Customer Reviews

Call of Duty 2

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

Call of Duty 2 makes no jump in the art of the WW2 first-person-shooter (FPS) but it is a refinement on the previous titles. If your system could play Call of Duty well you probably won't have any trouble with your hardware on this one. Graphics are better especially the smoke and the environments are the best yet in a WW2 title. Sound is outstanding for both sound-effects and voice. The human models are well done but not to the standard of Half-Life 2. AI is much improved as well.

The best new features are the missions and damage modeling. You are not tied to one path as much as in previous games. There are multiple routes and approaches to take to finish an objective although still not as free form as one would wish. One big change is that your damage/health is no longer displayed. You get red flashes and blurry vision when you are taking too many hits. Simply getting out of the line of fire for awhile will heal you. This is by far the best approach to damage/health in a FPS yet. It prevents you from being penalized for a bit of bad luck when in an area without medkits. It also eliminates the whole silly searching for medkit concept completely. If you take too many hits without a breather you will die but the game will restart at the last save. This whole approach keeps the game moving and overall has a much better feel to it. All FPS shooters should adopt this approach.

Perhaps the single best feature is that even if you do almost nothing the mission will progress. This works out very well on those few missions where you are either stuck or can't quite figure out what you have to do or, better yet, you just want to do something else. The missions are still heavily scripted which limits replay a bit but they are done in a more segmented way that allows for the mission flexibility. You can at least replay the game trying different approaches to the missions.

One minor downside to the game is the save system. You cannot make any manual saves. But the game does auto-save at key points and these are rarely a problem. Some are perhaps not quite where you would want to save but close enough. Again the system keeps you in the game and keeps things moving.

There are other issues as well: MG42s with endless ammo and no overheating. The tank missions are bit too fast moving; it is almost like flying fighters instead of tanks. Another annoyance is the three campaigns; you are forced to go in the order of Soviet, British, and American. There is also still no way to play the Germans. The game is very brief as well, maybe 20 hours or so to complete everything.

Overall while in makes no giant leaps for the genre it does make some solid advances and the overall quality makes it the best WW2 shooter yet. Anyone new to the genre will love it and veterans should appreciate it as well. The game even gives a refreshing twist on D-Day with Pointe Du Hoc missions. Recommended.

It's true that CoD2 is certainly not a revolution, it's exactly what you expect from this sequel, but it's just so good.
The graphic engine has obvioulsy been improved since the first CoD, and even though it doesn't exactly compete with HL2, FEAR or Quake4, it's still a feast for the eyes.
The sounds are amazing once again, it really contributes to the intensity of the whole thing. The commands are intuitive and there is now a little bit more freedom to wander around and find different approaches to solve problems.
I agree that Activision did definitely not take a huge risk with this game, it is more of the same, and it would be interesting to see developers innovate if they really want to make a WWII game.
But I think that in the end, it's how much you enjoy it that really matters. Some people love both Brothers in Arms games, because of it's "realism". Well, when you can't even climb a 3-foot obstacle in front of you, and when you need 20 rounds to kill an enemy who's 10 feet away from you, I'm not sure that's realistic. Plus CoD2 is far, far, FAR prettier.
You won't regret buying this game.

