Call of Duty 2
Posted December 10, 2005
Built on the gangbuster success of the original Call of Duty, Infinity Ward has taken an evolutionary step in developing their new war masterpiece, Call of Duty 2. While the World War II genre is increasingly becoming more crowded, Call of Duty 2 rests at the top of the pile. It's important to note that the sequel almost feels like an extension of the previous game, with a few added features and a graphical face-lift. 
The presentation is nearly identical to the original shooter with rousing theme music and dated war footage with a documentary feel between levels. As a reversal of the previous game, you begin as a Russian foot soldier in Moscow and Stalingrad, progress to the British campaign in North Africa and France, and finish with the American assault on the cliffs of Normandy, Pointe du Hoc. Also, finishing the first level of a new campaign will unlock the start of the following campaign. Opening up the single player game in this manner provides more freedom for the player to choose which campaign to play through first.
Gameplay:
While the scripted nature the Call of Duty series hasn't changed, it has certainly been improved upon. There are many momentous sections of the game that immerse the player in a war-frenzied state of joy. In instance, one portion of the Russian campaign sends the player through the pipelines over an abandoned, war-torn train yard similar to the scenes from the movie, Enemy at the Gates. Another moment occurred when scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc to assault waiting German forces. These visceral climaxes are essentially what makes Call of Duty 2 such a marvelous undertaking.
The levels are designed to take advantage of the scripted nature of the game as well. As you progress through the level, chokepoints are set up along the way to allow for short, epic battles. They never seem forced upon the player and come in handy as a nice place to quicksave before the next battle. The war flows fluidly if the player continues to push forward through the level. Also, each level is an accurate depiction of the battlefields as they were many years ago. You will find vast sections of rubble to use as cover for enemy fire and grenades.
The AI seems to have been overhauled for the better in this rendition of Call of Duty. Your teammates are able to hold their own with their weapon of choice and are quite handy with grenades. They immediately take cover at each chokepoint and wait for you to lead the charge. Sadly, they don't have much sense when it comes to fleeing from enemy grenades. I've seen my teammates squat down beside one and get blown to bits as well as picking one up to throw it back a bit too late. That bring said, the game supplies a nearly endless amount of teammates, so you won't be in trouble if you loss a few along the way.
The enemy AI is what I'd like to call, grenade-happy. They love to toss those suckers in your direction while you take cover behind any object. Many times, the player will be surrounded by 2 or 3 grenades and have little chance of escaping the blast. Fortunately, there are directional markers to tell you where the grenade is located. Occasionally, the enemies just like to ram the player in the head with the butt of their weapon if they get too close. A couple smacks with the end of a rifle and you are down for the count. The enemy AI will swarm you relentlessly and find ways to rattle your focus.
Fortunately, there is a tool to avoid enemy fire completely by obscuring the view of the enemy. The smoke grenade is a new addition to the Call of Duty series, as well as a welcome one. After tossed, the grenade spews smoke out for about 5 seconds and gives you about 20 to 30 seconds of cover before the smoke clears. These are used most effectively to halt enemy MG42 or tank fire. Be careful with charging through the smoke, as the enemy soldiers will gang-melee the player quite rapidly.
If you do get in trouble with melee or enemy fire, the health system has been redesigned with one thing in mind, retreat. Having removed health packs, Infinity Ward removed the health meter and adopted a red threat system. If the screen starts to throb red, the player has to find cover and recoup himself or herself before hurtling back into battle. Just find a nice place to rest and hit the quicksave key before returning to the fight.
There are only a couple vehicles the game that the player gets to use or ride in. The British Lorry will be driven for you as you fend off the onslaught of enemy forces from the bed of the truck. Later in the British campaign, you get to control a Crusader Mark II tank to annihilate the German tank division of General Rommel in North Africa. On the opposite side, the player has to fend off various enemy vehicles such as tanks and half-tracks many times on foot throughout the game.
