Call of Duty 2 (PC, 2005)

With so many War World II game titles out on the market today you would think that most people had enough them. Especially the bad ones that so often sneack in on their quest to take a piggy back ride on a good title. Lucky for us all Call of Duty 2 isn't one of thos and frankly very far from it. One chaotic battle after another make this game hard to place down. Call of Duty 2 stays a bit true to the first call of duty with Campaign strures as you can Russian, British and Americann grunts. What's I like about this single player is that it doen't feel like your alone. It's is squad base and you have people fighting by you when you clear a building or bunker out. Some time it reminds me a bit of Repulic Commando. In CoD2 it is usally you nd your squad job to repel invasion or lead an attack again impossible odds unitil reenforcement comes. Not a big fan of the linear path CoD2 take as it leads you along, I would kind like to a explore a little on my own. But the movie type clips help as the story unfolds before you. But lets face it, it would be CoD2 with out movies in it. Changing campaigns in games at will in game is nice. If you finished one russian stage, then you can switch to a Britch stage.
Weapons in CoD2 are really nice. It;s is usually pointless to run around shoting. You usaaly miss any way. Alot different then Half Life or Conter Strike. Best tatics are to stop aim and take cover. When enemies take cover or hide in a fox hole it is time to flush them out with a few gernades. Also when you see the green grnade insictor light up it is usally a clue you have to run and really fast. Blue blazes!! Why did they take my health bar and armor away from me. CoD2 is using this new system to tell when oyur talking damage that makes your screen go a bit transparent as you get hit and then turns complete bloody when you are close to death,. Starting to breath heavy is a bad sign. Hopeful the screen being splaterd wit the red vission of blood gave you the firs clue. This isn;t at all an unrealistic aproach . I would think that a unrealistic approach would be the health packs and armor packs scattered over the battle feild. Retreat when you need to recover, just like in Halo.
Play with the AI is fun, however they are limited and do not do all the work for you. CoD2 graphic are great and over all eye candy and you will be amazed at ever turn. This game will quick turn in to a classic.

CoD2Mutiplayer hasn't really changed much. They added free for all deathmatch. Mutiplaye is team based: team DM, Capture the Flag, Search and Destroy and Blah Blah blah. There are even a few good mods out for it now. "Headquarters"is one of them and it is an offical Mod.Your team tries to take control of a radio that spawns in at different points if the map. Your Job is basic to maintain controlas long as possible. Several Maps from the first Call of Duty have ported to CoD2 giving you a lot of what what work well in the first agme and dding on to it.
Call of Duty is a great game that will leave you hungry for battle or running and hiding form it. Some fights are so big that you may have to take a break evenn if you don't want to. Basicly the developers are sticking with what is working for them here while at the same time sill taking steo ahead in the right direction. I would have to give this game an A+. The game screams buy me and pay me.

Good Game

Game Play
This game starts with you being tossed a gun in the middle of the war torn Russian Front defending against the Nazis as a grunt in the Soviet Army. Although the game starts out tough (I had set on normal or medium) after you die a dozen or so times (It puts you back almost where you left off most of the time) you learn the ropes of being a solider during World War II. By the time I beat the Russian and British Campaigns to get to the American Campaign I was dying a whole lot less and had learned and devised my own tactics and ways around certain missions.

Sound
The sounds were outstanding as each gun shot sounded unique according to the environment you were occupying. Tanks sounded like Tanks, Planes whizzing by my head almost made me duck, Nazi Troops barking orders at one another let me know if I was surrounded. Note:I have a 4.1 Logitech system so I could hear weather sounds were in front or behind, this came in handy a lot.

AI
Although a hindrance in other games the AI in COD 2 was outstanding as the soliders around you rarely get in your way and truly do lay down cover fire when you need it. They warn you of approaching enemy tanks, grenades, and mortar fire, they throw smoke and frag grenades and tell you the position of approaching ground troops.

Graphics
The graphics for this game are outstanding especially during dessert missions. You can tell how much time and effort was put into intricate details. On my system I noticed very little stuttering or freezing. Even the "drab" colors of war held their own beauty sometimes. From the biggest Tank to the smallest frag grenade or bullet this game is a buffet for your eyes.

The Down Side
The only reason I did not give this game an "Excellent" or 5 out of 5 is in my opinion the game was a little short.

Overall
If your looking for a solid First Person Shooter Game I would absolutely recommend this.

The game is intense and totally worth the money. If you are into the True meaning of War, and how it actually went down this game is for you. WW2 was the
worst War in History, and this game lays it out perfectly of how the United States and it's Allies went to battle Hilters Superior Army! What don't I like about the game, at times it will freeze for no apparent reason, I 've yet to figure that out, but don't let that stop you from being part of Americas History through their eyes.If you believe what you see when you step into there shoes, you'll be amazed at how truly hard it was for anyone to come home Alive. My Graditude to the Men and Women who made it possible to play this game through their eyes. Thank You, AAAAAAAAAAA's Across the Board !!! ZEEK.

Probably the best First Person Shooter for a WWII scenario of it's time. The single player version follows a good story line. It can be tedious at times but if set at the hardest level, can be quite challenging. The single player portion is somewhat short but is a basic warm up to the multiplayer format.

Once you are comfortable with the controls, follow the guide to join a server from the internet. There are literally thousands of variations and modifications to almost every facet of the game. Some servers have Canadian and Japanese skins (instead of British and German). There are hundreds of unique maps to play on and several game types to play ie. TDM, DM, SD, CTF, HQ etc. Many servers stream Punkbuster to weed out hackers and cheats.

Multiplayer access is free.

Visit/join www.virtualmercs.com for more info.

¤VM¤ Slacker

Game Play
5 of 5 stars

Graphics
5 of 5 stars

Sound
5 of 5 stars

A.I.
4 of 5 stars

Pros:

Cons:

Overall:
This is a good title and will provide several hours of entertainment.

Had to install an automatic update to allow the game to resume from pause mode after a saved game load.

Please note: this title was reviewed using a Dell XPS Gen 4, P4 HT @ 3.20 GHz, 4 Gig RAM, Dual 160 SATA RAID(0) hard drives and a nVidia GeForce 6800 256mb PCIe video adapter. It is important to read and understand the minimum and recommended system requirements for any PC video game. Systems that are faster than the minimum may provide significantly better performance and improve your gaming experience. Some PC video games list specific video card requirements and will not function without.

It is also important to mention (because we sell video games on ebay) that we do not sell titles as NEW once they are opened and installed for testing. Most test games find a home with one of our testors (employees) and in rare circumstances, we will sell clearly marked as opened and used.