Day of Defeat: Source

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $4.95

Features:

• Completely updated maps to take full advantage of the Source engine
• Integrated physics simulation for realistic gravity, friction, and bouyancy
• Greater detail in textures, models, and surfaces for added realism
• Improved lighting, shadows, and reflections through bump mapping, specular and HDR lighting
• Completely redesigned user interface

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

The "Source" suffix doesn't necessarily mean better [Posted on 2007-05-18]
I've been playing Day of Defeat since it's original release SO many years ago. And since its release SO many years ago, I've been a fan. Remember the crappy little tanks on Cean that you get in and shoot a machine gun out the turret? I was there. Remember the "bleed" feature where when you were shot you had to bandage yourself? I was there. Remember when there was NO machine gun class? No British faction? I was totally there. This was truly a great game. Through countless updates and upgrades Day of Defeat grew into THE perfect online, squad-based, World War Two shooter.

And then they did THIS to it.

Now... it's not a BAD game. It's just not good.

The gameplay in Source is decidedly more fast paced than its predecessor. And this by itself is not a bad thing. The weapons in this version however seem to have taken a serious hit and when combined with the faster gameplay make the game rather frustrating, especially for players new to the series. They just feel sluggish and unresponsive. It's a lot more difficult to hit anything with the automatic weapons this time around (especially the StG44 which feels near worthless now) given that the recoil is much more severe and the bullet spread is much wider than the orginal DoD. And the rifles have lost much of their potency. Not only do they no longer kill in one shot, but given the faster pace of the gameplay, the obscene down time between shots on the German K98 is way more impacting on the riflemans effectiveness. This also leads to another aspect which effects the game. An unfortunate phenomenon that I call, the CounterStrike effect. In this Day of Defeat you find that actual teamwork is very rare. You all know those games (CounterStrike) where most of the time one or two people dominate and everyone else just runs around doing their own thing? Well, that is basically the name of the game here. Now on most servers, rather than the team which works together best wins, it's the team which simply has the best player. It's not EVERY server, just a lot of them. And it's rather dissapointing.

That is perhaps the biggest complaint against this game. There are other, probably trivial grievances as well. The number of maps is still rather small. Though there ARE user made maps out there, not many of them can compare to the quality of developer made maps. There will of course be updates which include more maps in the future, but at the moment that does not apply. And the absence of the British class kind of sucks as well. They were a nice addition to the original that changed up the gameplay from map to map a little, and surely they will be included in later patches. But as for now... eh :-/

There are of course good things about the game as well. One of those good aspects, are the games graphics. The models look a bit to polished and clean for a war game(you'd expect soldiers in world war two to look a bit more haggard and dirty, and they have a dumb hunch-back look to them in this version), but the enviroments and physics model are amazing. The Source engine can squeaze a lot of detail into the world and the physics make for some awsome effects during a fire fight. Grenades blow apart wodden barrels or furniture and send pieces of wood and scraps of metal flying, and it's cool to see your bullets rip a room apart. The sound in DoD: Source is equally amazing, and probably under-rated. Machine-gun fire and explosions echo through a level and if your on the other side of the map they genuinely sound distant. It's a very cool effect. Weapon fire and the shouts of your teammates all sound really nice and compliment the atmosphere of the game immensely.

All in all I have a hard time recommending this game. My prejudices given my history with the game aside, the original is still far far superior and I would suggest you buy it before this. Lots of people still play the original, and it's a real solid experience(given how long its been out, they've had time to make it perfect). The Source game has potential (as any game does really, through updates), but right now... It's just not worth your twenty bucks. If you absolutely need a modern World War Two shooter get Red Orchestra (The best online WW2 game out right now), or one of the Call of Dutys. You'd be better served then.

