I Play Again – Day of Defeat Source

I Play Again – Day of Defeat Source

It was my Day of Defeat, I loaded up Valve’s Source based World War Two shooter and promptly died. A lot. In my defence I am a bit out of practice with playing Day of Defeat as I haven’t played this great game for many, many moons. You can put this down to the fact that when I initially played the game I was plagued by the infamous ‘stuttering’ bug which was a common occurance in Source games a few years ago. Fortunately these issues are in the past which means I have been able to play Day of Defeat in all its glory.

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This is a tough game to initially get to grips with, especially for someone like me who is used to Valve’s current multiplayer hit Team Fortress 2. Day of Defeat may not match the realism of games like Red Orchestra or Arma II, but it is a big change from more run and gun games like Unreal Tournament 3 and the aforementioned Team Fortress 2.

There is no place for madmen charging around corners expecting to use your trusty flamethrower to burn the first thing that moves. Rather this is about slowly edging around the corner with your iron sights held in shaking hands to your eyes. You peak around the corner but before you know what hit you you are dead with the retort of the sniper rifle still ringing in your ears. Then a big ‘Nemesis’ logo appears on the scoreboard. Damn that sniper!

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Day of Defeat is a serious war game and it feels like one, I found myself playing on a quiet server at one point over these past few days yet despite there being just a handful of players in game the sounds of war could be heard at all times. Whether it is the shouts of ‘Point Secure’ or the rattle of a machine gun in the distance they combine to create an atmosphere unmatched by other games, everything sounds and feels real. It can be the sound of the Kar98k firing or a grenade momentarily dazing you as the scenary flies around, everything works to make you feel that much closer to the action.

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It is just a shame that support for this game seems to have died off, there are only a handful of official maps in the game and there are numerous bugs that have emerged since the game was moved onto the Orange Box Engine, fortunately Day of Defeat still plays very well and there is still quite an active community. It is a nice feeling to go back through some of the older Valve games and give them a play again, the newer games have taken the spotlight in recent years but games like Day of Defeat Source are still worth checking out.

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