My Call of War review

[page=The Return of War]

Call of Duty came out in 2003 and turned out to be one of the best World War II games ever created. It has had one expansion as well as console versions of the game. There is no doubt that this game will be remembered. It’s 2005 now, and on the 25th of October, Call of Duty 2 was released for PC (soon to come out on X360 as well). I’m not so big on these World War II games. In fact, I’m very much sick of this genre of games. I used to play lots of Battlefield 1942, and every now and then I play Day of Defeat: Source. However, I never played much of Call of Duty for long. I think I got to a few levels after Stalingrad in the Russian campaign. But these days, I’m a little determined on keeping myself busy, and with the release of Call of Duty 2; I haven’t had much trouble at all. It isn’t the best game I have ever played, but it has definitely treated me well so far. The Competition is usually a little tough around this season of the year, but Call of Duty 2 has marked its place as being a damn good game. Call of Duty is great for its gameplay and most notably, it’s storytelling of history.

[page=The Mechanics of a Tank]

You know, I still find it funny. I really am sick of seeing destructed buildings, Panzer Tanks, and aged machine guns like the Thompson or MP40. In fact, it almost hurts to think about it now. But somehow Infinity Ward does a decent job of getting the player immersed into the game. One of the obvious techniques they did this was the new graphics technology. Previously, Call of Duty used id’s Quake III engine. But with what I’m assuming with bigger funds and experience, the team has put together a great looking engine of their own. Its sole purpose is for the World War II experience, and so supposedly it should suit the game very well. However, this is not how I feel. The graphics are indeed pretty, but at the same time a lot looks funky to me. I’m not too fond of the shiny bump mapping bullshit all of the time. There are many times in the game where the polygons rendered on screen look extraordinarily pretty and disgustingly ugly. All of the environments look outstanding. Stalingrad looked amazing with the tall snowy, destructed buildings soaring over my vision. In El Alamein, the sandy hills and numerous vehicles driving over the desolate desert made me think, “Wow…” The Cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc made me feel kind of sad with the big gray clouds hung oppressively in the sky. My problem with the graphics engine however rested on some of the player models. A lot of the time the players looked like little plastic toys. For example, in the first level, the commander is instructing you in a short tutorial. I really couldn’t stop looking at him because he looked so weird. The lighting on his wrinkly skin made him look like he had some condition or cancer. But nothing is perfect. The company did do a very good job for a shift from the Quake technology.

The game play stays true to its predecessor. Call of Duty 2 allows you to vision through three different soldiers from the Russian, British, and American forces. You’re capable of carrying two weapons as well as some frag and smoke grenades. Cover is a necessary strategy and sometimes should be thought twice about. Although I did find a lot of parts where I could just run in a room a shoot everyone at once, leaving some repetition and boredom. The A.I is one of the few things that disappoint me in this game, but hopefully it will be improved in patches. I found that many times my comrades were blocking my way from going up or down stairs. Sometimes the German troops didn’t even recognize me as an enemy and stood still until I shot them two feet away.

One nice addition that separates this from the first is the health system. Like games such as Halo, the player’s health recharges after moving away from combat and avoiding gunfire, allowing the gameplay to be much more intense. I didn’t seem to find the sounds as dramatic as I hoped them to be. The sounds of the rolling tanks or flying planes just didn’t raise my level of adrenaline did opposed to say Battlefield 2, which practically made me piss my pants. Another nice and comfortable change was the selection of campaigns. After playing through a number of levels you can unlock a new campaign whether its British or American to remove repetition. Other than these minor mechanics, the formula of the game is pretty much the same and remains enjoyable.

Fans of Call of Duty’s multiplayer will rejoice if they decide to pick up a copy of it’s sequel. The game modes are the same as the first with a collection of maps, as well as remakes such as St. Mere Eglise, one of the fan favorites. The netcode seems properly done, and I know fans such as hammy-bob will really really love it.

So to conclude this rusty review, I have to admit, I really did enjoy myself during the play. And indeed, I’ll probably continue to play even more. World War II is not my favorite era of time to cover in a game, but after playing Call of Duty 2 I knew it was something I had to do. The little mechanics that annoyed me will probably not be a problem to many of you gamers out there. This game is definitely going to be played for quite a while, and hopefully we’ll get around to seeing more modifications utilizing its technology. This game was definitely more enjoyable for me than the first, which i felt was a little too repetitive. COD 2 does come served with repetition here and there, but throughout the game Infinity Ward did indeed try to keep with memorable moments. And so in the end, I rate this game 4 out of 5 spanners.