Day of Defeat: Source (PC)

...which uses the same engine Day Of Defeat:Source will definitely look better.

===Sounds:===

First thing that really hit me in the face with sounds was the amazingly great title song! I love it, it always brings up a mood for battle. It sounds both melancholic and militaristic. Weapons sounds are allright, guns sound regognizable, and powerfull weapons sound powerfull.. where the peashooters sound like peashooters. The ...
...good community addons for sounds, which improve them further. Im a big fan of the atmosphere in the game, and the sounds definitely are big part of it too. Theres war ambient sounds in the distance, enemies and team members yelling.. Germans speak german and Americans speak english so theres no stupid "germans speak english with silly accent" feature like in so many WW2 shooters, yet again serving purpose for the games atmosphere. Theres ... more

First words:

I used to play this game actively for a year, until i chose to spend most of my time with simracing. Im also very much of a WW2 enthusiast owning a ton of books and documentaries about this historical event, so expect it to colour my opinion a little bit. Shortly put its fast paced WW2 multiplayer shooter, with several classes and tons of maps and players.

Game has been under constant development. It all started as Half-life mod back in the days, and gained a rather high popularity. The mod makers were given a chance to finish their project with the source engine to make it a standalone game.. how did they succeed?
Source engine is getting little bit old. The graphics are allright, the physics are allright, but no aspect is really stunning anymore. Netcode could be better, and you might need to really tweak to get the best out of it. Lets get more detailed.

Gameplay:

Scenario is Germans vs. Americans. The two teams battle on maps that consist of either conquer gamemode, where you have to capture and hold the several flags on the maps, or the objective can also be destroying targets, and defending few own at the same time. Teamwork is important and its almost every time seen that a team who playes more better together and dont hunt for personal scores will win. It is very fast action, even if it has a touch of realism. Guns have recoil, running will lower accuracy, there are iron sights to take advantage off. Maps have a time or a score limit, and players can respawn withing certain amount of time after dying. The classes are different from each other(because of different weapons), and require different game style. My personal favourite is rifleman, after you have reached a certain skill its a very powerfull class in the game. The troopers move quite quickly, so both your aim and reflexes are very important. Controls are very good, not too many keys to remember, but all main functions are there.. and of course like in any game you can adjust them to your liking. Only real problems occur at times when the semi realism causes problems with the combination of fast action. You might seem you dont hit target even when you definitely feel you should (partly caused of the netcode), You feel the guy is more clumsy than it should at times. This is one of the games that have lot of community content, you can download hundreds of maps and other stuff, like for example character textures and sound which many improve the game, but occasionally are considered as cheating in some servers. The maps are very tight most of the times, not large open areas, but rather tight ones sometimes with the expense of believability. Therefore on many occasions it feels more like a game arena than really wandering in a french village, or in a battlefield. Graphical detail will cover this mistake rather succesfully though, giving the immersion of the atmosphere most of the times.

Graphics:

Source engine aint exactly the hottest hot anymore. Texture detail could be better resulting in better overall looks. HDR effects are used rather nicely, allthough it makes it much more heavy too. Models are allright, and default maps and some addon maps are nicely done with lot of good looking decorations, and very moody scenery. Many of the decoration stuff are there for gameplay purposes, like tank wrecks placed where you need cover. Some maps especially addon ones are extremely lacking in visual department. At best this game looks very good, at worst ugly as hell, usually somewhere in between. DX9 effects are supported and used.. and if compared to Half-Life (original not Episode releases) which uses the same engine Day Of Defeat:Source will definitely look better.

Sounds:

First thing that really hit me in the face with sounds was the amazingly great title song! I love it, it always brings up a mood for battle. It sounds both melancholic and militaristic. Weapons sounds are allright, guns sound regognizable, and powerfull weapons sound powerfull.. where the peashooters sound like peashooters. The explosions sound nice and powerfull too. There are some very good community addons for sounds, which improve them further. Im a big fan of the atmosphere in the game, and the sounds definitely are big part of it too. Theres war ambient sounds in the distance, enemies and team members yelling.. Germans speak german and Americans speak english so theres no stupid "germans speak english with silly accent" feature like in so many WW2 shooters, yet again serving purpose for the games atmosphere. Theres ingame VOIP meaning players can communicate using microphones, its a real divider. On the other hand it enhances the gameplay on random servers where its much easier to use teamwork. Theres a problem though, since theres players of all ages, at times you get some youngster with a helium voice screaming about stupid things or someone simply harrassing other players. You can mute em though, but it happens often enough to be a problem.

Final words:

The game is very fun no doubt. Its easy to get into, and its very rewarding at best. You can notice your improvement immediately on your scores and success. It looks good, sounds good. Community is nice also, there is lots of players around of all ages too. Very fast paced arcadish game, so if you want more realism i would maybe rather get Arma or Red Orchestra instead. 

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