Played on:
Windows
I know there are some of you out there who are so sick of World War 2-based FPS games that you're just reading this to see how bad I think Call of Duty 2 is. And in my review of the expansion pack to the first Call of Duty, I said that something needs to truly change in this sub-genre if developers want to keep selling WW2 games. What I didn't expect is for the guys at Infinity Ward to do exactly that. Call of Duty 2 takes all the stuff that made the first game unique and then built a dozen extremely entertaining yet challenging missions around it.
If you haven't played the first Call of Duty yet, I'll sum it up for you: it's a mix of action-oriented, yet squad-based combat in the European theater of World War 2. You play in three campaigns as separate soldiers on the Allied side of the war. But the biggest thing is that each of these soldiers comes from a different country - the USA, England, and Russia. And if I were to sum up its sequel, it'd be the exact same thing, but this time around, Infinity Ward has truly shown themselves to be masters of pacing, suspense, and visceral action. It's all delivered in a tight, excellently crafted package that will blow you away.
In fact, the first mission is probably my favorite of them all even if it's by just a hair. You'll start out as a Russian grunt going through a crash-course in being a soldier. Since you were literally drafted a couple of days previously, today might not be the best time for you to see combat, but too bad. After a quick training session, you're thrown right into battle in the defense of Moscow. Shortly afterwards, the Germans make a huge push, which you and your piddly band of teenaged soldiers will have to defend against. The game does a great job of showing that determination, and not any kind of real training, was the only thing keeping the Russian soldiers standing. The Germans' final charge, and your subsequent counterattack after you repel them, is absolutely beautiful. And what you do afterwards - well - it's good enough that I don't want to spoil it.
Call of Duty already covered the defense of Stalingrad, but the sequel puts you in the shoes of a different guy doing very different things during that battle. You'll go more on the offensive against troops that are more mobile and definitely smarter than seen in most WW2 games. In fact, while there are quite a few situations in CoD2 that will have you defending against massive numbers, you'll still be fighting against some of the most intelligent yet fun-to-fight enemies that I've seen yet. Yes, they'll flank you, go for cover, charge, and do all the stuff that you've come to expect out of a game like this. But the game uses moderation and keeps you entertained, allowing you go to a little Rambo now and then just for fun.
This point can't really be skipped over, either - this is the most actual fun I've had in a WW2 shooter since, well, ever. While some of those elements seen in the more realistic Brothers in Arms games (like suppressing the enemy troops before charging them, or sneaky flanks) are included, they're not absolutely necessary to win. You can choose how you want to do a fight, and your own aim isn't made by the game to be so bad that you constantly have to rely on your squadmates to win every single fight. There are still plenty of battles you can win on your own, as long as you are aware of enemy movements and plan accordingly. You'll also need some great aim, and unlike Brothers in Arms, your rifle won't wave around everywhere. Less realistic? Sure. More fun? Definitely.
A new gameplay element added to Call of Duty 2 is a health system that is almost like what we saw in Halo 2 - if you get hurt, just get to cover for a few seconds, and your character will get his breath back and be fully healed for the next fight. It sounds really goofy in a game like this, but this is another trade-off of realism for fun, and I found that it makes for a much more enjoyable game. Instead of health kits constantly sitting around or you scrambling to instantly heal a gunshot wound, your guy just heals up. And instead of loading your last save every time you get shot a few times, you can stay in-game and keep going.
And that right there's my favorite part - I'm one of those people that quicksaves constantly and if I get hit a bit too much, I'll load my game. CoD2 keeps me going and I won't continue to quickload, all thanks to the regenerating health. Sure, if you want that higher realism where you'll get killed in one or two shots, there are the higher difficulty levels you can fiddle with, and grenades will still do you in immediately if you are close enough when they go off.
Speaking of grenades, the other important addition is a "grenade indicator". Now, when enemies throw a grenade, you'll get a little icon near your crosshair that shows when one's close and what direction it's in relative to you. Again, this sounds like the game's been made too easy, but this makes grenades less of an occasional surprise and more of a constant tool that the enemy will use to flush you out of your cover. It changes the way grenades are used by the AI and is something relatively new in my opinion in first person shooters.
While these additions do make the game easier, Infinity Ward has countered this by making fights last longer and with more enemies for you to have to take out. The end result is that there's still plenty of challenge to be had here, even on Normal difficulty, but you'll spend more time thinking about in-game tactics and less on that next health kit or that damned F9 key.