After you've finished the single player game, the multiplayer offers a nearly flawless version of the same multiplayer experience found in the original game. There are five modes available in Call of Duty 2: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Search and Destroy, and Headquarters. While these modes are all found in the previous game, the smoke grenade breaths new life into each type of multiplayer, especially the objective based modes. On a comparison note, the multiplayer in the PC version is vastly superior to the Xbox 360 version due to the simple inclusion of a menu system to specifically select the game room of your choice.
Graphics:
The graphical elements of the game are impressive if you have the right hardware. Visual effects, such as smoke from the smoke grenade, can extensively mar the game experience by making your system chug along at low FPS. In addition, large firefights with massive infantry numbers can send your rig into fits. Aside from the beefy requirements, the textures are distinctively polished and the mission landscapes are laid out in an accurate manner. Also, the bump mapping and lighting seem to have kept up with current FPS games. As a slight comparison to the Xbox 360 version, I found the shaders were used in a more realistic fashion in the PC version.
In the graphics menu, the game has a variety of tweaking options to get the best performance out of your system. Call of Duty 2 also has widescreen, 16:9 and 16:10, support for those wide-angle gamers. Be sure and update to the latest ATI or Nvidia drivers to get the optimal settings for your war driven experience.
Audio:
Identical to the original, the quality of the sound effects, voice-overs, and musical score is second to none. Every sound effect from the massive explosions down to the smoke grenade pop/fiss is an audible delight. Those with 5.1 surround systems will hear every bullet whizzing around your ears. The speech from your teammates during the battle is always appropriate and quite believable. The voice-overs for the war films in between each level are very authoritative as well. The musical score usually kicks in the most dramatic moments and adds a stirring patriotic element to the game.
Conclusion:
If played on the standard level of difficulty, you will blow through the 10 missions of the single player game in about 10 to 12 hours. I recommend starting on the Hardened difficulty to extend your game experience out to 15 to 20 hours. The polished multiplayer game will lengthen your playtime at even greater volume. If you are a fan of the World War II genre or even just excellent FPS games, pick up Call of Duty 2 as soon as humanly possible. The compelling single player offensive and the bug free multiplayer addition make Call of Duty 2 worth the full retail price of $49.99.
The presentation is nearly identical to the original shooter with rousing theme music and dated war footage with a documentary feel between levels. As a reversal of the previous game, you begin as a Russian foot soldier in Moscow and Stalingrad, progress to the British campaign in North Africa and France, and finish with the American assault on the cliffs of Normandy, Pointe du Hoc. Also, finishing the first level of a new campaign will unlock the start of the following campaign. Opening up the single player game in this manner provides more freedom for the player to choose which campaign to play through first.
Gameplay:
While the scripted nature the Call of Duty series hasn't changed, it has certainly been improved upon. There are many momentous sections of the game that immerse the player in a war-frenzied state of joy. In instance, one portion of the Russian campaign sends the player through the pipelines over an abandoned, war-torn train yard similar to the scenes from the movie, Enemy at the Gates. Another moment occurred when scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc to assault waiting German forces. These visceral climaxes are essentially what makes Call of Duty 2 such a marvelous undertaking.
The levels are designed to take advantage of the scripted nature of the game as well. As you progress through the level, chokepoints are set up along the way to allow for short, epic battles. They never seem forced upon the player and come in handy as a nice place to quicksave before the next battle. The war flows fluidly if the player continues to push forward through the level. Also, each level is an accurate depiction of the battlefields as they were many years ago. You will find vast sections of rubble to use as cover for enemy fire and grenades.
The AI seems to have been overhauled for the better in this rendition of Call of Duty. Your teammates are able to hold their own with their weapon of choice and are quite handy with grenades. They immediately take cover at each chokepoint and wait for you to lead the charge. Sadly, they don't have much sense when it comes to fleeing from enemy grenades. I've seen my teammates squat down beside one and get blown to bits as well as picking one up to throw it back a bit too late. That bring said, the game supplies a nearly endless amount of teammates, so you won't be in trouble if you loss a few along the way.
