Call of Duty 2 Review

Overall Rating

Unrivalled sense of realism
Fast, tense, atmospheric action
Solid singleplayer and utterly brilliant multiplayer

Doesn't quite push the 360 visually
Tank sections drag on a little
Not enough Bazookas! Blowing stuff up is fun...

Call of Duty on the PC has always been fantastic, but although the console versions were great they were never as good as the PC version, this time however, we get the PC game.

The first thing you'll notice is the fantastic atmosphere, debris is constantly flying around everywhere, explosions, cross-fire, troops running around and aircraft ducking about and you're in the middle of it, unlike EA's Medal of Honor you don't take them out on your own, you're always part of a unit and they'll effectively do their part firing away and taking the enemy out. You're virtually always under fire and on harder difficulties you will need to use cover a lot, and the scale of war is like no game has ever before come close to.

You'll fight on 3, nicely varied locations, firstly in Russia, then onto Africa and finally into France, all 3 locations are brilliant and in Africa you'll get a good laugh or two from the somewhat comical British troops.

The weapons are all authentic and good fun to use, you've got a decent selection of rifles and machine guns to choose from, as well sniper rifles and a shotgun, but even the lowely pistol can hold it's own if need be, and your eyes will light up on the rare occasions when you get hold of a bazooka.
The tank sections are a little dissapointing though, the first section kicks off to a great start but is over very quickly, and it's all a little slow from there but it's a welcome break to the on-foot warfare, just don't expect these to become your favourites.

The graphics are slightly hit and miss, but mostly they do the job brilliantly. The debris, explosions and especially the smoke are all incredible and at times there will be dozens of troops on screen at the same time and not a hint of slowdown. One particularly breath-taking section is in the Russian campaign, you and your squad have recaptured a Germen held building and you prepare for a counter attack, you position in a window and watch as several smoke grenades go off, then dozens upon dozens of Germens dash out of the smoke and rush your squad, it's simply mind blowing. The only downer here is that the animation on the troops is a little stiff, and although it all looks great you just know the 360 can more.
The soundtrack only adds to the authenticity, subtle bursts of musical score on occasions but the constant gunfire, screaming of troops and captains issuing orders is brilliant, and troop chatter is based on your situation, they'll gladly warn you about grenades, enemy tanks and where incoming fire is coming from.

And as if it wasn't good enough, it's got a fantastic multiplayer mode that simply outshines every other WWII game and even gives the heavy-hitters such as TimeSplitters a very good run for their money. The only problem is that the areans are fairly large (to accomdate 16 players over Live) so if you're playing split screen you're gonna really need more than just you and one mate, but with 3 or 4 of you playing it's a fantastic way to waste an entire day away, and on Live you can 16 players, and have an all out war, with human players, and that has gotta be the best thing since Goldeneye 64

So overall, if you like FPS's at all, you'll love this, if you've got equally minded friends or Live then you'll be playing this for years, well at least till Call of Duty 3 comes out.
The only real downside I can think of is the lack of bazookas! I mean everyone loves to blow stuff up... and you can't use them in multiplayer at all, but I'm just being picky here, you've still got grenades and they're a lot of fun!