Call of Duty 2 (PC)
Manufacturer: Activision Part number: 32995
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
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Gamespot editors' review
Call of Duty 2 (PC) price range: $19.99 - $27.99
- Reviewed by: Bob Colayco
- Reviewed on: 10/25/2005
- Updated on:10/26/2005
- Released on: 10/25/2005
When the original Call of Duty was released a few years ago, it made an impact both on critics and on consumers, even in the already-crowded WWII shooter genre. Call of Duty's visceral action struck a chord with PC shooter fans, thanks to a well-designed campaign, enjoyable multiplayer, and outstanding sound effects. If you liked those aspects of the original, then you're sure to enjoy the sequel, which stays true to the strengths of its predecessor, while enhancing the sense that you're just one soldier in the midst of a massive war machine. It doesn't really break any new ground, but the game nails the core aspects of first-person-shooter gameplay so well that it doesn't need to.
Call of Duty 2 picks up right where its celebrated predecessor left off.
As in the first game, Call of Duty 2's campaign will put you in the shoes of a few different soldiers fighting for different Allied factions. You start off as a private in the Russian army, visciously fighting off the invading Germans in Moscow and Stalingrad. The British campaign is unlocked after beating the first Russian mission. For most of these missions you'll be fighting in the sand-swept deserts of North Africa alongside the Desert Rats against Field Marshal Rommel's troops. The final mission in the British campaign sends you to the bombed-out houses and hedgerows of Caen, France. After you're done with that, you'll play as an American corporal in Europe. Yes, you will be doing a D-Day landing, but not on Omaha Beach or Utah Beach, which you've probably played several times before. Instead, you'll be scaling the sheer cliffs of Pointe du Hoc as artillery with the Army Rangers. If you already thought rock climbing was an "extreme" sport, try doing it with artillery and machine-gun fire raining down on you.
Each of the game's 10 missions is broken up into a few different stages. If you play the game on regular difficulty, you could blow through it in about 10 hours. Ratcheting up the difficulty a notch makes the game much harder and more tactical (this is probably the experience the designers intended). Since you'll be creeping and peeking more carefully through all the encounters, you'll lengthen the campaign significantly, and enjoy it more.
Breaking up the campaign into several different narrative vignettes arguably weakens the impact of the plot as a whole, although that was never the strength of Call of Duty in the first place. What this does is allow the designers to put you in a lot of different, interesting situations. One memorable moment in the Russian campaign has you crawling through a raised pipeline to sneak behind German lines and into a fortified factory building. As you make your way through the pipeline, you'll spot and snipe small pockets of German infantry through holes in the pipe. When they fire back up at you, you'll notice bullets tearing through the rusted pipe, ripping open holes for shafts of light to poke through. It's a thrilling effect. You'll also get quite a rush from both participating in and defending against all-out infantry charges across open city squares in Stalingrad. But just as the novelty of these wears off, you're shunted over to the British campaign in North Africa, where you'll do things like participate in night raids of small Tunisian towns, climb up to the top of spires to call in artillery on enemy tanks, and even drive a tank yourself. The American campaign has its own memorable moments, like scaling the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, or sniping at German mortar crews from the top of a grain silo. The game paces itself so that you're always on your toes, and you'll find yourself switching back and forth almost constantly from an offensive position to making a defensive stand against counterattacks on the objective you've just captured. Yes, at the end of the day you're still just shooting a lot of Nazis, but the constantly varying contexts of how and why you're doing it keep the game compelling from start to finish.
Massive amounts of infantry can populate the battlefield.
You won't be participating in these forays alone; far from it. In every setting you'll be surrounded by what seems like dozens of soldiers, both friends and foes, who move and act in a realistic fashion. Lots of your artificially intelligent mates will die by your side, along with the dozens of enemy soldiers you kill, but more will come in from the rear echelons to take their place. The designers often do a good job of reminding you that the war isn't just the infantry skirmish in which you're fighting. From time to time you'll see planes engaged in dogfights flying overhead, or when you complete an objective of capturing a German harbor, you'll call in a naval strike and see enemy merchant ships being sunk at the docks.
In each confrontation, you'll find yourself setting up at logical stopping points to exchange fire with German resistance. You can snipe dozens of enemies out of the windows and from the trenches in front of a house, for example, but reinforcements replace them. It never feels as though the game is cheaply spawning in more fodder for you; it just does a great job of making you feel like there are a realistic number of soldiers holed up in a building. You need to get a feel for the flow of each pitched battle, and this can be done by advancing your line when the enemy ranks look thin enough, and then breaking into the house or bunker. Your allies will follow you in and help you clear out the objective. Of course, if you're too meek at attacking and pressing your advantage, the enemy AI is wily and aggressive enough to take charge. They're not afraid to pour fire on your position and toss tons of grenades at you. Thankfully, a handy grenade danger indicator lets you know when and where you have to scurry away from an impending blast. When you do die, the game reloads very quickly, and you're even treated to a quote about war from various historical figures. One that sticks out in our minds is an ironic one from Solomon Short: "The only winner in the War of 1812 was Tchaikovsky."
User reviews
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Excellent game overall
by mils on November 6, 2005
Pros: Great maps with decent AI
Cons: You need a higher end graphics card
Summary: I got the game on november 3rd and loved it the minute it was installed. I was a huge COD fan and love this one just as much if not ...
Summary: I got the game on november 3rd and loved it the minute it was installed. I was a huge COD fan and love this one just as much if not more. I have had no problems with it except that it requires a good graphics card. I have a NVidia GeForce 6800 and still the game lags in high intensity moments. Other than that the game is great. Oh, watch out for the nades.
