The game is not accommodating towards new players. "If Day on Infamy has a problem, it is that it fills its niche too well. Once I grew to understand this mechanic I started looking out for officers even when I wasn’t playing a radio operator, and set up behind or front of them in order to provide cover and security to that vital two man team. The result is a demand that players work together, that the radio operator shadow his or her officer, and that the officer read the battlefield and apply their awesome power appropriately. The catch is that officers must have a radio in proximity, which are only carried by the radio operator class. These are tremendously powerful abilities that can turn the tide of a game when used appropriately. Officers in Day of Infamy have a binocular set, and can call in air strikes, artillery barrages, and smoke screens for their team. Nowhere is this more felt than in the game’s officer and radio operator classes, which must work together to be effective. Because the consequences for dying are so steep, players work hard not to, and tactical gameplay that is a waste of time in faster moving shooters really shines in Day of Infamy. The one-bullet time-to-kill is another imposing factor on gameplay, that fundamentally shapes how the game functions. Respawning is one system within Day of Infamy that is emblematic of the design direction.
Regroup too often and the team will run out of spawn points, fail to regroup and you’ll find yourself alone on the objective, unable to retrieve assistance without ceding the point. On the other side, defensive respawns are earned by regrouping, a process where at least one defender must return to the very back to the map to trigger their team’s respawn, meaning that a defender must abandon their position to bring their team back. If your team is attacking, then your respawn will be earned upon capturing a point, meaning that the attacking team has a set pool with which to achieve the objective, and which is only replenished when they complete that objective. Instead of penalizing players with an excessive timer in order to make death in game consequential, Day of Infamy ties respawning to objectives.
When and why you do respawn is one Day of Infamy’s most interesting systems. "Instead of penalizing players with an excessive timer in order to make death in game consequential, Day of Infamy ties respawning to objectives." When you respawn you’ll have just as little information as you did in your last life, and you’ll have to carefully pick your way towards the objective, knowing that somewhere a sniper is waiting.
If and when you are killed, the game will give you very little information about where your enemy was shooting from, or how they did it. These two design choices make it a tense experience were even small mistakes can get you killed. Diving into this brutal game, players will find themselves in a very different world from that of triple-A shooters, though players of Verdun, or Red Orchestra will feel right at home.ĭay of Infamy distinguishes itself from better-known shooters by stripping the UI down to its bare minimum, and reducing the time-to-kill down to zero. When players enter into Day of Infamy, they’ll have access to nine player classes, ten maps, and ten modes.
Day of Infamy is a game that takes a narrow concept, to bring a tactical fps to the setting of the Second World War, and delivers on that concept expertly.