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| | Title:
Call of Duty 2
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System:
Xbox 360
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Genre:
First Person Shooter
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Publisher:
Activision
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Developer:
Infinity Ward
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Release:
11/22/05
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Teen (T)
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War is hell. Guns are fired, men are killed, and countries are broken or saved. Truly recreating the experience of a lone solider fighting for an ideal is something few companies in the videogame industry have achieved. The Medal of Honor franchise, for a long period of time, held this title, mostly thanks to their gruesome, true-to-life recreation of Omaha Beach on D-Day. No game has been able to pull off such a feeling of insignificance until now. Enter the Xbox 360 and Call of Duty 2. The direct sequel to Call of Duty for the PC and a port from the PC, Call of Duty 2 is one of the few games Xbox 360 owners must have in their library. To say it is intense is like saying a Ferrari is fast; it is a gross understatement. Activision has pulled together all of its creative minds and created a wonderful evolution of the series that soundly tromps on any fame the Medal of Honor series still had. Oh yeah, and Call of Duty 2 has its own D-Day level. Excited? You should be.
Not so next-gen
As with any 360 game the first question is graphics, graphics, graphics. So to not disappoint we’ll get right down to it. Call of Duty 2 is a great looking game. However, it does not stand up against the eye candy of Perfect Dark Zero or Project Gotham Racing 3. Fans have to realize that COD2 is a port from the PC realm and thus will look more like a transition state from current-gen to next-gen. What is amazing is how smoothly the game runs. It doesn’t even make the 360 sweat. Not once is there a drop in frame rate, no matter how many enemies are on the screen. To give a comparison, I downloaded the PC demo a few months back and even with my powerful computer I was unable to play it at optimal level. Seeing the game in fluid motion is a thing of beauty. The most impressive aspect of the graphics package is the particle effects. The heavy snow and amazing smoke effects will get some gamers killed as they stand and just gaze upon its beauty. Don’t let the idea of not-so-next-gen graphics drive you away from this game. You’d be missing out on one heck of an experience.
First stop Russia, then Africa, and finally...Normandy
Like it’s older brother, Call of Duty 2 is separated into three different campaigns, each one focusing on a different country’s experience in the war. The order has been switched around, though, making the Russian missions first and American ones last. It adds a little drive aspect since most will want to play as Americans most of all. Each campaign is unique in location, objectives, and pacing. The Russian missions are slower, focusing on building-to-building, close-combat fighting while the British missions focus more on vehicular warfare (including two whole missions where a tank is driven). The American missions are really a combination of the Russian and British missions and offer up the best experiences out of the three. Gamers will find themselves playing the American missions over and over. Some of them even place the player in situations where they are not currently winning the battle. It’s a change from the constant Nazi butt-kicking we are used to, but a welcome change. Some old faces from Call of Duty find their way into Call of Duty 2 and it creates a nice blending of the two games. Something the Call of Duty franchise suffers from is lack of emotional attachment and story for the gamer. The hopping from one front to the next doesn’t let us really get attached to any one squad, seeing some of the faces from Call of Duty help with this problem. Still, in the future a storyline would be nice.
Goodbye health packs
Where the biggest improvements and evolutions of the Call of Duty series have occurred is in the gameplay mechanics. The biggest and most welcome change to the gameplay is the new way the player’s health is handled. In previous Call of Duty games, a bar represented the player’s health. Health packs were the only way the player could refill this bar. Depending on what difficulty you were playing, the health packs were not as effective, not as numerous, or both. Call of Duty does away with the health bar and health packs system entirely. Instead, Call of Duty 2 features a health system very similar to Halo’s. This isn’t a bad thing. How it works is the player can take a certain amount of damage within a certain amount of time. Take too many shots at once and a red ring that resembles the veins of your eyes forms. Take one or two shots after that and you're dead. If the player takes cover, though, his health will regenerate. While this does take away from the realism factor (which is a negative), it does something great for the game: make it more accessible and user-friendly. Gone are the days of, “one mistake and you’re done,” moments that plagued the original Call of Duty. Now players can make a mistake and learn from it. This also makes the hardest difficulty of Veteran a realistic task. Now some may say this makes the game easier and, in a way, it does. But what it also does is separate the novices from the pros. Halo 2 has a similar health system but the difference between a pro of the single player and a novice are quite evident. The same applies to Call of Duty 2.
No, you go first
Accompanying the new health system is the impressive A.I. found in Call of Duty 2. Honestly, these are the smartest enemies I’ve played against since Halo 2. The Germans are damn smart even on the easiest difficulty. No matter where the player is, the Germans are reacting to your movement. They will lay down suppressive fire to allow their comrades to shift positions, charge your position when they know you are reloading, and can chuck grenades right in front of you. Every single German that is taken out feels like an accomplishment and is one of the huge driving forces behind the game. Is there anything more satisfying than mowing down hordes of Nazis? Not really. Luckily, the player’s comrades will help out immensely. Unlike Halo 2, the people on your side actually contribute to the war. No more dumb A.I. to take bullets. Working with your squad is the only way to get through missions. Many times they will save a player’s butt from an unseen Nazi who has snuck up behind the player. Don’t ignore your squad; use them to your advantage. The only thing wrong with the friendly A.I. is their progression behavior. You, the player, have to physically move up before your squad will. What this creates is a lot of moments where the player must pull off a huge push forward at the risk of getting shot to pieces. It is a little unrealistic, but luckily because of the new health system doesn’t steal away from the experience too much.
The best part of every Call of Duty title is the sound. Call of Duty 2 is no different. If there ever was an excuse to go out and buy a surround sound system for a game, this is the one. It just sounds so amazing, especially when it is blasting out sound coming from an intense battle. The combination of explosions, bullets flying past a player’s head, guns being fired, and your comrades’ yelling has to be heard to be appreciated. The sound in Call of Duty 2 also plays a very vital role in combating the Nazis. Your squad will call of not only the location of the Nazis, but also what they are doing and if there is any immediate danger you should be aware of. Pay attention to them.
Online
Originally, Call of Duty 2 was supposed to have more than sixteen players for online games. In the end though, Xbox 360 owners just got eight, which has left some players upset. The effect of having only eight players in online matches isn’t that bad though. It creates a slower paced cat and mouse shooter, which contrasts perfectly with crazy Perfect Dark Zero multiplayer. Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are some of the typical gametypes found, as well as some unique to Call of Duty, like Headquarters. There is though one very bad aspect to the Call of Duty 2 online experience; lag. Yes, there is lag in Call of Duty 2 and it is quite bad, so bad that the game becomes unplayable at times. Hopefully, this will be fixed with some sort of patch or update, and soon.
Overall
Call of Duty 2 is a game everyone who has an Xbox 360 should own. It not only offers the best A.I. to be found on the 360, but the most realistic war recreation to date. Don’t let the not so next-gen graphics and laggy online (which will probably be fixed) push you away. You’d be doing yourself a disservice. Suit up solider!
| The Core Score |
Overall
9.5 |
| Fun |
|
10 |
| Gameplay |
|
9.5 |
| Graphics |
|
8.5 |
| Audio |
|
10 |
| Replay |
|
9 |
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