Call of Duty 3

Treyarch

images c/o MobyGames (PlayStation 3)

Treyarch likes to tell stories. Just look at Black Ops, their Call of Duty subseries — they’ve been telling that one since 2009. It probably goes back to Xatrix Entertainment’s 1999 cult hit Kingpin: Life of Crime, which had somewhat more of an in-depth story than was typical for a late-90s ultraviolent shooter; Xatrix later became Gray Matter Studios, and Gray Matter Studios later became part of Treyarch. Not for nothing, Gray Matter developed Return to Castle Wolfenstein, the engine for which served as the basis for the original Call of Duty’s… which brings us full circle, to Call of Duty 3, a mainline, numbered title in one of the most iconic shooter franchises ever made — that was almost completely forgotten upon release.

It’s hard to say exactly what led to Call of Duty 3’s demise. It seemed doomed almost from the start: it was the first mainline title not developed by Infinity Ward, who had developed the first two games, both of which were critically acclaimed and the second was a launch title for the Xbox 360; Call of Duty 3, meanwhile, was on five platforms and the PC was none of them. It was also the first, and to my knowledge the only World War II shooter ever to do this, to focus entirely on a single battle: the battle of the Falaise Pocket, the encirclement of German forces in the last phase of the invasion of Normandy before the liberation of Paris — this didn’t go over well with fans of the previous games who liked the wide-ranging experience of seeing the war from multiple fronts. The multiplayer also didn’t go over well — with the addition of vehicles and player classes it felt more like Battlefield, but the sentiment seemed to be that if you wanted to play Battlefield, just go play Battlefield, which was a lot better at being Battlefield.

PlayStation 3

There’s also the fact that Call of Duty 3 was one of the very last of the “traditional” World War II shooters in the initial post-Medal of Honor craze, as the genre had reached peak market saturation and audiences were ready for something new. Just look at that box art: it’s as retro as it gets. Compare it with the box arts for later World War II games in the series — the newer covers are grittier, more modern, the older ones are straight off a dozen pulp war novels from the Fifties and Sixties. More, there’s a lot to it that just feels retro: you’ve got your classic Military Channel-style narration complete with stock footage, you’ve got a UI and aesthetic straight out of Call of Duty 2, you’ve even got veteran interviews you can watch in the bonus menu, something I’m not sure any other Call of Duty game has ever done — it was always more of a Medal of Honor thing. All else considered equal, Call of Duty 3 was in many ways behind the times.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I like the older games; the original Call of Duty and its expansion pack United Offensive (also by Treyarch!) are deeply nostalgic for me; the obscure Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (again by Treyarch!) for PlayStation 2 and its sister consoles ranks among my favorite World War II shooters ever. Call of Duty 3’s problem isn’t that it’s a throwback, but that it’s a classic Treyarch game from the era: ambitious, but janky. I played it on PlayStation 3, and I saw everything from broken scripts to broken ragdolls to broken animations to braindead AI. While it doesn’t even begin to approach Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault in terms of sheer unplayability, it’s still weird, spiky and unpolished, despite having new features like driveable vehicles (with a blessed third person option — I hate first person driving!) Sometimes the background audio just cuts out — especially when going through the minigame where you have to plant explosives, which you have to do repeatedly.

Probably one of the more ill-conceived ideas was the QTE sequences. Here called “close quarter battles,” they’re brief moments where you must fight a German soldier hand-to-hand, usually by mashing the shoulder buttons then hitting the appropriate face button at the right time. The PlayStation 3 version also has “tilt” controls, which have you tilting the Sixaxis controller both for melee and for these quick-time events — thankfully, you can turn this off, because it’s absolutely infuriating how inconsistent it was. The whole thing is honestly a chore, dragging the gameplay to a halt. Apparently the Wii version has you swinging the nunchuck too. Good gravy.

Xbox 360

QTEs and vehicles aside, there’s not a lot to distinguish this from Call of Duty 2, but we can see the early approach to more in-depth storytelling that defines Treyarch’s Call of Duty games. The early Call of Duty games tended to be light on story, even by action movie standards — characterization is generally sacrificed for reenactment. Call of Duty 3 instead ties four stories together into a single narrative, with some genuine tension between characters amidst the worst of the fighting: distrust between the SAS and French resistance; a Quebecois officer treating a young radioman like dirt for perceived cowardice, ultimately leading to the latter’s death in a foolhardy effort to prove himself; an American sergeant’s ineffectual leadership putting his squad in danger. It’s not a lot, but baby steps, right?

Ultimately, while I don’t think Call of Duty 3 is going to be topping most people’s best-of list when assessing the series (or World War II shooters in general), it’s still a shockingly underrated title that mostly seems to be a victim of bad timing. (Let’s be honest here: 2006 was a bad year for video games.) In spite of everything, it’s an important chapter in the story of Treyarch. Too bad about Black Ops 7.

 

-June <3

Part of a series on Call of Duty 

Call of Duty	United Offensive	Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 3
Finest Hour	2: Big Red One	Roads to Victory
4: Modern Warfare	Modern Warfare 2	Modern Warfare 3
Modern Warfare DS	Modern Warfare Mobilized	Modern Warfare 3: Defiance
Modern Warfare 2019	Modern Warfare II	Modern Warfare III
Warzone
World At War	WaW: Final Fronts	World At War DS
Black Ops	Black Ops DS	Black Ops: Declassified
Black Ops II	Black Ops III	Black Ops IIII
Black Ops: Cold War	Black Ops 6	Black Ops 7
Ghosts	Advanced Warfare	Infinite Warfare
WWII	Vanguard	???
Zombies