Day of Defeat Review
By Hobbes
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World War II Mod
Finally a World War II mod for Half-Life worth talking about! DoD (Day of Defeat) has got to be the best mod for World War II I have seen; as a matter of fact, this mod even whips some of the full blown WWII games that are out there today. It pits the Nazis vs. the Americans (no Japanese or Italians of British or any of them) against each other in WWII Europe. The maps are very realistic, with ambience sounds that are recurrent of a WWII battle, suchs as planes flying overhead dropping bombs on you, and the sounds of machine guns and grenades in the distance.

The Nazis (Axis)

The Nazis are here in this one, firing and ready to go. With the swastika flag flying high over their base, their main objective is to kill the Americans. There are four classes of Nazi soldiers: Leicht Infantarie, Sturm Truppen, Duetsch Sniper, and Heavy Weapons Guy. The Leicht Infantarie are the basic Nazi solder. They carry with them a basic carbine semi-automatic rifle. They can run the fastest out of all the soldier classes because of the light weight of their carbine. The Sturm Truppen (my favorite class) are the guys with automatic rifles that do a lot of damage when you know how to use it. They can run second fastest. The Duetsch Sniper, of course, is the sniper for the Nazis. It carries a nice and accurate sniper rifle. It is the third fastest. Finally, the Heavy Weapons Guy. This class is what most newbies players head for first, since they can usually get an easy and quick kill in close firefights. While they are the slowest soldier class, they carry a lot of firepower. The gun they carry is nothing less of a heavy machine gun. It can rip out a good 45 rounds in 4 seconds, and does a lot of damage. This class is best used in situations where the enemy is running to you and you can easily mow them down with the machine gun. All the soldier classes have the standard German 8-round handgun, a "Hitler Youth Knife," and all the classes but snipers carry grenades with them.

The Americans (Allies)
The Americans are basically the same as the Germans, except the exact opposite. The Americans have the same base classes as the Germans, just with English names: Light Infantry, Assault Infantry, Sniper, and Heavy Weapons. To see te soldier info, just scroll up and read the German soldiers, because it is exactly the same. The only difference is the secondary weapons. The Americans carry a standard American 8-round hangun, a US Army Knife, and all classes except the sniper carry grenades.

Gameplay
Now, on to the gameplay. I love the sense of realism these guys put into the game. Not only are you trying to save your life from the enemies, you also have to deal with airplanes dropping bombs on you, people in tanks trying to blow you away, etc. You can even take control of an anti-aircraft gun and fire it at someone (you can only imagine what happens). It's always fun to get in the bushes or up high somewhere with a sniper rifle and make sure no one can see you, then snipe away. Watch them yell at you, calling you a cheater until they find you. Also, being on the assault is fun. Grabbing you automatic machine gun or carbine rifle and storming the front gives adrenaline like nothing else, especially when you turn the volume on your speakers all the way up and enjoy the machine guns blasting away around you.

Most would think this game is a "blast 'em up" where you just grab a gun and kill, kill, kill. This is not the case, as there are many types of gameplay here, reminiscient of Team Fortress and Quake. In dod_omaha, the Germans are defending the beach while the Americans attempt to reach the back of the German base and place TNT on the artillery guns. In dod_caen, the object is capture 6 flag points strategically placed throughout a war-torn city. There are tanks for you to jump in and blow away your opponents as they madly run at you to capture a flag point. In dod_dam, this is pure defense for the Germans. The Americans are trying to take some TNT to a dam in the German base to allow the water to blow through and destroy the encampment. These are just a few of the gameplay types; there are many more to see in the game.

Did you say bugs?
Alas, this game is still "Beta 1.1" due to the fact it just came out. It has some bugs, some major, and some minor. Here are a few of them:
- Sometimes you respawn in the middle of a rock or wall, and have to grenade yourself to get out.
- Sometimes your gun will fire blanks instead of bullets, and then you get blown away by the guy in front of you.
- General map errors, such as textures not showing up correctly, trees having blue "spider-web" looking things around them.
- When you get killed, not only does a death show up on your score, you lose one of your kills. So if your score was 1-2 and you died, you would then be 0-3.

Even with these bugs, this game is still worth downloading and playing. The game authors do request you go to their site and report any bugs you find, as they will be fixed in future updates. There will also be new maps to come in the future, and maybe a few new guns and options. This game will probably end up being like Counter-Strike in a sense; while it may not be boxed and put on the shelf for sale, it will get a lot of attention from hardcore Half-Life fans. I personally expect this game to hang around a while, because many gamers are also World War II enthusiasts, such as I. On a side note, my grandfather was in the D-Day assault at Utah Beach back in 1944. When he heard the ambience sounds (the in-game background sounds that add to gameplay effect), he said that is almost exactly what it sounded like in real life; guns firing everywhere and men shouting orders in every direction. If you would like to download this mod, please click here to go to the official site for the list of download sites.