The enemy AI is what I'd like to call, grenade-happy. They love to toss those suckers in your direction while you take cover behind any object. Many times, the player will be surrounded by 2 or 3 grenades and have little chance of escaping the blast. Fortunately, there are directional markers to tell you where the grenade is located. Occasionally, the enemies just like to ram the player in the head with the butt of their weapon if they get too close. A couple smacks with the end of a rifle and you are down for the count. The enemy AI will swarm you relentlessly and find ways to rattle your focus.
Fortunately, there is a tool to avoid enemy fire completely by obscuring the view of the enemy. The smoke grenade is a new addition to the Call of Duty series, as well as a welcome one. After tossed, the grenade spews smoke out for about 5 seconds and gives you about 20 to 30 seconds of cover before the smoke clears. These are used most effectively to halt enemy MG42 or tank fire. Be careful with charging through the smoke, as the enemy soldiers will gang-melee the player quite rapidly.
If you do get in trouble with melee or enemy fire, the health system has been redesigned with one thing in mind, retreat. Having removed health packs, Infinity Ward removed the health meter and adopted a red threat system. If the screen starts to throb red, the player has to find cover and recoup himself or herself before hurtling back into battle. Just find a nice place to rest and hit the quicksave key before returning to the fight.
There are only a couple vehicles the game that the player gets to use or ride in. The British Lorry will be driven for you as you fend off the onslaught of enemy forces from the bed of the truck. Later in the British campaign, you get to control a Crusader Mark II tank to annihilate the German tank division of General Rommel in North Africa. On the opposite side, the player has to fend off various enemy vehicles such as tanks and half-tracks many times on foot throughout the game.
After you've finished the single player game, the multiplayer offers a nearly flawless version of the same multiplayer experience found in the original game. There are five modes available in Call of Duty 2: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Search and Destroy, and Headquarters. While these modes are all found in the previous game, the smoke grenade breaths new life into each type of multiplayer, especially the objective based modes. On a comparison note, the multiplayer in the PC version is vastly superior to the Xbox 360 version due to the simple inclusion of a menu system to specifically select the game room of your choice.
Graphics:
The graphical elements of the game are impressive if you have the right hardware. Visual effects, such as smoke from the smoke grenade, can extensively mar the game experience by making your system chug along at low FPS. In addition, large firefights with massive infantry numbers can send your rig into fits. Aside from the beefy requirements, the textures are distinctively polished and the mission landscapes are laid out in an accurate manner. Also, the bump mapping and lighting seem to have kept up with current FPS games. As a slight comparison to the Xbox 360 version, I found the shaders were used in a more realistic fashion in the PC version.
In the graphics menu, the game has a variety of tweaking options to get the best performance out of your system. Call of Duty 2 also has widescreen, 16:9 and 16:10, support for those wide-angle gamers. Be sure and update to the latest ATI or Nvidia drivers to get the optimal settings for your war driven experience.
Audio:
Identical to the original, the quality of the sound effects, voice-overs, and musical score is second to none. Every sound effect from the massive explosions down to the smoke grenade pop/fiss is an audible delight. Those with 5.1 surround systems will hear every bullet whizzing around your ears. The speech from your teammates during the battle is always appropriate and quite believable. The voice-overs for the war films in between each level are very authoritative as well. The musical score usually kicks in the most dramatic moments and adds a stirring patriotic element to the game.
Conclusion:
If played on the standard level of difficulty, you will blow through the 10 missions of the single player game in about 10 to 12 hours. I recommend starting on the Hardened difficulty to extend your game experience out to 15 to 20 hours. The polished multiplayer game will lengthen your playtime at even greater volume. If you are a fan of the World War II genre or even just excellent FPS games, pick up Call of Duty 2 as soon as humanly possible. The compelling single player offensive and the bug free multiplayer addition make Call of Duty 2 worth the full retail price of $49.99.