All those World War II shooters we endured for an entire decade felt like a war on its own. Shooter after endless shooter bombarded our systems, and then there were the really bad ones in between the Call of Duty and Medal of Honor yearly releases. Call of Duty 2 was highly anticipated because it was the actual sequel to the award-winning original. Does it stand out like the first game did? Is it full of cinematic finesse and finely nuanced mechanics? Not really.

There’s not much of a story here because it’s based off WWII. Black and white footage with a dull narrator telling you about different theaters of the war, then there’s the typical journal entry during the load screen, nothing interesting at all, and even when the game came out I was sick of these WWII shooters. What does Call of Duty 2 build on? Nothing, it’s just more of the same, but at least it has high production values and it does the same stuff right. The game has you following three different soldiers from the Russian, British, and American side. One thing I did like was that you get to play a different side of the Normandy beach storming and that’s the Rangers. They climbed up the cliff side trying to shut down the German pillboxes and various artillery so our troops stopped getting slaughtered on the beachhead. Call of Duty 2 tries to tell the smaller stories in the war which is a nice change of pace.

The same weapons are here that you have shot a million times. Lee Enfield, M1 Garand, Mp40, MP44, Sten, and various others. Of course, not ALL WWII weapons are here, but I wanted to see some of the more obscure ones like the Browning or BAR. At this point in time, it was just about better graphics and who’s weapon textures looked the most realistic. Call of Duty 2 delivers the visuals and was a benchmarker much like Crysis is now back in 2005/2006. It was one of the first game to support SLI and really pushed PCs and made you get those $500 graphics cards. It was a must-have for PC owners, and was also a GPU seller. With that aside, the textures look great even today and the visuals really pop. The sound is great as well with gunfire chattering in the distance and soldiers yelling all around you. It may seem dated today, but you can really see how much the Call of Duty series hasn’t evolved. There are striking similarities to the Modern Warfare series because it’s all the same, shoot anything that moves.

The game can be pretty easy at times, I could just rush into a building and blow everyone away with one clip and survive. I still find it painful to know that grenade physics are still really bad and bounce around like rubber balls. There are various things I just really can’t stand about these shooters and that’s the lack of realism. When I shoot enemies blood doesn’t even come out, where’s the gore and violence? Brothers in Arms was the first WWII shooter to use this violence in the genre, but Call of Duty just feels like some sort of censored theme park ride.

CoD2 had a huge multiplayer following, but sadly no one’s online anymore. Even so, it’s just a typical online shooter and isn’t anything special. I was really disappointed to find that CoD2 wasn’t as cinematic as it could have been and just felt the same throughout the whole game. Blow up this door, defend this position, destroy that mortar nest, kill this Flak 88 crew. It’s the same stuff we play in every single WWII shooter and nothing ever changes. Sure it was mindless fun, but I have come to realize why I was so glad everyone moved on.

The 2nd game in the COD series is your typical sequel, it takes what worked and amplifies it while changing or removing things that didn't work in the original.

But ultimately, while its a better game in every way I do find it more forgettable and less interesting than the first one, still 3 campaigns in this one, same factions, Cpt Price appears again which made me realize theres only 2 mainline COD entries from Infinity Ward that don't feature him as a main character which...is kinda sad when you think about it.

Anyways, story is once again nothing to write home about not that anybody cares about the story in a formulaic ww2 shooter.

The levels are a bit by the numbers, yeah there's the parts where you snipe, where you drive a tank, dozens of DEFEND THE AREA sections which I started to hate, you name it, this game has it.

But that's not much of a negative, sure its formulaic but it is a good formula for this game and given the good-but-not-great gunplay and the more open/less liniar level design of certain missions, they do a lot to save the game from feeling really bland.

Most of what I said about COD1 also applies here.
There's no health packs here which is nice, regenerating health works a lot better for this type of game even if it makes you sorta op when you can take 15 bullets, lie on your ass for 10 secs and then get up and be completely fine but whatever, its fun.

They also removed quick saving (only checkpoints this time, though they're a lot more frequent so its no big deal) so you can't F5 your way through harder sections of the game for better or for worse.

That's kinda it when it comes to cod2, its an intense but rather formulaic shooter that builds onto the original in some expected but nice ways but not enough to make it great when coming into it these days.

What I'll say to end the review, the best and worst of the series has yet to come and the series is only just about to truly start.

Honestly, not much has changed from the first CoD and UO to the second. The story is basically the same, with you playing as different Allied nations during various stages of World War II. This time around the tutorial is much quicker, giving it more replay value.

Texturing is inconsistent. Marble/tile/bricks don't look as good as wood and stone. Was admittedly surprised by how good skin and clothing looked on soldiers, even if NPC models were reused. Overall things are consistent enough that you won't notice anything off.

Gun sound design is terrible. Bullets only have two impact noises- steel or ground, no matter what you shoot at (lanterns, windows, trees, etc...), the exception being prerendered glass bottles that you can shoot. Guns themselves sound pretty standard despite there technically being variety among the different types.

