Call of Duty 2

"A Truly Cinematic Experience"

Story (8/10): This is a World War II combat simulation, as such it's limited in "original storytelling." However, the developers took great care to immersing the player both historically and virtually. Moreover, two of its three missions are quite interesting in choice, specifically Stalingrad and the North Africa campaign, as they are territory generally not explored by the mainstream. Western society seems to care little about the massive Russian casualties in WW2 (which greatly outnumbered all the other ally casualties combined), and Western society (specifically US society) cares so much about solely D-Day and the corresponding march on Berlin that areas like North Africa or East Asia or the Pacific Theatre in general get completely neglected. While Call of Duty 2 does have the requisite D-Day mission, its selection in its other missions is most appreciated and well selected.

That being said, each mission is accompanied by a beginning "Military Channel" clip with short slideshows in between each part of a mission, which serves to flesh out the details and nuances of the missions and the scope of the mission you're undertaking, both historically and in game. These slide shows and video clips are chosen quite well, especially the rousing speech by Eisenhower preceding the D-Day clip.

Sound (10/10): Amazing. Simply amazing. American audiences have been overly spoiled by movies like Saving Private Ryan and the sheer chaos of war. Too easy is it for a developer to resort to simply looping and ambient background track of gunshots and explosions to try and mimic such chaos, but Call of Duty 2 presents an accurate simulacrum of the real deal. If you've got a great sound system, you've got to jack it up, because the sound design is phenomenal. The ambience is absolutely amazing, especially in the some of the more chaotic North Africa and D-Day mission parts, as you could be completely safe from harm, yet still have adrenaline pumping in your veins from the sheer immersiveness of the production.

That being said, the designers have striven very hard to pull out the sounds that any male has become intimately familiar with as a result of viewing Saving Private Ryan. The M1 Garand has the satisfying (if disastrously-designed) metal clang when a clip depletes, the Kar98K has the satisfying feel of a bolt-action rifle, and the in-game heartbeat you hear when you muffle your breath to steady a scoped rifle is intense, among others. Simply well done.

The music, however, is a bit stereotypical war fare, but it serves its purpose well, and is only employed at key moments, which means that the background gunfire and explosions serve as the primary background music for your gameplay.

Replayability (9/10): The missions are a bit less varied than I would like (though the North Africa campaign is amazingly well-conceived), the varying levels of difficulty provide for ample amounts of single-player run throughs. But this is definitely a game where you need to do multiplayer. That's simply it. By virtue of being an FPS with a reasonable fan base, you will have all the replayability you need, provided you have a good internet connection (and really, who doesn't these days?).

Gameplay (9/10): It becomes *painfully* clear that the designers of Call of Duty 2 were heavily influenced by Saving Private Ryan. Which is not a bad thing. Saving Private Ryan was a tour de force movie by Steven Spielberg. Spielberg presented images and scenes and moments that would forever embed themselves into the public conscious and is a testament to his skills as a director. As a source of inspiration, Call of Duty 2 can't really do worse. To anyone who saw the movie (and if you haven't, you should), there are distinct moments that echo from the movie. If an explosion goes off near you (that doesn't kill you outright), the screen starts blurring and the sound becomes heavily muted for a while, until the sound comes back with a tell-tale whirring of some shot. While Half-Life 2 did so similarly, Call of Duty 2 clearly uses Saving Private Ryan as its inspiration. Moreover, there are many lines and events that are directly inspired by the movie. Such as your initial moments in the D-Day campaign. Again, these direct inspirations are not really a bad thing, because it serves in making Call of Duty 2 a cinematic experience.

And this is where Call of Duty 2 truly shines. You feel less like playing a game than you rae watching a good war movie or series like Band of Brothers. As a straightforward FPS, it's not terribly innovative. You have guns, you fire them, you can occasionally throw grenades. You can take a few hits, but you won't die as long as you don't take too much damage at once. Pretty straightforward and bland. But the presentation is amazing. Gene Siskel once declared that a great movie needed to have three memorable scenes to go along with no bad ones. It seems like the designers of CoD2 employed that ethos as their design philosophy. I can think of countless amazing, cinematic moments within the game. The standoff against the German counterattack in the Russian campaign. Or, the absolutely amazing Sherman charge into the Panzers in the North Africa campaign; as the Shermans had a far shorter range than the Panzers, you spend the first minute or so in a tense, blind charge in the desert towards the Panzers, as radio chatter becomes clogged with the screams of your allies as they get hit and explode before ever seeing action. Or the chaotic German ambush in the North Africa campaign. Or the chaotic last stand atop Hill400 in the D-Day campaign. All these make up easily for the weakness in gameplay innovation.

Final Assessment (9/10): CoD2 is a wonderfully created cinematic game. A relatively simple war game design, coupled with strong voice acting, appropriately timed music, and masterfully crafted sound, you can't help but feel your spirits rise as you re-enact historic campaigns. And a game that can actually have moments where it moves me emotionally (the game can be strongly evocative of the sense of chaos and danger that the real soldiers of WW2 faced) has done something resoundingly right. This game is easily worth your time.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/06