Call of Duty 3 puts players back into World War II, this time as British and American soldiers fighting across the Western Front. The game arrived on Xbox, PS3, Wii and X360 in 2006, and it tries to hold its own against the series’ earlier installments while adding new ground to cover. Some of that ground pays off. Some of it does not.
Trailer, via Gaming Ekt.
The British Campaign
The game splits its campaign between two sides, and the British campaign opens with a mission that sends players through a bombed-out German town. The mission leans on stealth and close combat, forcing players to move slowly and watch for enemy patrols. It is a sharp change from the open fire of the earlier games in the series.
The mission holds together well for about ten minutes. After that, it starts to feel less like a fresh idea and more like a trick dressed up as a lesson in patience. The pace slows to a crawl in places, and the town itself, once a clever setting, becomes a wall of brick to push through rather than a place to explore. Players who expected the same fast pace as the earlier games in the series may find themselves frustrated by the slow movement and constant watching for enemy patrols.
The American Campaign
The American campaign picks up after the British story ends, following a group of soldiers who land behind enemy lines. The missions here are faster and more direct, and they play closer to what players expect from the series. There is more running, more shooting, and fewer moments where the game asks players to stop and wait.
This balance is the clearest strength of Call of Duty 3. Where the British campaign pushes players toward caution, the American campaign lets them move at full speed. Together, the two campaigns give the game a shape that earlier entries in the series lacked.
The Multiplayer Mode
The multiplayer mode carries over the formula that made the series popular, letting players fight against each other in matches set across the Western Front. The mode adds a few new weapons and maps, but the core remains familiar to anyone who has played the earlier games.
“The core remains familiar to anyone who has played the earlier games.”
The mode does not break new ground. It does not need to. Players looking for a reason to keep playing beyond the campaign will find plenty of matches to join, and the online support is solid across all four platforms.
The Wii Version
The Wii version of Call of Duty 3 is worth noting separately. It trades the controller of the other versions for motion controls, letting players aim and move with the Wii Remote. The trade comes at a cost: the game runs at a lower frame rate than the other versions, and the aiming takes some getting used to.
The Wii version is not the best way to play Call of Duty 3, but it is a solid one. Players who own a Wii and want to see how the series handles motion controls will find the game works, even if it does not fully match the look or feel of the other versions.
The Look of the Game
Call of Duty 3 looks better than the games that came before it. The towns, forests and battlefields are detailed, and the lighting gives the game a sense of scale that earlier entries in the series lacked. The sound design is strong too, with gunfire, shouting and machine gun fire carrying weight in a way that smaller games in the genre often miss.
There are moments when the frame rate drops, especially during busy battles, and the game can look rough when there are too many soldiers on screen at once. These moments do not ruin the experience, but they do pull players out of the world the game worked so hard to build.
Where It Falls Short
The game’s length is its biggest problem. The campaigns are shorter than those of the games that came before it, and the pacing suffers because of it. Missions that should take twenty minutes often end in half that time, leaving players wishing for more depth rather than more action.
The British campaign, in particular, feels rushed near the end. Missions that started as clever ideas turn into quick fights with little build. This is a game that knows what it wants to do in its early hours but loses focus as it moves toward its ending. The pacing issue is not limited to one campaign; the game’s shorter length affects both the British and American stories, though the American campaign manages to stay more direct and satisfying even as it cuts scenes.
The Final Score
Call of Duty 3 is a solid entry in a series known for staying the same. It improves the look of the game, gives players two campaigns to follow, and builds on a multiplayer mode that already had a large audience. It falls short in length and pacing, and the British campaign loses focus near the end.
The game does not remake the series. It does not need to. What it does, it does well, and the parts that work are strong enough to carry the whole package.
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