That being said, there is a nice echo effect that occurs when you are in a contained space like a pipe or lower floor.

Love the display of muzzle flashes when you're shooting in darkened environment. Very well done. Also love the gun metal texturing and the sunlight sheen on the gun that changes as you move the weapon.

A lot more particle effects render realistic looking snowfall around you (Soviet campaign only). Can't say the same for rain, which looks way too pre-animated.

Russian voice acting terrible. Sounds stereotypical, like Americans doing Russian accents. British and American VA is better, but there are still times where the VAs sound like they're trying too hard to be in a combat situation (bad ADR direction).

Soundscape for USSR campaign is well done. You get a sense that you really are in a war zone with people screaming, bullets flying everywhere, explosions nearby, and soldiers/vehicles moving around you. The game designers also did a good job giving the closequarters, city street combat feel that encompassed the majority of the Battle of Stalingrad. Having to go through individual houses, clearing out soldiers, or destroying individual tanks rolling around on the streets was well done. Particularly the former, where it could even get tense having to check rooms for remaining Nazis.

Unfortunately, this gets very repetitive as the majority of the other campaign missions (British and American) consist of the same cityscape fighting where you trudge through an environment, clear it out, and then hold the base until reinforcements arrive. The exception being a couple of tank missions in the British campaign.

Love that grenades send enemy bodies, dead and alive, flying. The particle effects that accompany an impact (whether bullet or grenade) look nice, but it is a reskinned model that is repeated, no matter if you're in snow or dirt.

Did enjoy smoke grenades. They actually help hurt enemy accuracy and provide good escape/movement cover. Welcome addition to the series that I'm sad was removed in the sequels (replaced with flashbangs).

Ally AI is a mixed bag. They do a good job of fighting enemies by shooting them, throwing grenades, and meleeing when in close quarters. But they seem to have two modes- either run out to the enemy in the open, not taking cover. Or taking complete cover and refusing to advance until YOU go out there and clear enough enemies that they are seemingly programmed to go ahead.

Game continues boring documentary intros and diary entries for beginnings of each mission, though at least the docos here seemed realistic to the kinds of movies you would see back in the day, compared to the lame briefings from the first CoD.

Shooting at animal carcasses just creates dirt explosions.

Overall though, I found myself not enjoying Call of Duty 2 due to the aforementioned repetition of the mission structure. Despite playing as the same character, you don't really bond with anyone the way UO at least somewhat succeeded at doing. The campaigns are just war cliches, like a bad attempt at recreating the narratives of Saving Private Ryan and Das Boot without the strong characterization and set pieces those films had.

Game took me about 8-8.5 hours to beat, so at $20.00 it doesn't provide enough content to justify the price. But even if it did, I would recommend getting it on sale or avoiding altogether because I just didn't find it fun at all to play compared to the first one + UO. Combined with the lack of major graphical/sound upgrades from its predecessors + a rehashed story and you have the first cashgrab in the CoD franchise.

Um bom FPS. O feeling de guerra é captado de forma excelente aqui, tanto pelo ambiente quanto pelo gunplay, vc sente que está lutando por sua vida o tempo todo, o fogo cruzado está presente do começo ao fim graças ao sound design ótimo, além da física excelente aplicada nos inimigos, onde por diversas vezes quando recebem tiros não letais, se arrastam pelo campo de batalha pedindo por ajuda ou caem mas usam suas pistolas, lutando pra sobreviver. Boa variação de missões, várias são criativas e torna o jogo menos repetitivo, menos pq ainda é repetitivo, a estrutura de missões são muito similares, principalmente nas últimas missões, onde vc faz quase a mesma coisa.

OST impressionantemente boa, na maioria das vezes o silêncio incomoda, COD não é como Halo ou Metro, onde a ambientação importa tanto quanto a ação, logo, é estranho vc estar num tiroteio intenso sem algo tocando pra te empolgar, mas, tbm se torna um mérito em algumas sessões, pq quando finalmente toca algo, é de extrema qualidade. Graficamente falando é lindo, não importa a época que foi lançado, o gráfico é realmente bom, de problemático, no máximo algumas texturas estranhas e background zoados, o que é compreensível pra um jogo de 2005.

IA dos aliados é horrível, são muito burros e pouco ajudam, principalmente quando vc está em perigo, já os inimigos, são ok, não chegam a ser inteligentes pq ficam parados tomando bala, mas procuram flanquear ou te atacar em grupo, o que dificulta um pouco. Por falar em dificuldade, esse é outro demérito, sendo boa parte do jogo, fácil/moderada, no entanto, estupidamente mais difícil em sua reta final, onde a quantidade de inimigos por missão triplica.

COD 2 é um jogo feito com alma e amor, era quando os desenvolvedores não tinham pressão de uma empresa corporativista que só olha para os números e tinham liberdade pra trabalhar e entregar um bom jogo. Infelizmente hj em dia, isso está longe de ser o caso.