This was my first foray into the Call of Duty series, but so far it’s been a doozy. CoD 3, or Call of Duty 3, takes place just after the Normandy invasion where US troops already have a foothold of the beach. Now they just need to get inland to secure the rest of Northern France and liberate Paris. You’ll play as an American soldier, a British commando, a member of a Polish armored division, and a Canadian highlander.
The action is very intense making for hectic play and at times a bit unrealistic. Throughout the game you’re tasked with various objectives that lead you to victory or defeat. A handy on screen compass guides you to your objectives so you won’t get lost. While most of the objectives involve your character fighting his way from location to location, you’ll also be asked to take out mortar teams, spot MG nests for tanks, and mark enemy tanks for your big guns to obliterate.
Another part of the game I liked was the dialog, which was pretty snappy. You could tell that certain nationalities had dislikes of others as they made clear by poking fun at. We see the Brits make fun of the French for their tendency to surrender, and the annoyance from the French Resistance towards the Brits. Still, the narrative’s main purpose is largely to drive the action from one battle sequence to another, something it does quite well.
A neat little feature to the game is the new “Battle Action,” which is essentially a mini-game that must be completed to progress. They range from hand-to-hand combat with an enemy to placing an explosive, and they all involve pressing whatever button flashes on screen or rotating the analog stick in a certain direction or tapping the triggers.
CoD 3 also features a few in-vehicle sequences, allowing you to drive Jeeps throughout the country side while evading the enemy. You even get to sit on a tank and use binoculars to pinpoint MG 42 locations for the tanks to take out. Overall I was very impressed with CoD 3 and would definitely recommend it to a fan of first person shooters.