The expected remake of Day of Defeat is born without a soul and without the ability to re-ignite the call of that genre
In the mid-2000s we lived a real golden age of the "shooter" centered on World War II. In 2005 we enjoyed a title that, leaving technical aspects aside, can still be enjoyed as one of the best multiplayer that have been launched with this theme; Call of Duty 2. A title that changed many standards of the genre, which are still maintained today, and that was copied to the absurd by the other franchises. Some of them did seek to differentiate themselves with greater realism in terms of the effectiveness and operation of weapons, highlighting the classic Medal of Honor, Red Orchestra and a real ball, like almost all of Valve, entitled Day of Defeat. Fifteen years later we attended the recreation of those games, especially this Valve title, from which this Days of War emulates until the title. And it is that the easiest way to define the game that we analyze today is as a "remake" of that successful Day of Defeat Source of 2005. Unfortunately trying to make the same game does not mean obtaining the same success.
So, installing this Days of War, by the independent Driven Arts, is an invitation to return to that time where we camped for Normandy and Stalingrad as if it were the living room of our house. Times where we knew how to differentiate a Garand rifle from a Mosin Nagant or a MG from a Bren and where the kinematics taught us more than the history books about the capture of Caen or the offensive of the Kursk. Unfortunately – for Driven Arts – those times have changed and our tastes and demands too.
But, almost as dispensable as it may seem, we must begin by describing what the offer of this Days of War consists of. Two teams of up to 16 players fighting to take and maintain flags located on an urban map, more or less symmetrical, and whose control means victory in the round. The two teams will have to choose between four armies; German, American, Russian and British and, in turn, between six specialties, rifleman, support, assault, machine gunner, sniper and anti-tank. The exact formula of Day of Defeat.
Each of these nationalities and specialties will have a main weapon accordingly. Riflemen and snipers will have rifles, usually bolt, with a very low firing rate, but with the advantage of being very precise and almost always lethal to the first shot. Assault, support and machine gunners will have automatic weapons in which the highest rate of fire and damage is compensated by greater recoil and dispersion of impacts.
These classes are the most demanded, because of their effectiveness, oscillating between small MP40 submachine guns, ineffective at medium and long distance, but with enough firing rate and damage to end an enemy of a burst, and heavy machine guns that are only manageable in the lying position, in the typical camping campground that causes so much controversy among the players.
Now, for controversy, the one that proposes a sniper class on some maps where close confrontation is almost obligatory and, above all, the existence of anti-tank soldiers, armed with their Panzerfaust and M1 rocket launchers, in a game where there are no vehicles.
Unlike the classics, the new Driven Arts title adds the possibility of ascending in rank through experience and this gives the possibility of unlocking new weapons. The creation of "ranked" servers and global classifications is also planned.
Saving these doubts, once we enter into action, we enjoy the first rapid shootings, with an interesting challenge to find our favorite weapon attending to the distances and situations of the maps and our greater inclination towards the precise shot or towards the always assisted technique of the sprayed with bullets. It is gratifying to get kills with a single shot and the respawn of all the fallen every twenty seconds that keeps the action.
And it is over. It is hard to find, however much love you take the gender and love the theme of the Second World War, that distinguishing feature that allows us to devote our increasingly scarce leisure time to this Days of War. From the minute one becomes a rehash of situations, more or less forced, directly emulated from other shooters. That does not necessarily have to be bad. Yes, it is that it does not contribute absolutely anything different, nor does it improve any of its mechanics, nor technically, nor does it even catch us with its playability, even covering our eyes and trying to obviate its many deficiencies.
Because while it is difficult to find that differentiating element that attracts our gaze towards this title, there are many who do not feel like staying in it. The first is the performance of weapons. The aforementioned machine gunner, sniper and anti-tank are an almost obligatory addition if we want to be that longed for Call of Duty II, but they have no space in this title. In this way, the choice is limited to riflemen and assault, where the aiming mechanics are not at all effective, and which are subject to artificial balancing based on increasing the dispersion of the impacts of the automatic ones to avoid absurdity to prevent everyone from playing. With the same class.
On the other hand there are maps and objectives to conquer. Visually, we have long since abandoned the premise that we must aspire to maximum graphic quality to be considered a good game. The appearance of the title scenarios are correct, Unreal Engine 4, although very from the past decade. This should not be a problem either. If it is, on the contrary, the design of the spaces, with obvious failures that reduce fluidity to the routes, with dead ends, invisible walls in seemingly salvageable obstacles that are not, and too many spaces on the map totally expendable, in which nothing ever happens, nor anyone.