"Call of Duty" lovers will be eagerly awaiting the arrival of another "United Offensive" Expansion pack after finishing this stunning WWII fps. In 2004 the next best single player shooter to "Half-Life 2" was "Call of Duty 1". Needless to say COD2 brings us yet another damn fine sequel effort to rival anything else on the shelf. COD has firmly taken over where "Medal of Honour: Allied Assault" first got our attention in trying to recreate the "Saving Private Ryan" experience for us all. The COD series is built on the same concept as MOH except there is more action, more high-octane moments and a very different type of enemy AI. COD2 has upgraded the enemy and platoon squad AI from COD1 so that your comrades can identify the enemy and instead of scripting each action sequence as in COD1, COD2 depends on AI so that a rerun of any level will play differently although the situations remain the same. COD2 also has a lot more going on in terms of what you can pilot and drive although not freely but as part of the storyline. COD2 retains all the cinematic intensity that its predecessor successfully claimed and even expands on each of the earlier episodes over the course of a four year WWII period to give us Moscow 1941 - Red Army Training, Demolition, Stalingrad 1942 - Repairing the Wire, The Pipeline, Stalingrad 1943 - Downtown Assault, City Hall, Comrade Sniper, El Alamein 1942 - The Diversionary Raid, Hold the Line, Operation Supercharge, El Daba 1942 - The End of the Beginning, Libya 1943 - Crusader Charge, 88 Ridge, Tunisia 1943 - Outnumbered and Outgunned, Retaking Lost Ground, Assault on Matmata, D-Day 1944 - The Battle of Pointe du Hoc, Retreat? We're Advancing in Another Direction, The Silo, Caen 1944 - Prisoners of War, The Crossroads, The Tiger, The Brigade Box, Hill 400 1944 - Approaching Hill 400, Rangers Lead the Way, The Battle for Hill 400 and Germany 1945 - Crossing the Rhine, where you get to play as either a Soviet or a Brit or as a member of the US forces. Missions range from basic training, defending against attacks, counterattacks, planting explosives, repairing cut field wires, contacting HQ via the field phone, disabling Panzer II tanks, crawling through pipelines, taking out enemy snipers, destroying fuel barrel supplies with some of the best explosion effects seen in any game to date, destroying ammo depot supplies, gathering enemy documents, defending lower lines by using close-range weapons and artillery support, clearing out bunkers, radioing in for artillery bombardments, taking a Mosque, driving tanks, holding out for 5 minutes till support arrives, clearing the buildings in the town, sniping the artillery crews from a Silo tower, finding wounded Americans, transporting the wounded, taking a farmhouse and barn, taking out mortar crews and if that is not enough... securing a hill from a German advance. The smoke effects are absolutely photorealistic and have set a new benchmark for graphics quality. The textures might let the game down a small bit, including very blocky building designs or similar house interiors that are repeated at several points in the game but the environments and maps are genuinely war like all the way through and can not be faulted. The enemy AI and your own team AI are much more realistic than COD1 and your team is reliable. If you get too close to the enemy you will engage him in close quarter combat. Although Call of Duty was never meant to be a war simulation, but more of a 1st person war adventure, to be honest, does exactly what it says on the tin. So apart from the staged element, which actually ads to the game, it is more of an experience than a game you will turn to time and time again, however it is worth it for the experience of the single player mission alone. It is also much longer than COD1 and OU, where COD1 had a 1.5 day game span and UO had 3, COD2 will last you for well over a week if you play one mission a day. The pandemonium of war is all here in a spectacular fashion because the story is a winner as you play a mini version of BAND OF BROTHERS and ENEMY AT THE GATES. Like COD1 you even feel loss at the end but for some reason the connection to your comrades in COD1 was a lot stronger because it was more scripted. The AI detracts from that connection a little bit, but I am only cribbing. Although Directx 9 is the standard for all the cutting edge new first person pc shooters, COD2 has been designed around Directx 7 technology. Only the new Geforce 7800 GT cards can seem to handle DX9 quality. If you don't have a very high end machine then selecting DX7 may prove to be the best result and funny enough is probably how COD2 should be played. Test it out to see. If you are looking for a war multiplayer then go for "Battlefield 2" (it is the war simulation that everyone plays for multiplayer) but do not miss COD2 single player! COD has always been a contender for game of the year and COD2 is no exception.

Pros:
- Cinematic gaming.
- Best new war game and a worthy 1st person shooter.
- Awesome war atmosphere.
- Smoky explosions.

Cons:
- Needs a high spec system to run on full settings.

Where do I begin? Well first let me just say that Call of Duty 2 has far exceeded all my hopes and expectations. The graphics are far above average, the targeting redicule is realistic, the sniper attributes are fantastic, I mean this game has it all. I just installed this game last night, began playing and 5 hours later I realized that I hadn't stopped yet. Does that give you an idea of how good this game is?

I will begin with the installation and setup. Installation is a little tiring. It comes on 6 discs and each one takes about 15 minutes to install. Of course I had other apps running during installation which is a no no but that is neither here nor there. Point is, installation is by far the only downside to this. Now, game is installed and you fire her up. Game screen comes up seamless. Not a single bit of lag or hang ups, crashes, nothing. I decide that since I am running what is considered today as a low end video card, I should adjust graphics. Well I get to the screen and all the settings have been done automatically. This is by far my all time favorite feature that I have yet see any other game utilize. IW programmed an auto setting that will, based on the specs of your video, adjust the game settings to give you optimal performance during gameplay.

So I begin the single player Russian campaign, as I usually start out in single player with every game to get the hang of movements, targeting etc... before tackling online MP games. You start out in a Russian camp where your commanding officer walks you through the basics. He teaches very quickly how to shoot, throw grenades and hand to hand combat. From then on, you have little time to do anything but stay alive. My review of game play is based on playing at the highest difficulty setting. The AI throws everything they have at you with eery precision and remarkable adaptability. They actually adjust depending on what you are doing. Granted they do have their set destinations and paths on every map but during the Stalingrad campaign, they were pretty much moving according to where my squad and I were set up. Refreshing to say the least.

