Call of Duty 3 Review

This is the entry where the annual schedule became visible from orbit. Treyarch took over so that Infinity Ward could build something bigger, got roughly twelve months, and shipped a Falaise Gap campaign that is perfectly competent and almost entirely forgettable. The good ideas are real. Hand-to-hand struggles interrupt firefights with a button-mashing scramble that at least tries to make close quarters feel dangerous, the vehicle and demolition missions vary the rhythm, and the Polish and French resistance viewpoints give the war a wider cast than the usual two armies.

But the shooting feels heavier and less precise than the previous year, the scripting leans harder on invisible triggers that stall the level until you walk to exactly the right spot, and the whole thing arrives without a single signature sequence to remember it by. It was also the last entry before the series left the Second World War for a decade, which is the kindest thing history can say about it. Solid, professional, and completely lapped by what shipped twelve months later.