Speaking of history, there were some other minor faults I ran across while playing this game. I mention these as extra information, and not to be overly critical of the game itself. Some of them were just a bit surprising, although I realize that design considerations probably superseded historical fact in many cases. First, the initial Moscow mission features a member of the 13th Guards Rifle Division (famous for its action in Stalingrad); the mission takes place in 1941, before the division even existed. In the D-Day mission, a Sherman tank is incorrectly called a "DD" which refers to the floating tanks used by the allies during the invasion; the real DD tanks would look like they have skirts surrounding them to make them float. The Sherman tank shown in the D-Day mission also has a "plow" on the front which was used to cut through the hedgerows of Normandy. However, these "Rhino" tank conversions weren’t created until a month AFTER D-Day, when the fighting moved inland from the beaches. Finally, the sound guys took one of their catch phrases directly from Saving Private Ryan, from the scene where they surprise the Germans in the town, enter a standoff, and then kill them from above and below. The phrases "clear up" and "clear down" were shouted by the two American units, meaning neither team could see any opposition from the top or the bottom. In the game, we only hear "clear down" over and over. Saying a simple "all clear" would make more sense in most situations.
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| The smoke effects are absolutely incredible in this game. |
Tiger hunting is a dangerous sport – but a necessary one. |
Despite these few faults, the historical gameplay is really pretty good. The squad moves to support you, although there are no tactics per se which you can control. They generally hold when you hold, and advance when you advance. Very rarely they will do strange things like walk out a door into a furious crossfire, but normally they will use cover quite well to pick off the "Jerries" and provide cover fire for you. In that regard, the game could be considered "squad tactics lite" since you really focus more on keeping your own head down rather than helping your mates along. On the other side, the Germans behave in similar ways, with squads often seen running into battle, using the same run, duck and shoot tactics as your men use. When the firefights heat up, the action really gets intense – and I was glad I only had to worry about myself instead of a whole gaggle of AI players. With the swirl of smoke, the concussion of grenades, and the realism of this engine, there were several times I felt like I was actually IN Saving Private Ryan. That is high praise for gameplay realism.
Graphics/Sound:
Rather than depend on the venerable Quake III engine used in Call of Duty, Infinity Ward created their own graphics package for this game – and the result suggests they made the proper call. My Radeon 9800 Pro was taxed pretty hard, even at minimal settings, but the smoke, snow, rain and dust effects were all still fantastic. I could go sit in a quiet corner of Stalingrad and marvel at the quiet tranquility of the snow falling around me (at least until my squad leader came to chew me a new one!). The texturing of buildings and interiors were so well done I always felt like I was in the world, rather than sitting outside looking at a poorly drawn simulation.
The sounds were quite good overall. The voice acting was good, as were the individual orders and cries of the soldiers during battle. Using a new context-sensitive positioning system, your squad mates would often call out locations of the enemy soldiers ("sniper, second story, red farm house") giving you clues where to shoot. I had mixed feelings about this feature because often it was just too much information. Every 10 seconds I’d hear about new enemy soldiers and where I could find them. Often I would just have to ignore them. At the same time, soldiers on both sides would repeat the same one-liners over and over – allies proclaiming they were sending the Krauts to hell, Germans screaming that the Tommy’s were coming, or my squad mates constantly telling me to cover them while they reloaded. On the one hand it made the battles seem more realistic and chaotic, but on the other it made me wonder why they couldn’t have done more voice acting to add in 40 or 50 different battle cries for both sides. A minor gripe perhaps, but one worth mentioning because it was one of the few things that pulled me out of the virtual world.
Otherwise, the sounds of battle are very similar to what you heard in the first game.
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| The Battle for Hill 400. An exciting mission – and a real event. |
Pardon me friend, but might I ask you not to jump out in front of my gun barrel? |
Conclusion:
I finished the single player campaign game on a Friday night. The very next day I was watching the History Channel, and on popped a program about the Battle for Hill 400 – one of the battles featured in COD2! They explained events almost exactly as I had just experienced them the night before, adding a further layer of credibility and authenticity to this title. Most of my criticisms here are superficial and related specifically to historical accuracy (thus I knocked a few points off the gameplay score) – which will probably only be noticed by a few pedantics such as myself. They mostly got this one right, especially where it counted – in exciting gameplay. I found the missions interesting and creative and I was hoping the fighting would never end… Luckily I can continue the war in the excellent multiplayer, which duplicates and builds upon the success of the previous game.
Finally, here is one game which delivers on creating a realistic, interactive environment which also comes with a believable story, interesting characters, and dynamic and colorful locations. I’m not sure I could summon higher praise for a game from this genre. More of an evolution than a revolution, Call of Duty 2 is immensely fun to play while also providing some historical depth, rather than a dumbed down shooting gallery. In my opinion you can’t go wrong picking up this title from amongst the crowded holiday releases this year. I will definitely be playing this one throughout the cold Russian winter.
Armchair General Score: 92%
35/40 — Gameplay
14/15 — Graphics
08/10 — Sound
15/15 — Interface
05/05 — Installation and Technical
05/05 — Documentation
10/10 — General’s Rating
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the review is TOO positive…