I finished the Russian campaign and made a decision to begin my online training against real live opponents. First couple of maps, Bergundy and another open map that I forget the name, were to say the least, frustrating. After a while I began to get the hang of it though. Carentan is next and I finished my third online multiplayer map 35 kills to 15 deaths. Not bad. The maps are large and beautifully designed. Smoke coming from buildings or trucks looks so real that sometimes you have to take a second look just because of the awe factor. The skylines are also a thing of beauty and the design of the landscapes sometimes has you thinking you are looking at a photograph. The character models are life like, their movements are fantastic and I cannot say enough, you just have to see for yourself.

The targeting is little funky and takes some getting used to. When you run, your redicule disappears. A great feature I think since most people do not aim very well when running. Once you right click and look down the sites though, the running slows to a walk and your aim becomes more solid, also realistic.

Sniping, by far my favorite. Anyone know anyone that has ever been in our Armed Forces? My brother was a Marine sniper and used to tell me that the way to snipe is you scope in, line your target, take a deep breath and hold to steady your aim, fire, breath out. And that my friends is how you snipe in COD2. Scope in, find your target, hold the shift key (you'll hear him breath in and feel your redicule begin to steady out), take your shot, release the shift key (you'll hear him release the air). Perfect!

Now here is the long awaited surprise - my system specs. I run a P4 2.6Ghz processor, 1Gb PC2700 DDR Ram and an ATI 9250 256MB DDR Video Card. That's it, that is all I got and this game is flawless. Buy it, trust me. You will not be disappointed.

Thank You

There is no doubt in my mind that Call Of Duty 2 is the most intense and engrossing FPS I've ever played. The best? Well, that's up for debate and it's unanimous that CoD2 makes no effort to innovate the genre but nonetheless, the way the game proceeds at breakneck speed for almost the entire thing makes for barrels of fun. It should be noted that if you like the traditional FPS feature of puzzle solving and tactics, this isn't really for you. CoD2 is to Thief: The Dark Project what the 100 metre sprint is to golf. By the way, I haven't played the first Call Of Duty so this is my first time playing the series.

The general gameplay consists of being part of a squad. While you are often sent to do particular jobs yourself (such as planting sticky bombs on a tank or clearing out a room full of German soldiers), CoD2 isn't really a one man show the way other FPS games are. Your fellow soldiers all get stuck in. If you really want you can find somewhere to hide and let them do most of the work, though I wouldn't recommend it. This kind of gameplay adds extra realism to it and is one of the few ways CoD2 really does differ from other games. Your squad will talk to you, let you know of nearby grenades and interact with each other, only adding to the intensity. There was definitely room for this to not have so effective with cheesy dialogue but I think they did a pretty good job of making the dialogue reasonably realistic. That said, what with the game being as violent as it is and consequently rated accordingly, they could have been stronger with some of the language. There could always have been an option to filter out the f-word, but I could only listen to phrases like "Jerry rotter" and "bloody wanker" so much before finding them annoying. As for your roles, you play a Russian Private, a British Sargent, a British tank commander (but only for one mission) and an American Corpral. The Russian missions consist of urban warfare in snowy, bombed out cities, the British of Egyptian and French towns and the American of D-Day and, well, more French towns. The gameplay is fairly similar throughout however.

Another way it differs is the aiming system. In order to really be accurate, one must look down the sight of the gun and fire that way. It's a refreshing change from shooting at the hip using a target that's somehow branded onto your retina and once you get used to the system, it's truly rewarding. You get your hands on all sorts of weaponry, blowing up tanks with rocket launchers, sniping the enemy from a distance, close quarter fighting with rifles and machine guns, operating MG-42s and firing shells from a tank. You can also pick up and use German weaponry should you run out of ammunition for your assigned gun.

As for the sheer power of the game, it's there. Enemy AI is often good at responding to what you and squad mates are doing, even if the odd enemy here and there does have a tendency to run into an open space where he'll easily get killed. The graphics are lush. What really interests me though is the sound. The game just sounds incredible. The level of detail put in the sound is largely why this game is so engrossing.

The multiplayer feature is pretty much standard fare. Deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag are longtime FPS staples. In CoD2 there are two other options as well. The first is HQ. Each team takes turns to set up a headquarters. The longer it's set up before the other team destoys it the more points you earn. The other is search and destory which is similar in the sense of one team attacking what the other team defends. That said, I'm not a big team player myself and tend to stick to deathmatch and team deathmatch more than anything else.

