Call of Duty 2

The Good
The graphics are cosmetically better than the prequel, with eye catching lighting and shadows. Just like the first game, you experience the war from the American, British and Russian perspectives. Though the Battle of Stalingrad isn't too different from what you've seen before, there are notable battles intriguing enough to play, including the Second Battle of El Alamein, Point de Hoc and Hill 400.

There are some new welcoming features such as the grenade warning indicator, smoke bombs for cover, a decent arsenal of weapons and some vehicles to mount and maneuver. Each mission does present an interesting number of objectives on the offensive, defensive and covert parts. It's neat that in a couple of those missions you can complete the objectives in any order you wish. Then it's nice to make the acquaintance of Captain Price in the British missions.

The Bad
Much that the first game had to offer is tarnished by a volley of flaws from the upgraded engine and additional features. This is where the traditional reddening screen from taking wounds and regeneration begins in the rest of the series, which makes it hard to see who's shooting and shakes you off your otherwise perfect aim (especially sniping). There's no fun in most battles as you spend half the time ducking and covering from grenade after grenade, ruining the pace you would expect from a shooter.

Then come the many minor problems. For one, it takes so many more bullets to kill a single enemy (even on the easiest difficulty) with torso shots than it would in real life. It's disappointing that you can now only carry two weapons, not including a sidearm for a third. And there's no way to sprint, as was the case in United Offensive. Lastly, there's little in the way of music and none coming from the brilliant Michael Giacchino. And the sound effects are awful with constant chaotic yelling erupting from soldiers who sound like they escaped from a looney compartment.

The Bottom Line
The game mechanics take a lot of getting used to if you're so acquainted with the first game. It fails to capture the real feel of warfare and the fun ends quicker than it begins. When you've breezed through all three campaigns, there's just no real incentive to replay them again. This sequel feels kind of like it's riding on the back of the prequel and not showing off its full potential. If you get bored of this game, you'll be begging for another Call of Duty 1 expansion pack. Don't miss out on this game, but don't think you'll miss playing it after you finished it.

The Good
The game looks fantastic, even with low detail settings - it's very scalable, and can run on older machines. The sounds are just awesome - if your windows aren't shaking from all the mortar fire, then your speakers aren't loud enough! The combat chatter that both friends and enemies will shout really adds to the atmosphere, and the weapons look and feel highly realistic. This truly feels like a war.

The Bad
There just aren't enough missions. Just as the game feels like it's reaching its climax, it stops. Multiplayer is also somewhat flawed.

The Bottom Line
This is a very awesome World War 2 shooter, and in my opinion, is the standard by which all further WW2 games should follow.

The Good
>>> Gameplay (Rating: 8/10)
The story-line brings you through the Russian, British and American campaigns. Each time you switch to a new campaign, you play as a different character. It's a cool way to play and they've got some neat new guns I've never seen before.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Rating: 9/10)
I absolutely loved all of the things that the AI said! They would run around shooting, while taunting the enemy. "You poor fascists came all this way just to die!!" They also had a great variety in the intelligence of the AI, the privates weren't too smart, but the captains and such were very smart; this was great to see.

Graphics (Rating: 8/10)
Stunning detail here. Their was a guy standing next to me and he stepped in front of the window to see if it was clear (how stupid); he was immediately shot in the head by an MG42 that flipped him over! It was awesome to watch; the ragdoll physics of this game make all of the shots different and it sure is nice. You could also see that a lot of detail was put into the soldier's faces; their faces looked quite real. There was also a part early in the game, in the Russian campaign, at which we blew down a large building; the graphics from the explosion were amazing! Smoke and debris were everywhere. Speaking of smoke, this game has the best smoke grenades of any game ever! If you throw a smoke grenade, you cannot see through it at all; these are the best smoke effects I've ever seen.

Audio (Rating: 9/10)
Great sound effects and I loved all of the different voices they used for the AI.

Multiplayer (Rating: 10/10)
Although I only ever play Deathmatch, I am extremely pleased with the Multiplayer in this game. I could sit there and play multiplayer for hours. Yes, it's just your basic Deathmatch, but the areas they've got make this fun.

The Bad
>>> Gameplay (Rating: 8/10)
The story-line was all that immersive; it was good, but I'd say it could've been somewhat more immersive. I would've been much more "in to" the game if I hadn't had to keep switching characters each time I played a new campaign, but that definitely made sense. You play a Russian in the Russian campaign, British in the British campaign and American in the American campaign.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Rating: 9/10)
Some of the AI were stupid, but some of them were very smart. Nothing I didn't like about the AI.

Graphics (Rating: 8/10)
Some of the explosions, such as the first one in the game that blew up a vehicle, we're very unrealistic. Flat fire (a technique known as billboarding) flew up into the air. I said to myself, "No way is that next-gen graphics." Many times layers of flat fire will be used and it can look realistic, but this didn't.

Audio (Rating: 9/10)
Some of the sounds seemed to have come from earlier versions of Call of Duty or some other game; I've definitely heard these old sounds in other WWII games.

Multiplayer (Rating: 10/10)
Nothing I didn't like about the multiplayer.

The Bottom Line
>>> Overall Rating: 8.5/10
Oh yeah, buy it. It's a great next-gen game with graphics like you would not believe. As I said, the story isn't incredibly immersive, but single player was still really fun to play. Multiplayer is definitely awesome. So what are you waiting for? Go get it!