The Final Assault...
So Call Of Duty 2 is a bit of a mixed bag… We got the classic Call Of Duty gameplay which is superbly enjoyable with some great squad play and a much more frantic, desperate feel to the fighting. You’re ordered from one objective to the next with hardly any time to rest and the action is adrenaline pumping stuff. Graphically, Call Of Duty 2 looks great with far more detail in everything from the environment through to the soldiers, explosions and special effects… though it will make lower end systems beg for mercy.
Click for larger imageOn the downside, other than looking far, far better than its predecessors Call Of Duty 2 does little more than tread the ground already covered by previous games in the series. We’ve got the street fighting in Russia, the house to house fighting in France, the D-Day landings in Normandy… All missions that, though slightly different from the original game and its expansion pack, are essentially just re-hashes. The only new addition is the North African campaign, with the rather fun massed tank charges that typified Montgomery’s routing of Rommel, but even these were covered before in the Russian campaign in Call Of Duty.
Click for larger imageBut although much of the Call Of Duty 2 experience is a repeat of what has gone before, it does it all with a bit more sophistication and flair. The emphasis on the street to street and house to house fighting makes for a far grittier, grisly game and for once you’ll find yourself using the melee attack as you face the choice of having to reload as a German soldier steps out to fire or charge him and give him a good rifle battering before he can squeeze a shot off. The voice acting is much more realistic and would explain the 15 rating as pretty much every common expletive is used except that really rude one. So whilst Call Of Duty 2 is anything but original it is very enjoyable but only if you want more of the same and have the hardware to appreciate the fancy new looks.
Pros
Looks superb
Loads of ‘up close and personal’ combat
Fast and frantic scripting
Great in game dialogue
Immensely playable
Cons
Not much actually new
Rubbish health system
Pretty much re-covers the previous games missions
Linear, funnelled feeling to the actual missions
Way too easy on the lower difficulty levels
It’s an updated Call Of Duty… perhaps ‘Call Of Duty: Developers Cut’ would’ve been a better title?
Call Of Duty 2 was reviewed on the HEXUS.gaming Test Rig.