There are two things about CoD2 that people seem split on - the health system and the save system. I for one think the game is great in both. Rather than have a static health bar like other FPS games, the system allows you to be hit a few times. Get hit one to many, you get injured and have to recover for 5-10 seconds; get hit again and you die. Some people say that this system is unrealistic and you know what? They're right. But is it any more unrealistic than being on the brink of death and recovering to full health by picking up a medikit? Of course not. It should also be noted that it takes less hits to die in this game than other games I can think of. As a sidenote, games aren't meant to be realistic, that's why they're games. Realism should never hinder gameplay. If this really was realistic, you'd die with a few gunshots and have to complete the game by never getting shot at all. Need I remind you how absurd that would be?

As for the save system, it's an autosave feature with no manual save. Again, people complain but I think it seriously helps the overall flow of the game. The saves themselves are regular so being killed at a wrong time and having to repeat an entire section of a level rarely ever happens. The system simultaneously prevents you from saving every minute and a half, thereby giving you a real challenge, and from forgetting to save after a long time of play. After all, completing a section by saving every time it's safe to do so is one thing - completing it in one sitting (which never lasts too long anyway) is quite another. Maybe people wouldn't complain if they were good enough to avoid being killed ;).

With that said, the game isn't perfect. As others have pointed out, it is far far too short. It took me four days to complete on regular and under a week to complete on hardened some months later. It seems that due to the success and popularity of online gaming, the developers decided that they didn't need to provide too much in the way of single player. Not true. Unless you're dealing with Arena or Unreal Tournament which are specifically geared for multiplayer, an FPS game should always make single player a priority with multiplay an extra feature. There are other qualms too - no sprint option, no ability to time a grenade and no ability to pick up a grenade and throw it back like your squad and the enemy can do (that would give multiplayer a new challenge too).

As for the complaints about system requirements, I don't really understand them myself. I have a 1.8mz processor, 512mb RAM and a 256mb ATi Radeon 9200, very far from top of the range and significantly below the systems of some of the people complaining and it runs great at 800x600 and looks great too.

All in all, CoD2 is a great game, albeit no classic. I recommend it to those who like Rambo style FPS (braun over brain), but if stealth and puzzle-solving are your kind of thing you may find it a little repetitive. Nonetheless, the average FPS fan should love this.

Well well well.. where do I begin?!

Like very few of my fellow reviewers, I have never played a call of duty game before, (or many first person shooters for that matter). I, infact, have never written a review! I played the game for maybe 20-30 minutes, and was instantly hooked. I used to be an avid fan of counter-strike, but this game blows it away.

For the people that say it is too short, try playing on a different difficulty... On veteran mode, It is quite the challenge. I just reached the normandy level (after about 7 hours of playing) and it is quite intense. The usual DDAY video game scene is on that beach where you run up from your boat, and run up the beach, hoping to live (easily) and advancing. In this game, you have to climb a rope up a steep mountain-like terrain.

The health system is amazing, in that you don't find yourself dying every two seconds. Real war tactics are needed (if you want to live). Different tactics are involved in this game (such as calling air strikes, or driving a tank) which is another reason why I don't get bored of this game.

Now onto the multi player.

Well, I was SORT OF dissapointed in that there are WAY WAY too many hackers who simply google "call of duty hacks" and easily "win" all of the online battles. I like that you can respawn, which is different from most online games, where a stray bullet hits you and you suffer for 2-5 minutes (SOCOM, Americas Army).

In a nutshell,

ONE OF THE BEST GAMES I HAVE EVER PLAYED!!!!!!!
EVER!!!!!

Im off to go play it now =)

A good refinement of the original CoD ethic, with enhanced effects, more constant action, and numerous little touch-ups to the gameplay. The automatic healing system was a bold change, and I think a big improvement. It makes the game a bit easier, but keeps the action steadier by eliminating the need to run around looking for med kits. You really have to play it to see how well it works.
But a big opportunity for expansion has been neglected, and many of the games' advertised selling points are phony. There aren't many new conflicts or enemies to face. The scope of battle is marginally bigger, but some of the missions are actually repeats of CoD missions. You fought D-Day and Stalingrad in Call of Duty; you fight them again in CoD2 and the levels, though not copied, are similar experiences. The enemies are still only German. As for the non-linear gameplay promise, it crops up occasionally, but most of the game you're still fenced in, guided down one path.
You don't actually use rocket-propelled grappling hooks at all; your squad uses them in a scripted sequence in one mission. "Call of Duty returns with ... even more sea, land and air missions." You never take to the sea or air. Try land, land and land. And I think they advertised somewhere improved physics. They've added barrels that explode when shot- which is too arcade-like and innapropriate for a realistic WW2 shooter- but all items are made of the same indestructable, stuck-to-the-ground material.
They could have really expanded the scope of the game by including some sort of missions on sea or in the air, such as infiltrating an enemy cruiser and fighting the crew, or an aerial bombing mission. Or they could have included the Japanese somewhere, rather than simply fighting Germans in somewhat new locales. If this was another expansion, it would pass with flying colors. But given what we were promised with this full-on sequel, only two groups need this: People who never played the first Call of Duty, and people so fanatical about the CoD series they can't pass an installment up. Casual CoD players shouldn't have to pay $50 for this.

