The original Call of Duty wasn't the first world war 2 shooter to come out, in fact there was no shortage of games to choose from in this genre, but still it managed to stand out. The feeling that you were just one part of a huge war was what made it so successful. The other world war 2 shooters didn't feel as real as COD. It was hard to believe that an individual could kill so many Nazis and complete the objectives on his own. In COD, you felt like part of a team, and every objective met felt like an accomplishment for that team.

Call of Duty 2 retains this feeling of teamwork; you are consistently surrounded by dozens of team mates, and placed in the centre of huge firefights between allied and axis troops. The developers have kept the great gameplay and improved the AI and graphics hugely. The locales and indeed the characters look beautiful.

Large scale battles are commonplace in this game, with dozens of enemies and allies on screen at once. There are few games that can offer the excitement of seeing 25 or 30 Germans charging through the smoke towards you on the battlefield. You get to take part in your fair share of charges too, using smoke grenades to your advantage.

The enemy are challenging; they will advance on your position, flush you out from behind cover with grenades and when shot, they will react realistically. Sometimes an enemy will limp away to find cover, or if his weapon has been dropped and he is laying on the ground dying, he will draw his pistol and take pot-shots at you. This makes for exciting gameplay, as enemies that are down aren't necessarily out for the count. You have to carefully check the corpses of fallen enemies to ensure they aren't drawing their sidearm or crawling away.

In some ways, though, the AI spoils the game. It knows too well the advantages of using grenades, and with what appears to be an inexhaustible supply of the things, enemies will consistently sit behind cover and bombard you with grenades for what seems like an eternity. All you can do is sit tight behind a wall until they start shooting at you again. The gameplay can be broken up by these extended periods of grenade use, and it detracts from the fun somewhat. Storming a building can be frustrating too. Until you actually enter the building, the enemies just seem to re-spawn endlessly. You are forced to storm the buildings rather than sitting back and softening the enemy up with long range fire.

The game borrows heavily from films such as Saving Private Ryan and Enemy at the Gates, going so far as to recreate music that sounds very similar to fans of either of those films. Crawling through pipelines in Moscow is particularly reminiscent of a scene from enemy at the gates.

The Russian and British campaigns are noticeably easier than the American one, and both of them can be completed relatively quickly. The weapons are much the same as in the first game, with a few additions, but this can't be helped in what is quite a true to life game. I don't like the fact that the British can now use the Tommy gun and Garand rifle on multiplayer though.

All in all Call of Duty 2 is still a must have for any FPS fan. The steep system requirements are worth the playing experience that the game provides, and while I wouldn't have bought the game for it's release price, you can now pick up a copy for under a tenner on ebay. If you are a WW2 shooter fan, and you enjoy visceral gameplay and large scale battles then this is definitely a game to look for.

Call of Duty 2 is very good especially online multiplayer where you can play on different maps and even make your own server, i would recomend this game to anyone that likes military games

If you haven't played Call of Duty 1 before, then I think you will enjoy this game more than those who have. The game play isn't as promised by IGN because the maps are bigger therefore the game play is not faster but in the end you can do what you want to and there are a wide range of gametypes and maps so I suppose it doesnt really matter.
The graphics are very realistic with effects that make you feel like you are actually playing in the war yourself.
It is very addictive which I think shows its worth its money.

Finally, Call of Duty 2, the sequel has been released to one of the best WW2 games.

As expected, it follows a similar path of the introduction movie and first title screen, with a familiar interface that many Call of Duty veterans will recognise.

What will differ (firstly) to its big brother, is that the main chapters are set out (albeit, revealed as the player progresses through the game). This is to give the game its semi- non linear character. I say semi-non linear because it is still a case of progress through the levels, though now the player has a choice of advancing chronologically (i.e1942 to 1943) or following a character/nation throughout their battles on the game. As always,a realistic training mode is compulsory, featuring USSR conscripts

However, once the player enters the game, the real downfall is that it has a new health system, whereby once you get hit, waiting a few seconds will get you near fully recovered. Even on veteran difficulty, i found this made it too short. However this is a subjective view and the experience may differ for others.

A major improvement is that the artificial intelligence now speaks to each other (which are not scripted) to give orders and warnings and this improves on the realism of the whole game.

The graphics have been tweaked up too and thus explosions and the rifles themselves look far more superior than its predecessor.

As for the multiplayer, well the whole experience has gone down since United Offensive (CoD's expansion pack) which allowed Tanks an Self propelled artillery to be played against each other. No more and thus it feels like the producers have let the customers down.

So to conclude, It is a very fun game, but it can be short. Depending on the graphic settings gameplay can be choppy. A user friendly training and improved graphics makes this game great fun, and although the multiplayer has gone backwards, it is still fun.

Call of Duty 2 is definitely worth buying for online competative gamers and first timers. The gameplay is fast, skillfull and very entertaining and could be argued to be the best first person shooter ever.
At the moment the game is buggy, and sometimes annoying, but this will be fixed and made better and better as the game goes on so don't let that hold you back!
You will need a good computer with a good graphics card, but the game will run on most computers, It's just if you want to have your in game graphics on high detail ;).