I thought WWII had ended, but apparently not. Infinity Ward brought us Call of Duty a few years ago with massive success, so what’s the logical next step? Create Call of Duty 2 (COD 2), of course! It would be very tough to surpass the success Call of Duty brought to the PC, but the creators obviously worked hard to mold COD 2 into an intense and emotional game that lives up to all the buzz. The reason for the huge hype was warranted, not just because of the success of its predecessor, but the early screen shots that dropped everyone’s jaw.
You start out as a soldier fighting with the Russian army against the German invasion. You begin your training and soon find yourself on the frontlines as the snow falls and the blood flows. From the training grounds in Stalingrad, to the devastation filled French countryside, you find yourself ducking for cover as the bullets, and bombs, hit all around you. You actually feel like you are there, in the 1940’s, trudging through death and destruction in a strange country fighting this drawn out world war.
The game is divided up into three different infantries you fight with, and eventually die with; the Russian, British, and American. There are four levels of difficulty to choose from, starting with something similar to god mode, up to nearly impossible. Even though the game is linear, meaning you have a certain path to follow, you don’t even notice it due to the intensity surrounding each and every battle. You have many tools at your disposal besides a rifle, as you fight in first person. You can choose between: smoke and frag grenades, secondary weapon (depending on the enemy you just took out), huge machines guns, and even a tank, for a short moment at least. Even though the gameplay is a bit straight forward, it never once gets boring or repetitive.
The Multiplayer option is OK and it could be better. This was the one of the few disappointing aspects of COD 2. Playing on Live is a bit of a let down, for the fact that there is no lobby so you have to randomly join a server. But it gets worse. When the game is finished, it just spits you back out and you go on to finding another strange server. They are working on patches for the online play, so look for this to improve over time. You can also play head-to-head with a friend in split-screen. These modes are fun for a little while, but you’ll find yourself sticking with single-player missions for the most part.
Wow. I could leave it there, but what sense would that make? I never thought war could be so beautiful until now. Everything from the characters, to the textures, to the smoke (which I’ll get to later), it all looks, well, beautiful. As you start the first mission during the winter in Russia, it takes you all of about 1 second to realize Infinity Ward spent a lot of time making sure the game looks as nice as it could, compared to other launch titles. The characters are full of detail, as is the surrounding environment. Everything around you has a very authentic feel. It gave me a warm feeling inside to be able to view a hundred yards away, and actually see something, besides luminous fog.
Now, back to the smoke. This was the first thing that caught my eye in the pre-release screenshots. I found myself throwing smoke grenades just for the fun of seeing them in all their glory. They truly are something to see. After seeing the graphics in COD 2, it makes me excited about what the Xbox 360 will be capable of in a year or two, it’s almost scary.
