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Platform: Microsoft
Xbox 360 Review by: Steve Hamner
One might first boot Call of Duty 2 with
something less than adrenaline-pumping excitement. It’s another
World War II shooter…yay. Another attack on Pearl Harbor. Another
storming of the beach at Normandy. It’s yet another attempt for us
21st century gamers to get our Saving Private Ryan on. In
a world where FPS's like Half-Life 2, Halo 2 and Quake 4 dare others
to test the waters, is yet another WW II shooter worth it?
Call of Duty 2 demands a little room, and
justifiably so.
The game kicks off with a cleverly veiled tutorial as the player (a Russian private conscripted into the service) learns a little about the rifle, grenades, cover and tactical movement before he’s dropped right into the thick of a Nazi attack. The player jumps theatres (and characters) into the British campaign in Africa, and wraps up with the Americans invading Pointe du Hac on D-Day (yes, there’s an invasion of Normandy…it’s just so cool!).
The first thing that hit me about Call of Duty 2
is how it represents war. I’ve never seen actual combat, and I sure
as hell hope I never will, but this is the most accurate
representation I’ve seen in a game. You’ll never get the feeling
it’s you-against-the-world; there are always AI allies about. They
fight with you, not near you. You’ll hear them call out enemies,
warn you about grenades, even provide suppressive fire when you
break from the safety of cover. Your fellow soldiers are smart; they
keep to cover, they take smart shots and they use grenades
intelligently. The badguys are just as sharp, keeping to cover,
flanking when possible and taking advantage of superior numbers,
firepower and position.
Call of Duty 2 forces you to fight smart. Even
the average difficulty level will cut down the gung-ho Rambo-style
gunner. Intelligent, judicious use of grenades, conservation of
ammunition and working with your AI allies is the only way to carry
the day. It’s the first game where I actually used smoke grenades
for something other than making more inventory room for
anti-personnel grenades. I find myself physically and mentally
drained after an intense battle, which is a new experience for a guy
who usually jumps right from level to level. All in all, it makes
for a very challenging and rewarding experience.
The game is very nicely rendered, with the
environment reacting to grenades, gunfire, and blood splatter; but
that’s really window dressing to what this game really provides.
What Call of Duty 2 does so beautifully is create the atmosphere of
"real" war. Your soldier will often catch long, gorgeous glances of
Axis and Allied fighters dogfighting it out for aerial supremacy
while you slug it out on the ground. Campaigns near the ocean are
backdropped with the sights and sounds of ships of war trading fire.
Sound is top-notch, as it should be. The voice
acting is great; from the Allied brass down to that chap sharing
your foxhole, there’s panic, fear, determination and courage in the
voice of every man you fight with (and against, for that matter).
The crack of a rifle and the staccato bursts of a submachine gun are
spot on, to say nothing of the roar of a Panzer cannon or the
sublime explosion of a large bundle of TNT. Little things, like the
crunch of snow underfoot, or the ominous rumble of tank tread from a
distance, paint an auditory picture that’s beautiful to behold.
The game isn’t easy at first, especially for
those of us raised on Halo or Quake, where you can successfully
trade fire with a hostile and usually come out on top. Even though
the controls are standard issue for a console FPS, the mental aspect
of fighting a war rather than playing the lone wolf takes a little
adjustment. It’s worth the learning curve, and the game offers
frequent checkpoints to keep frustration to a minimum.
The single-player game is a little short, and a
flexible, talented gamer could probably put it away inside of 15
hours. It’s the prodigious amounts of multiplayer options that will
really keep this disc hot. Aside from the standard splitscreen,
there are variations of every standard multiplayer FPS game (capture
the flag, team deathmatch, etc.), as well as an Axis vs. Allies
combat simulator that plays more like a Battlefield title than a
standard FPS.
I have a hard time finding a whole lot wrong with
Call of Duty 2. It’s certainly one of the finest FPS I’ve played,
and can sit proudly next to Halo 2 and Half-Life on the shelf. Even
if you don’t give a rat’s ass about Brokaw’s "Greatest Generation,"
Call of Duty 2 is worth it.
-- Steve Hamner {11-01-2006} * The Novelty score is important. We've all played too many shooters with hellspawn of all flavor and we've all blazed through the streets of New York or L.A. or Tokyo in underground street races. Either as cops or thugs, we've stolen (or commandeering) cars and beaten people senseless while driving about in the pursuit of urban mayhem in game after game after game. And, in truth, we've all played any number of World War II first-person shooters. Call of Duty 2 transcends novelty. The experience the game provides is so good it's more than a World War II FPS; it's a World War II simulation savored from a first-person perspective. This game is worthy of a 9, even though there is no way to justify a novelty score of better than 7. Novelty is part of the formula we use to score the games we review, but I ask you to overlook the somewhat ordinary backdrop and see the truly fantastic game within. |
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Past Reviews by Steve Hamner:
True Swing Golf
(DS) |