BIG disappointment...read on for Why [Posted on 2007-06-08]
My favorite game use to be Day of Defeat (DOD), that is, the old DOD 1.3 ie the one before source. It was the best only game ever. The graphics weren't spectacular, but decent. The reason I liked that game was for it's maps, gameplay, and sound. I was an expert with rifles. I never had kills less than four times my deaths. I was good at aiming/reacting/shooting. I had serious SKILLS. So....they announce the release of DOD:source. Better graphics, better sound. Of all the people in the world, I was the person who could wait the least to try the upgraded DOD:source. So, I bought the DOD:source. first 30 mins...ok i get it...i get what changes they ahve made. Let me tell you the good changes first. They have improved the graphics in DOD:source from it's predecessor SPECTACULARLY. I am sure you can read how good they are in others' comments. SOUND is awesome--gun sounds, ambient sounds. Maps look spectacular as well. LOts of detail in graphics, sound, and maps. Now...THE DISAPPOINTMENT: Gameplay. Why, Steam, Why? Did you really have to ruin my favorite game in the world by destroying the best gameplay ever created for a multiplayer game? The gameplay in the DOD:source sucks to say the least. Automatic guns have recoil like....like...crazy. It's like not one bullet reaches the target that you want it to reach. They all just...SPRAY. Automatic guns are useless beyond a distance of 5 metres. Rifles....my dear Rifles (RIP). My skills in rifling are useless in DOD:source. Allies rifle hardly ever kills in 1 shot, which was normal in DOD 1.3. I find it IMPOSSIBLE, after playing it for atleast 10-15 hours, to aim with rifles. Why? Because the game is so fast-paced. its a cartoon game! all the characters run so fast that it's impossible to aim. This game COULD HAVE been perfect, spectacularly the best of the century if they had kept the DOD 1.3 gameplay the same in DOD: source. My skills are useless in DOD:source, cuz DOD:source is based on Spray and pray (credit to whoever said it first in review). The reason I played the old DOD 1.3 instead of its competition CS--counterstrike was because of a different gameplay. The reason I will not be playing DOD:source is because it is disappointingly LIKE CS in its gameplay, only worse if any different.

Excellent squad combat [Posted on 2007-11-21]
I have been a long time DoD 1 fan and never got the chance to buy the Source version until recently. The things I like about this new version is that the gameplay still feels right and the art style is improved. The only things I don't like is the player's footfall audio is not silent when walking slowly and some of the maps feel too small or reorganized from their originals. However, for its easy to learn gameplay and nice price, DoD Source is totally worth it.

p.s. - Donner is my favorite map - feels like playing in a Band of Brothers episode.

good...but could have been better [Posted on 2008-05-06]
NOTE(July 18,2008):do to a recent update and some practice I have had on DOD:S i will try to edit this reveiw when I get the chance(for some positive stuff has happened to DOD:S)


I really enjoyed this game, however it had some probloms:

Pros:
1.Its the best multi-player WWII game i've seen-in short it's way better that call of duty 2 mult-player mode.
2.realism-the realism can be turned buth ways, if your one of those gamers who likes to play their games with the true super long reloading and the machine gun with the huge backfire and the no realoading till you've used all your ammo on the rifle, then it could be a pro to you.(but it defeinatly is a con for me)
3.the seanrey and water are nice.

...and heres the cons:
cons:
1.it takes a long time to load.(if you have a pc that ran hl2 you will run this with about the same speed as my pc ran it.)
2.the game gave you this nervis feeling that you don't get with counter strike:source or other multi-player games thus making the mormal player suck like hell.(don't block this HELL IS NOT A CUSS WORD!)
3.most of the maps felt pointless and the goal of most of them were to walk over to a flag or a tank with a flag and stand there till the area is "captured" though there are a two maps that I know of that have to do with blowing up a tank or some other machine.
4.the servers are slowly dying.
5.the people you play as look stupid(if you play it you'll know what I mean)

in short if you love WWII you'll be a fan of this game. But of you want a game with capture points play team fortress 2. If you want a game were you plant exploseves then play counter strike: source

A solid online experience for those who still love WWII. [Posted on 2008-07-10]
There are tons of people who love playing shooters online. The amount of people who are still in love with WWII themed shooters however, is dwindling. So you really have three choices when choosing which WWII themed shooter to play online. You can play Battlefield 1942 which is becoming extremely dated, you can play the unbalanced and camper heavy Call of Duty 2, or you can play Day of Defeat: Source.

The graphics aren't going to really impress anybody, that part is obvious. However, it still isn't a bad looking game either, and it can run smoothly on just about any computer. The art style is pretty typical of a WWII shooter, not necessarily a bad thing, it just won't stand out from the pack.

The soundtrack is pretty good, if not a little bit limited. There isn't really any voice acting, nor is there a need for any as there is no storyline or single player campaign to speak of. The sound effects of the funs and explosions are spot on though. One thing I find cool is that you can find your way to a combat situation just by listening to the sounds of gunfire, the sound is really that accurate and immersing.

The combat is essentially Counter-Strike with a twist. The use of cover is slightly more encouraged, partly due to the completely different set of weapons. They're your typical WWII weapons. They're all pretty well balanced and have their share of pros and cons. Things are fast paced, and the map design is top notch. The only real game-play complaint I have is that along with encouraging more use of cover, it also encourages some people to camp in the process. Not that big of a deal though.

A great addition to anyone's PC game collection as long as you have Steam. Most computers should be able to run it smoothly on at least low settings, my runs it on max with no problems. Definitely one of the better choices if you're looking for a WWII themed online shooter to eat up your time.

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