Call of Duty 2 - Game Review (PC)

Advanced Recon: This game is beautifully crafted to place the player into larger battles throughout the European Theatre of World War II , all the while making the journey very personal and often downright tense. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself with mouth agape as you look around at the beauty of the virtual world, forgetting you have a job to do!

As I lay on top of the grain silo in a war-torn crossroads town somewhere in Normandy, I can easily survey the entire countryside in all directions. Having just been given a sniper rifle, I am tasked with preventing German mortar crews from setting up and shelling my comrades in the town below. Immediately after settling into my perch, the assault begins…with German squads approaching from several directions simultaneously. The next few minutes are a blur of sighting, shooting, relocating, and shooting again. I am able to stop the mortar teams, but several of the enemy managed to infiltrate the town, and a few end up directly below my position. Leaning over, I pick my target far below… I steady my breathing to keep from swaying… and shoot his helmet clean off his head! Still alive, and quite lucky, he grabs some cover - leaving me to curse the fates and wonder how long it would take them to flush me out.

This small illustration of the detail and frantic fun found in Call of Duty 2 (Infinity Ward) is part of what sold me on this game. Rather than simply walking through many meaningless levels, blazing away at targets like some sort of amusement park ride, this game places you in the boots of various allied soldiers as they fight the Axis troops across Europe. There are no bosses, no uber-weapons, no hokey stories to suffer through. Just good clean history. What a relief!

Following up on the very successful original, Call of Duty 2 (COD2) returns to World War II Europe with new missions, new weapons, new vehicles, and of course new locations. Each mission is preceded by an interesting movie (courtesy of the Military Channel) describing the battle as it really happened, lending each an air of authenticity, and serving to immerse you into that era. Players are assigned dangerous missions in North Africa, Stalingrad, Moscow, Normandy and Germany. There are many untapped stories of this conflict, and thankfully some new ones are explored in COD2. With great anticipation, we head back into that maelstrom…

For those familiar with First Person Shooter (FPS) games in general, or the original COD in particular, you will feel right at home with COD2. But, just to be sure everyone is on board before getting thrown to the wolves, the first "mission" of the game is actually a well-crafted training exercise designed to get new fans quickly up to speed on how to aim, throw grenades, switch weapons, reload, etc. Even veterans should appreciate how well this is built into the story, and shows how easy it is to mesh a good story with good gameplay.

Technically speaking, this game just has a good "feel" in its layout, responsiveness, and presentation. The characters move well, they feel realistic in walking, turning, jumping, ducking, etc. On the whole, it is not much different than the original game (which is a great thing!). One of the biggest changes for COD2 is the damage model, which now includes a "critically injured" indicator (bright red blood splotches on the screen). When you are seriously injured you must get yourself out of the fighting for a few seconds until your health returns (this is often compared to Halo). While I was a little turned off by this at first (since at face value it is less than realistic), I soon realized that it actually kept me in the battle and thus in the action for more of the game. You still have to be careful to not get hit again while in this critical state or you will perish (this still happened quite often for me!). This is much better than walking around like Pac Man gobbling up health packs…or spending a good portion of your time getting patched up by a medic. In that sense, realism is set aside for enjoyment - a decision I came to appreciate.

You are only allowed to carry two primary weapons, rather than a whole arsenal. This is seldom a problem however, as you can usually find one submachine gun for close encounters and one semi-automatic rifle for medium and long range engagements. As always, there are plenty of weapons lying about after you capture enemy positions. A few new weapons have been added to the mix, such as the semi-automatic German Gewehr [rifle] 43 which was a personal favorite of mine (10 round clip, great accuracy and semi-auto fire made it a prize when fighting down long streets). You are also given smoke grenades, which are used to great effect to give cover to advancing troops (but boy do they make a mess in multiplayer!). The sniper rifle now has a "steady breathing" mode, allowing you much greater accuracy for a very short period of time. Imagine holding your breath to get perfect aim. A nice touch.


This Panzer II (left) is no match for the British Crusaders…one chink in the armor of this game.	The Normandy cut-scene looks like something out of Saving Private Ryan.

I found the tanks to be a bit of a disappointment. You only get to drive a tank once during the game, and while the tank battle was pretty fun, it got an F for realism. The military advisors for COD2 dropped the ball on this particular aspect, and should have known that the tiny Panzerkampfwagen II shown in several missions of the game was obsolete even before the war began (it essentially was armed with a large 20mm rifle, quite incapable of penetrating armor). To consider them as primary battle tanks was a major gaffe. The mission featuring the tank battle between the Crusader tanks of the allies and the Panzer II’s of the Germans would have seen the Germans completely slaughtered. A better selection would have been the Panzerkampfwagen IV which was much larger, more versatile, and was one of the mainstays of the German forces in all theatres of the European conflict throughout most of the war. A much more interesting fight would have been a group of 10-15 Allied Sherman tanks facing off against just ONE German Tiger tank (Panzerkampfwagen VI) since this actually happened in one engagement during the fighting in Normandy (can you believe the Tiger was the victor?). Tanks were such a major aspect of World War II, it is a mystery how they were done so poorly in an otherwise fantastic game.