Call of Duty 2 (PC)

So here it is, Call Of Duty 2, the highly anticipated FPS ( First Person Shooter ), sequel to the Game of The Year: Call Of Duty, now I know that there are a million and three World War 2 shooters out there but this game stands a head an shoulders above its competition providing you with a thrilling experiance everytime you load it up.

The Single Player Game:
The game is split up into two main sections, Single Player and Multiplayer, if you don't have an internet connection you will only be able to enjoy single player as there is no options to have bots in multiplayer, however the game does have LAN ( Local area network ) support so if you are into that then Call Of Duty 2 is your game and as multiplayer can be played without a CD you will only need 1 copy of the game to play on LAN with all your fellow LAN gamers.

The Single Player game has three main campaigns spanning the entirity of World War 2, the Russian Campaign, the British Campaign and the American Campaign. Each of the three campaigns has atleast three battles with each of those battles giving you two to four missions, the result is a pretty decent length game. Now although the game is of reasonable length it does not get stale half way through, like many WWII shooters nowadays do recycling the same trick over and over, Call Of Duty 2 provides you with constanty fresh and interesting objectives that range from, calling in air-strikes, riding on a gun turret, flanking your enemy, clearing a building or even driving your very own Challenger tank!

Great Gameplay:
There are a few really interesting and unique things about Call Of Duty 2, the first is immediately obvious, it has no health bar. Gone are the days of hunting for medipacks! Instead when you are shot up abit your character will start to breath heavily, if you are shot more the screen will become covered in blood and you will hear your heart beating, now when this happens all you have to do is find a nice spot of cover, listen to your character pant a bit and hey presto, your back to normal.

The second great feature about Call Of Duty 2 is its atmosphere, there are many soldiers on your side as well as with the enemy so it no longer feels like your a one man army! The third thing is the amazing soundtrack, no Im not talking about a musical score ( which is present and is good ) Im talking about the voicework, the soldiers on your side are constantly in communication alerting you of the enemy positions, grenades and so forth, cursing when they are hit and celebrating when the enemy is taken down. The enemy is also in constant communication and yes the Germans do actually speak German!

Weaponary:
The thing that makes or breaks any shooter is the gunplay, Call Of Duty 2 provides some of the best gunplay around with its fantastic shooting system. You can choose to fire your weapon normally or you can aim down its sights for increased accuracy. Although there are crosshairs they are very loose so if you want to aim precisely looking down your sights is a must. There is a wide array of weaponary to get your hands on, if it was is WWII chances are its in this game, here is a list of weapons:

Pistols: Perfect for close range one on one combat, one of your standard weapons is one of the following pistols you will sometimes be issued with one of these at the start of a mission.
- Colt .45
- Luger
- Webley
- TT-33

Rifles: The Standard issue of battle rifles, perfect for most situations, you will sometimes be given one of these at the start of every mission.
- M1A1 Carbine
- M1 Garand
- Kar98k
- Gewehr 43
- Lee-Enfield
- Mosin-Nagant
- Tokarev SVT-40

Submachine Guns: With large clips and good stopping power this is the perfect choice for taking out large groups of enemys, you will sometimes be given one of these at the start of a mission.
- Thompson
- Grease Gun
- MP40
- Sten
- PPSh
- PPS-42
- MP44

Support Weapons: Heavy machine guns, fantastic and gunning down hoardes of enemy units but beware you wont be able to run as fast while holding one of these. You will have to find these on the field.
- BAR
- Bren LMG

Sniper Rifles: Perfect for taking out enemys from a distance, they'll never know what hit them! You usually have to find these on the field.
- Springfield
- Scoped Kar98k
- Scoped Gewehr 43
- Scoped Lee-Enfield
- Scoped Mosin-Nagant

Grenades: You always get a few trusty grenades at the start of each mission, the standard grenades just blow stuff up but the smoke grenade will emit clouds of smoke perfect for throwing infront of an enemy machine gun.
- M2 Frag Grenade
- Stielhandgranate
- MK1 Frag Grenade
- RGD-33
- AN-M8 Smoke Grenade

Multiplayer:
The multiplayer in this game is one of its strongest features, you can take all the great weaponary from offline play and shove upto 64 players in a game for great online fun in many different modes:
Deathmatch (DM): Its a free for all, everyone vs eachother! This mode is immense fun and can really heat up if there are 20+ players playing.
Team Deathmatch (TDM): Two teams (allies vs axis) of equal size battle it out, each side using its unique weaponary.
Capture The Flag (CTF): Two teams, two flags, the objective capture the enemys flag and bring it back to your home base to win.
Search and Destroy (SD): Two teams (allies vs axis) of equal size battle it out, in this mode there are two ways to score points, either eliminate the enemy or set up a headquarters and defend it for as long as possible.
All these modes are fantastic and will provide anyone lucky enough to play this game with hour upon hour of fun. Can this ever get old!! I doubt it.

The Graphics:
The graphics in this game are mind blowing! the character models are crisp and clean, the world is fantastic and sharp, all of the guns look glorious, the light and shadow effects are staggering, the smoke looks awesome. With so much going on screen at once I dont know how this game was made possible, every second of it is eye candy. If you expect to run this game at its best settings you better own the latest and greatest in computer technology!

System Requirements:
1.4 GHz Prozessor (Celeron / Duron)
512 MB RAM
ATi Radeon 9200 / GeForce 4 128MB

My Specs:
2.6 GHZ Celeron
768MB Ram
ATi Radeon 9550 256MB
I could play the game fine with no performance issues but I had to switch to Direct X 7 rendering in Direct X 9 rendering the framerate could get (number of times the display is updated per second) quite choppy.

The Verdict:
Call Of Duty 2 is a gem, a brilliant game for all First Person shooter fans or World War II enthusiast, and a great game for anyone who is remotely interested in games to add to their collection. Miss this at your own peril! For those of you without a PC this game is also available on the Xbox360.

Game Info:
Publisher: Activision
Rating: 15 BBFC (it has quite alot of blood)
Price: £20-30 at all good video game retailers
Also available on: Xbox 360. (dont confuse with Call Of Duty 2: The Big Red One)