For the record I have always preferred Call of Duty to Metal of Honor. The weapons in CoD~1 were responded better, the graphics and maps seemed better to me. I knew from the first second I opened this box that I had made a bad mistake and didn't trust the negative reviews here: HALF the game manual was blank. That might be okay for me since I've played FPS's since DOOM but still... from there things got worse. At least the CD-key was intact.

I'm sad to say that CoD~2 does not live up as a sequel. At first glance the graphics are better, the AI seems better and everything is a notch up but the PC version of this game is simply a Console Port for a game obviously designed for the X-box et.al. it ignores everything that a PC offers over a console (like quick saves)

This game has about as much to do about WWII as the 1980's coin operated game "Duck Hunt" had to do with duck hunting. The game "cheats" - clear out a 5 man post and wait 5 seconds and 5 more men appear, and again and again and again until you advance to that spot and the game autosaves (or you run out of ammo and die) There is no flanking or tactics or careful house clearing here. If you clear a spot and do not advance far enough before you die (again) then you have to repeat the procedure ad. nauseum. Clear some trenches and backtrack and hand grenades "magically" appear from a nearby trench that you have already cleared to blow you up. Each Zone contains at least one "insta-kill" spot where every single angle is covered and there is no way to advance except by throwing a smoke grenade - oops - you DID save a smoke grenade for later right? Because killing everything does not work, 5 seconds later more bad guys magically appear on the 3rd floor of a building where all the staircases are blocked...

You are almost at a disadvantage to using your own weapons, if you swap out everything for German weapons then at least you collect ammo laying on the ground as you advance. Or, for the truly morbid, just coax 10 of your squad mates to a machine gun nest and pick up THEIR ammo... do NOT depend on your team members - you will be doing 95% of the killing yourself as they get crushed by tanks and walk single-file around a corner into a machine gun nest, or even worse - block the doorway as a grenade gets tossed at your feet. In a crowd of 20 the game ALWAYS shoots at YOU, as they don't even count as a distraction... It's no wonder the game fails automatically if you shoot your squad mates because otherwise I would have executed all mine at the very beginning of each mission (more ammo - yay!)

The "health" is the worst mockery of this game. Even on 'Difficult' nearly any amount of single shots is survivable. While slapping a band-aid/med kit on a sniper bullet hole might not be "realistic" for some, it's even less realistic to find the sniper by walking into the center of the town square, take a chest shot, duck, wait a few seconds until you have "calmed down" then stand up again to take another shot, then repeat as needed as a way to figure out where a sniper might be.... how realistic is that?

Needless to say - I love the old Call Of Duty and it's expansions. This "sequel" left me wishing I had waited for the price to drop to 5$ And furthermore, I won't be buying CoD 3 (or 4) - because I hear it has a really nifty segment that forces you to row a rowboat using the control keys... um, yea.

i bought this game a week after buying MOH: frontline, which, at the time, i thought was incredible.
but once i got COD2, i was blown away.
constant firefights and all out chaos across a bombed out battlefield is just plain awesome.

but what really gets this title is the online multiplayer.
i have found myself playing for hours on the same maps and still not getting bored.
it uses a perfect combination of strategic firefights and incredible gameplay to keep you addicted for weeks.

the only faults in this game are the eventual lag, and the graphics card requirements, which had me frustrated for days.
but, if oyuve got a fast computer and and extra $30 on your hands, this is a must buy!

While the game looks relatively the same, the levels are far more intense and you are given more choices on how you want to play the game.

The levels are historically accurate and while the graphics aren't state of the art, its obvious the developers worked hard to tweak the engine to enhance the realism as there are times you really are part of a interactive historic retelling.

In closing, Call Of Duty 2 is an extremely fun as well as intelligent game that adult gamers will enjoy and its definitely worth the value.