Day of Defeat: Source

Day of Defeat Source (DoD henceforth) is a WW2 based squad shooter from Valve that uses the much loved source engine, and follows a very similar style to Counter Strike: Source. It’s fast, its action packed, and most importantly of all, it’s a lot of fun. While it isn’t perfect, it provides a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction and with a strong online community, I believe this will be the case for years to come.

The idea behind the game is simple. You play a series of rounds on a particular map, and you have to capture all the flags on the map together in order to win, you may also win by holding the majority of flags and gaining points, however “full-caps” are generally the way the game goes. The maps vary a little in size but are usually around the same dimensions and provide perfect killing fields for groups of up to 32 players to shoot, stab and blow each other up. At release there weren’t really a particularly large number of maps, however, since Valve distributes and update their games using the excellent online service, Steam, there has been a whole tonne of updates since then, all of which have made the game even better.

These updates include new maps, a new game mode similar to the bomb-planting one from counter strike, and numerous changes to weapon balancing. The most recent update of all has been one that has effectively “TF2’d” it with achievements and better community support, along with a few other minor changes to weapon handling. The changes don’t stop there though, DoD sports a highly active map-making community that seems to belch out new map packs all the time, some of which are of the incredibly high standard that Valve goes for, so much so that Valve have even released some of these maps. This means that the initial limitations of the game have pretty much been solved with the many additions of content and alterations.

DoD uses a fairly basic class system online, there are six classes overall, and they are Assault, Rifleman, Support, Sniper, Machine gunner and Rocket man. These classes are fairly self explanatory but are varied enough to provide the player with different approaches to tackling situations. If you are on your heels and need to defend, you can go Machine gunner, and simply mount your MG on a surface and start ripping down crowds of people. Alternatively you could try sniping to give over-head suppressive fire. The classes are backed up by the fact that the maps are generally well designed enough to provide different fighting arenas, such as wide open spaces, claustrophobic corridors and maze like buildings. This often encourages players to stick to a certain spot or area, and this can provide interesting situations when you get people who don’t.

One thing that particularly impressed me when first playing this game is how the weapons handle. Assault rifles recoil effectively, Snipers rip through enemies and sub-machine guns provide a fast moving, fast firing solution. While the latter weapon may be somewhat of a “spray and pray” type, most of the guns take a lot of skill to use well, and yet they are all fairly easy to get the hang of to a sufficient level. Different classes are also provided with different side arms, if any, such as hand guns, the Carbine, and a machine pistol, along with smoke and frag grenades. My only beef with this system is that the weapons can get quite repetitive to use as there isn’t a huge amount of variety here. While you can pick up weapons from corpses, you are usually stuck to a specific set and cant really mix and match effectively, nor are there any options to buy new weapons, or gain them as unlocks. Of course, this probably wouldn’t make too much sense in a WW2 setting but it just limits your equipment a little and this can be an annoyance.

The game is also limited by the fact that it is multiplayer only, like a lot of Valve’s shooters. This is actually a game where I would quite like to see a single player component, if they added some way to replenish health (since it is a fairly brutal system), I think it could be a lot of fun, that said, this was always intended to be a multiplayer shooter, as its predecessor was… still, a little extra on the side wouldn’t have hurt and could have improved the experience even more.

By far one of the best things about this game though is that it uses the Source engine. It’s a good few years old now but still manages to produces great looking games that run exceptionally well. I used to play this game on an old GeForce 6600 with everything set to high and it still ran great. Not only this, but its use of HDR lighting makes some of the maps look even better. The sound isn’t bad either, the guns all provide satisfying cracks and blasts when you shoot them and the MG42 in particular blurts out a satisfying roaring sound while it fires. This all comes together to provide a really exhilarating experience and it adds to the enjoyment so much online when there are explosions and gun shots going off  everywhere. Having the game run on the source engine also provides us with a good, stable game to work with. Crashes are few and far between, and I don’t remember any real problems with it in terms of glitches and bugs.

The game also has a good server browser built in with a lot of filtering functionality, and there are a good number of servers up at any time. The online community has done a lot to help this game progress as there are lots of server admin applications and Valve’s VAC service is generally well implemented when it comes to reporting hackers and cheaters, as these can be a problem sometimes. The online experience is generally lag free, although it largely depends on the servers and the people playing, as a bad combination can provide sickening results, this situation is made worse by the fact that it uses a fairly poor hit-box system for bullet registration. There have been many times when that shot should have killed that guy, but due to slight lag and hit box detection they get away wound free. While it isn’t a major problem, it can become noticeable at times and when it does, it really stands out as a pain in the arse.

Overall, I would highly recommend this game to any multiplayer shooter fan. The game has enough variety for you to play for hours on end, and with great community support the possibilities are endless. Match this with the fact that at the time of writing this, you can get it for a measly $5; it appears to be a bargain not to be missed!