D-Day (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 2.0 stars Mediocre
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 4.3 (2.0 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Scott Osborne
• Reviewed on: 01/18/2005
• Released on: 12/07/2004
• Originally published on GameSpot: D-Day (PC) Review

The Normandie Mémoire committee has designated Digital Reality's D-Day as the official commemorative game of the D-Day 60th anniversary. The men who gave their lives for freedom deserve a far better memorial than this lame real-time strategy game. There are already plenty of World War II RTS games out there, so if you're going to release one, you need to do something special to set yours apart from the rest. D-Day sets itself apart all right...by doing things especially badly. At best, D-Day offers up a tepid serving of cookie-cutter RTS gameplay. At worst, it makes you descend into micromanagement hell.

On first inspection, D-Day looks like it has the makings of a cool, tactical WWII RTS that eschews base-building and resource-gathering for the nuts and bolts of combat. You'll field nine types of infantry, like snipers, sappers, medics, and machine gunners. You'll head into battle with self-propelled guns, flamethrower tanks, recon motorcycles, artillery pieces that you can haul with trucks, and more. You can even commandeer enemy vehicles and guns. Armored units are rated for front, rear, and side armor, and they feature different stats for main and secondary guns. An onscreen encyclopedia fills you in on the historical units and their game counterparts. You can also read historical backgrounds on the missions and watch short videos that feature D-Day veterans.

D-Day also offers the basic amenities you'd expect from any good RTS. You can pan, tilt, and rotate the camera entirely with the mouse, so no fumbling with the keyboard is required. You can choose from a variety of game speeds, and you can issue orders while the game is paused. You can quickly select unit movements and combat stances, like "hold position" or "fire at will."

That's all good on paper, but once you start playing D-Day, the ugly reality starts to sink in. The tutorial gets things off to a pitiful start. Instead of actually showing you how the interface and commands work, the tutorial merely tells you how they work via a voice-over, where sections of the manual are read as you sit there and twiddle your thumbs. Why aren't the interface buttons and combat options highlighted and interactively illustrated as they're being discussed?

As for the actual meat of the game, it's undercooked and hard to swallow. You only get 12 single-player missions and no skirmish mode or random map options (though you do get a user-unfriendly map-editor utility). At best, the missions are predictable, repetitive, and tedious. At worst, they're unbalanced and unclear. Multiplayer offers three basic modes: deathmatch, conquer (that is, seize territory), and capture the flag. Good luck finding opponents, though. We never could.

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