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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great sp but slightly dissapointing mp
by vasisesh on November 1, 2005
Pros: great single player, graphics, ease of gameplay
Cons: no vehicles in mp,routine maps
Summary: I eagaerly awaited the COD2 release and this was the first game that i actually bought outright after it released, i generally wait for the proces to go down a ...
Summary: I eagaerly awaited the COD2 release and this was the first game that i actually bought outright after it released, i generally wait for the proces to go down a bit, whether it was the overenthusiam or just something in the game, after i started playing the multiplayer i felt a little let down, the maps were great improvement graphically, but dissapointing in content, seemd kinda a routine compared to the original COD, notably lacking in size and variation, but HEY the single player is great, lots of levels and great graphics, especially if the game is played in the hard mode, it gives you a true experince of the war, i guess that was the level that the game designers really wanted you to play in so as to get a real feel for the game. Overall the single player is outstanding and worth the money, but the multiplayer has much to be desired, especially also the sprint key which is missing, but hey i guess there will be a expansion pack with vehicles and the sprint key just like COD UO, lets hope for the best
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Can you change the white cross-airs? The aim thing
by rockstar7600 on May 3, 2007
Pros: I do not know what this means
Cons: I do not know what this means
Summary: Well I played the game and I think its great, but the only thing is that when I come to different places where the color of the screen changes, I ...
Summary: Well I played the game and I think its great, but the only thing is that when I come to different places where the color of the screen changes, I cannot see my white cross-airs. Im refering to the thing that you have in any weapon that you aim at, which is why you play the game. Anyways my question is, can you change the color of it?
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Great game! always loved Call of Duty
by alexdadoof on July 17, 2006
Pros: I love the little videos from the military channel
Cons: the AI is quite... funky? sometimes its almost ridiculous how the enemies are shooting at you even before you walk into a room. i hate that!
Summary: Love the game
Great Graphics!
Great Scenes.
Historically accurate. (mostly)
i just wish it had some of those shooting stages, like allied assault when you're in the plane shooting ...Summary: Love the game
Great Graphics!
Great Scenes.
Historically accurate. (mostly)
i just wish it had some of those shooting stages, like allied assault when you're in the plane shooting down other planes from the b-17's.
that might make the game a little more fun =]
AWESOME ONLINE PLAY!!!!!
its really fast paced not like counter-strike but more along the lines of UT or Quake. maybe a tad bit slower than that -
Superb Game
by semple1 on May 20, 2006
Pros: Graphics are good, quite realistic
Cons: Powerful computer required
Summary: Overall the game is quite realistic and the graphics are good.
Summary: Overall the game is quite realistic and the graphics are good.
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Excellent!
by beastious1 on February 9, 2006
Pros: Everything
Cons: Needs PunkBuster, too many hackers!
Summary: This is an awesome game, anyone who give this game lower that a 9, is smokin crack! This game is so fun and addicting, especially multiplayer! (except for the hackers) ...
Summary: This is an awesome game, anyone who give this game lower that a 9, is smokin crack! This game is so fun and addicting, especially multiplayer! (except for the hackers) overall, get this game!
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Great game, little replay value.
by abarabas on December 30, 2005
Pros: Best graphics I've seen to date
Cons: Short, wimpy multiplayer
Summary: The graphics and single player of this game are awesome. However, I beat the game in about 3 days with about 9 hours of play total...I'm not too ...
Summary: The graphics and single player of this game are awesome. However, I beat the game in about 3 days with about 9 hours of play total...I'm not too big into games either but I was bored during winter break! There are not 27 levels like they advertise, there's something like 9 levels and each of them have sub-parts in them. COD's multiplayer, at least in my opinion, is nowhere near that of something like Battlefield -- and at least for me, multiplayer is where I get the most replay value.
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More of the same
by ron330 on December 17, 2005
Pros: If you liked COD original, it's just more of it.
Cons: Graphics are a little better but not worth the price
Summary: COD2 is just a slight rearrangement of the scenarios of COD original. Nothing new or exciting.
Summary: COD2 is just a slight rearrangement of the scenarios of COD original. Nothing new or exciting.
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Call of Duty 1 Better than COD 2
by tlive on February 25, 2006
Pros: Exellent graphics, sounds and weapons
Cons: Script, game
Summary: Even if it got better graphics, the game still sucks because there is no sense: you cannot do headshot and there's no life. You can see your enemy in ...
Summary: Even if it got better graphics, the game still sucks because there is no sense: you cannot do headshot and there's no life. You can see your enemy in the compass and there is no vehicules. Programmers bassed thereself on Call of Duty 1 instead of basing thereself on the expension pack. Maybe an expension will be published
0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Pretty but no bite
by irfriedfish on January 8, 2006
Pros: Good graphics
Cons: Gameplay is too limited
Summary: I tried this after playing Battelfield 2 and there is no comparison. Your so limited in what you can do. Granted I didn't go online and try it but ...
Summary: I tried this after playing Battelfield 2 and there is no comparison. Your so limited in what you can do. Granted I didn't go online and try it but based on the single player and compared with BF2 there is no comparison.
0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Activision
- Part number: 32995
Product Basic Spec
- Platform PC
- ESRB rating Teen - Blood,Violence,Mild Language
- Genre Action
- Number of players 1 Player
- Difficulty Medium
- Learning curve About a half hour
- DirectX version v9.0c
- Operating system Windows 2000/XP
- Online modes Team Oriented,Competitive
Game
- Developer Infinity Ward
- ESRB Teen
- ESRB descriptors Blood,Violence,Mild Language
Manufacturer info
- Activision
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Activision products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.activision.com/
- Address:
3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405 - Phone: 310-255-2000
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