Call of Duty 3

Call of Duty 3 took players back to World War II, specifically to the battles for the liberation of France in the summer of 1944, told from the perspective of soldiers from several Allied armies — American, British, Canadian, and Polish. The game follows the structure of previous entries: linear missions interspersed with scripted moments, an emphasis on cinematic battle choreography, and switching perspectives between different characters. New to the series were contextual actions requiring quick button presses during close-quarters combat or vehicle sections, meant to add more dynamism to both infantry and vehicle passages.

On the Xbox 360, this was the entry in the series developed specifically for this console generation — development was handled by Treyarch, while Infinity Ward was at the time working on the modern Modern Warfare. The graphics engine delivered denser battlefields, a larger number of units on screen, and more impressive explosion and fire effects, though compared to later entries in the series the game still stuck to a fairly linear, corridor-based level design. The audio side relied on intense gunfire, shouting comrades, and orchestral music that gave period World War II titles their proper sense of gravity.

Reviews rated the title as solid but not a groundbreaking addition to the series — praising the variety of missions and vehicle sections, including riding a motorcycle and operating tanks, but criticizing the worn-out World War II theme, which by that point had appeared quite often in the genre and was starting to blur together across competing series in players' minds. Still, the multiplayer component attracted a decent player base on the Xbox 360 thanks to online combat over Xbox Live, where the game maintained its own community even after later sequels were released. From today's perspective, Call of Duty 3 is interesting mainly as a transitional point in the series between historical wars and the modern setting that would later be defined by Modern Warfare, and as a reminder of a time when World War II was still the main subject for shooters.

Why play it: For fans of the series, the game is interesting mainly as a transitional point between historical wars and the modern setting later defined by Modern Warfare, thanks to its varied missions and a decent multiplayer community on Xbox Live.