Review of Call of Duty 2

However you feel about WWII games in the broad sense, you cannot deny the fact that Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 is one among the finest FPS games that has ever been created. There is no doubt that you'll be skipping heartbeats while playing Call of Duty 2. You play the game as 3 soldiers in 3 regions at different time zones of the WWII. You will start as a raw Russian recruit, in the chilling winter of Moscow, learn how to handle a rifle and stave off the impending Nazi take-over. You only get a few moments of training before you're sent out into combat to defend your home town in the bombed-out city of Stalingrad. Then, you face challenges as a soldier of Britain fighting in Africa against Erwin Rommel's famed Afrika Corps, both in tank and ground combats. Lastly, you'll be storming the beaches of Normandy as a US Soldier, and will soon be battling your way deep into the French countryside. Diary records while loading advances the story and describes the objectives of the coming mission. You will also witness photographies and the voice-over by “The Military Channel” that will progress you through the more important events.

The great feature about Call of Duty 2 is that, when you play, it's just like being in a war zone, which surely it is. Your teammates will be all around you, and they do their best to help you out. Like you, many of your mates are raw recruits too and aren’t experts at things. But as you keep playing; their skill improves, as will yours. You will soon learn the benefits of pausing before aiming, using cover while approaching your enemy, etc. Unlike other FPS games where you play all alone, in Call of Duty 2, the whole battlefield will be filled with soldiers both friend and foe, giving you the intense "Warfield feel".

Feeling comfortable with Call of Duty 2's won't take much long, due to the amazing Xbox 360's controller. The controller would seem to be exactly the way you could ask for, and there's high probability that you'll become a dangerous killer by the time you finish the brief tutorial that will kick start the game. The triggers are used to zoom and fire your weapon, and the bumpers, will control your grenades. While you'll find yourself using a lot of grenades throughout the game, your enemies will start using them even more. Be alert all the time and you will be saved from the enemy’s accurate grenade attacks. There is a useful on-screen indicator that will show you where they are in relation to your position, allowing you to move a safe distance. The correct use of grenades is one of the different ways by which your enemies will try to outwit you.

The AI in Call of Duty 2 is something else to be awed at. Your foes will do almost anything to try and gain a victory. Realization will soon dawn upon you that the AI would throw these grenades not just to kill you, but to lure you out into the open, where they let their guns do the talking. You will quite frequently notice your enemies holding back for sometime before they make some advanced moves. They also react quite realistically to your attacks, by taking cover on hearing the first cracking of your guns.

Something that Call of Duty 2 sadly lacks is the inability of peeking through objects. You will often notice your teammates taking cover behind objects and taking a peek, trying to find the foe. But you will be required to stand up-right in front of a shoot-out to find your enemy. Some missions also allow you in taking charge of mobile guns. You would ride vehicles while staving off your enemies using machine-guns or even rocket-launchers. You will also get to control tanks and use the machine gun simultaneously. In Call of Duty 2, your health regenerates. Take damage, you will lose health, but if you start taking cover it will begin to regenerate. When you lose health, you see the screen getting redder and bloodshot in the edges. You will know when you should be taking cover by looking at the screen.

Call of Duty 2, no doubt was created to show off the Xbox 360's capabilities. The visuals in this game are simply stunning, right from the superbly detailed textures to the greatly animated players all around you. Though, there are a few slow-downs during the auto-saves, you'll be so much immersed in the game that you will hardly notice it at all. The weapons are great, too, particularly when you use it to finish off your foes. The smoke-effects in this game are immaculate. The Smoke grenade in this game will surely make you say “Oh My God!” Smoke clouds in the Call of Duty 2 world are something that I’ve never witnessed in any game before. Even though I haven’t used a smoke-grenade ever, the same action in this game seemed realistic to a great extent. The graphics are a great mixture of superb scenery and useful game play. The items that you will need will glow in gold so that they are easier to notice. There is also a compass which plays a vital role in leading you to the objectives of every mission. The visibility is greatly decreased as we move into a cloud. Inside a cloud, viewing is impossible. You won’t be able to see anything, not even an enemy who might touch you with the end of his bayonet. The main-screen graphics are a really impressive aspect of the game. Right from the brickwork on buildings to the smoke-grenade's haze, from the uniforms on your squad mates and foes, the quality is astonishing.

The single-player objectives are great, but obviously they do not last forever. When you are done with them, the next step is to play online with live players and then face the real challenge. The game would have been perfect if it would have let you play a large squad of soldiers on another. However, at present, you cannot have more than 8 simultaneous players online during Xbox Live. Still, playing with 8 people lets you enjoy the graphics, the game play and the skill settings. It's always a far greater challenge to play with and against human players online. Multiplayer has all the main modes: Capturing the Flags, Free for All, and Team Based Death matches. You will also be able to play objective-based games like Headquarters and Search and Destroy. Also, teams are rewarded for their works together, something which is obviously absent in other online games.

The music and sound-effects used in the game are both of the best quality. There are a lot of gentle sounds that comes out clearly too, while the explosions and gun-firings sound devastating and deadly. The weapon sounds are of the highest quality and have a distinct sound. Your teammates are quite a talkative group. They actually help you to complete the mission objectives. Very rarely did I have to check the Mission Objectives option. Almost every time, I had been given very clear and brief commands from my squadron leader, like “There's a Sniper!” “This Way!” “Those buildings!”etc, with very well done voice-overs. It surely adds to the unmistakable feeling that you are really in a battlefield.

Call of Duty 2 is definitely an engrossing and addictive title for the Xbox 360. It is highly recommended to the war-game lovers, especially those who enjoy large squad-type combat. If you are in the hunt for a good quality and well-assembled World War II game then Call of Duty 2 should be your definite choice. It is definitely worth the money and if you hook up with a team of like-minded online players, this could provide for countless months of online fun.