All the stages repeat the same structure, with a central flag on which practically all the action is centered, and two flags on each side of the front, close to the point of "respawn" and, therefore, very easily defendable.
To this we must add that today we have a logical disappointment to see how our bullet impacts leave the same damage in a wall, than in a wooden box, than in a glass. And already set to crave certain minimums required today, we could talk about the textures, the modeling of the characters, their animations, the detail of their faces, weapons, uniforms … In this regard we can not even highlight a historical fidelity, in the case of identical modeling , impersonal, with just references to uniformity and real armament. Nor is rigor maintained in the effectiveness of weapons, appearance, cadence or even the capacity of their shippers. Other situations become unfortunate, such as the dispersion and sudden disappearance of the effects of smoke grenades. There are too many things that we should not look to avoid concluding that we are facing a mediocre title.
On the other hand, we love indie studies. Especially those who dare to defy logic and present themselves to a fight with their bare hands and a lot of will, when the heaviest weapons are needed to survive there. Thus, we try to ignore what we have seen so far and we decided to turn to the game itself, to focus on its true sense of being, which is to have fun. And there comes the lace.
The game is exclusively multiplayer. Yes, it has an “off line” mode that allows us to face “bots”, but these have such absurd behavior that they lose all their meaning. The problem? That from Driven Arts they have foreseen the problems that such a game suffers when it does not have enough players, so the decision taken is to complete the teams in the multiplayer games with those same bots, until they reach eight players per team.
This "solution" ceases to be and becomes a problem. We saw it last year with the equally warlike title Tannenberg. Completing teams with bots means we cannot maintain the same level in combat. We lower our attention after killing stupid bots and when a real player arrives, who is no different from those, he easily eliminates us. Not to mention the feeling of seeing a "partner" walking crouched next to the "respawn", when all the action is at the other end of the map. Mixing bots and humans is a mistake and we won't get tired of repeating it.
And to delve further into the wound of the number of players, already in the first days after the launch too many problems are seen to fill games. Too many bots, dedicated servers that do not exist … Bad omens for those who do not find absolutely that allow the comeback and subsistence of this Days of War. We look again for examples and remember the recent 1944 Battalion, 2019. It is a game with more and better arguments than this Days of War. He was eagerly picked up by the community and had his good numbers on Steam, to pass agonizing for lack of players in a matter of days. So, no matter how much clemency we want to grant this title, the market is so cruel, so volatile and so short-lived that we cannot be more than pessimistic about its destiny.
At the time of its launch, the title has twelve scenarios, varied in appearance, although not in its configuration, and another four are planned. It also plans to incorporate other game modes, such as assault, recalling for the umpteenth time the landing at Omaha Beach. These modes and maps promise to breathe life into a title that really needs all the help possible to survive.
Unfortunately, as much as it hurts to check, at the time of closing this Reviews, in the first week of the launch, a Sunday morning, we added a total of thirty-one players among all available servers. Yes … maybe we should have started this Reviews out there and we could have saved everything else.
CONCLUSION
We are not facing a bad game. At another time we would have enjoyed it. The problem is that today there is no room for him. The boldness of this small studio is admirable when launching a title on a plot as threshed and overexploited as that of the WWII shotters. We can never ensure that it is "all invented", let alone in a market as dynamic as videogames. But in this genre there are principles so well established and polished throughout three decades of play, it is too bold to look for your part of the cake from your small independent studio. But it stops being bold and becomes suicidal, when your proposal does not contribute absolutely anything about those previous classics. Nothing. Not only do you not improve them, something perhaps too difficult, you also don't want to introduce any differentiating element. In this way your proposal stays in a simple want and not being able, in a sketch that tries to emulate what you admire. Meanwhile, we, as players, will not find sense to devote a single minute to a title that is surpassed in all its aspects by previous alternatives.
THE BEST
- It has the comforting heat of nostalgia.
- It allows you to edit your own maps and configure private servers.
- You will receive new maps and game modes.
WORST
- It lacks a soul, it brings absolutely nothing on the dozens of similar games.
- Technically mediocre.
- The bots further ruin the gaming experience.
