improved from 1.3b. Overall the sounds are very well done.
Performance
Good as ever. DoD is a dream for those with 56K modems. There is an issue with lag, but this occurs at certain points in the game when changing maps and when other players join the game. Joining a game with a limited amount of players may help for the time being. This issue is being dealt with by the DoD team as we speak. With my PIII 933 and 512 MB of RAM I’ve watched while my gaming has stuttered along on most the games in my possession, but I was more than happy to play DoD without those off putting slide shows.
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| One Hell-of-a-map |
Community
As ever, a large community with mods galore for DoD. If for some reason you’re not happy with the sound or uniforms, change them. There’s plenty to choose from.
Conclusion
There is no other modification to a game out there that even comes close. DoD deserves an award, hang on, it has---COMBATSIM awarded it the Best Shooter Mod / Expansion for 2001 as did “PC Gamer” and “Gamespy”. If you’re into first-person shooters, then DoD deserves your attention. You can buy a budget version of Half-Life for around $15US from most online game retailers. As always, DoD itself is a free download.
P.S.
The DoD team is still working on improvements so don’t think they’re done just yet.
Resources
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