Day of Infamy shoots its way out of early access

“Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it infamy!” is one of the best jokes of all time. It is also what I screamed as I was repeatedly gunned down in World War II shooter Day of Infamy [official site] while playing the early access version.

Fans of murdering me from afar with a scoped rifle will rejoice that the game has just now busted out into a proper release, fully baked and ready to storm some beaches. You can see what kind of terrible conflict you can create in the trailer below.

I stand by that box quote at 0:32. Day of Infamy is the spiritual successor to the old Day of Defeat and is made by that crowd who did Insurgency. There’s no minimap, no radar, no killcams – just good old-fashioned WAR. The most fun thing about it is the radio-carrying support class of soldier. This guy has to run around with an officer and stay close to that player so he can call in artillery strikes on enemy positions or request smoke screens that allow Our Boys to charge the line. I had a lot of tense moments running from officer to officer across the battlefields with a radio on my back. Once I got to my commanding officer half-dead and with all of my equipment broken. It was not so much a close shave as it was a session of full-body laser hair removal.

It also looks like New World Interactive have added a bit since I played. There are now 10 maps and 9 player classes. Mod support is also a big thing for them and there's already a bunch of stuff in the Steam workshop. They also say you can “unlock historic units as you rank up”. These are special character models with “new uniforms, headgear, badges, and voices”. But we are reassured to see there’s no Golden Gun funny business. “Ranking up does not provide players with any gameplay advantages,” they say, “so gameplay balance will always remain purely skill-based.”

That itself might be a worry. If you’re anything like me, competing with the hordes of high-mouse-sensitivity warriors will be a challenge. Death comes quickly to the assaulter in this game. But survival through a storm of bullets, grenades and artillery offers a major hit of dat sweet videogame adrenaline. For fans of Red Orchestra and its ilk, I recommend it.