Call of Duty 2 - PC-CDROM
Activision's smash hit "Call Of Duty", the world war II based FPS (first person shooter), got a fantastic revamp and full makeover in late 2005, with the release of its sequel, the aptly named Call Of Duty 2.
There are many similarities between the original and this game, but also many differences. I'm going to give a run through the various features of the game, as well as similarities and differences to the original (and its expansion pack, United Offensive for the PC), and various other things such as bugs, quality etc.
The specifications for Call of Duty 2 first of all. The CPU spec is pretty standard for recent games, if perhaps maybe even a little low, at 1.4ghz (intel rating), Although i would recommend a spec double that. The memory spec, again, standard for the current time, at 256mb/512mb (recommended by the manufacturers), I personally would recommend opting for 1024mb or more to get the best from your game. The gradual phase out of older Windows versions seems to be well underway, as this game will only run on Windows 2000/XP, removing the ME/98 options that a lot of games still have (unlike Age of Empires 3 which went the full way and blotted out all but XP). A hefty 4gb hard drive space for install, along with another 600mb swap file space, brings it to the higher end of specs on that front. Again, both sound and graphics require directx 9.0c compatibility, However whilst the graphics may only require 64mb, the real requirement to note before trying this game, is that the card MUST have a specific type of shading capability, and so as such only specific cards are supported (A list will be given at the end). Although interesting to note, some websites recommend a 256mb Graphics card (thats 4 times the minimum spec), and also recommend the GF6800 PCI-E card as best. I myself had a 6800GT (before I melted it) and found that it ran it very well, on max settings, without any stutter, and so would agree fully that that card, or higher, is recommended.
All that power is not wasted though, the graphics are, in my opinion, stunning! With realistic explosion effects, and some very nice looking characters (from friends, to enemies, to tanks). The guns look more realistic than ever also, with added touches of battle damage here and there (they provoked a comment of 'Ooh Shiney!' from myself and the people watching me play). Although as with the first Call of Duty, the sound takes front spot, with fantastic effects and a lot of attention to detail its astonishing. Watching my housemate play this with surround sound on high had much more of an impact on me sound wise than any other game has, especially when a shell flies in and you get a huge blast nearby.
The gameplay, where to start hmm. Well, as opposed to call of duty ones 2 guns and a pistol weapon system, you are now limited to 2 guns, they can be any 2 guns, but just 2, so you either drop your pistol, or you go without the chance to change firepower for a special situation. The grenades have also changed from being in a weapon list, to simply having a button assigned to each grenade type, very handy as it allows you to throw grenades faster without having to try and change weapon quite so often. The health system has also been changed to more of a halo 2 style. This leaves you with no health bar, as you get shot more your screen will start to blur up, this is the time to flee! In this game, you can be shot as many times as you like, so long as theres not too many hits in too short a time. Simply run away, and allow yourself to recover. This new system means there is no health packs anymore, and it although it has advantages it can also have disadvantages, if you get an enemy down to very low health and he flees, you can't necessarily catch him up later and finish him, he'll be back to full strength. There is a very handy grenade warning indicator now which flashes up when there is a grenade within killing range, something very useful during the missions especially. And finally, you can do just what your squadmates (who seem to have multiplied vastly this time around) can do, and roll/climb over fences, walls and the likes, rather than having to run around in full view and get shot.
Next up for testing, the campaigns. Well, as they should be, the easier settings are easy, the medium are mediumistic, and the hardest...are irritating to the max. With my short attention span i rarely play games on easy, and so only played 1 or 2 missions on the lower difficulties, opting for the higher ones myself. I must say this game took longer than a game normally would for me to finish on the hardest difficulty (out of those i stuck with long enough to finish), with only a few exceptions, those being Call of Duty, and Halo 1 and 2 (although not owning an xbox has slightly hindered me in that respect). Unfortunately though, due to my afore mentioned desire for the harder gameplays...i can only offer a full review of the higher difficulties.
There appears to be infantry everywhere, with all sorts of weapons, and where you would normally expect 1 maybe 2 men in a room on easy, you often find there to be 4 or 5 strategically encamped men on veteran. The ammo for guns is more scarce, and so you will need to try and get hold of the enemy gun so that you can refill it more often by taking their ammo, it may not always be the best gun for the situation, but i myself favor a longer fight over running out of ammo. The AI seem to use grenades a lot more this time around, and so you may often find yourself running for cover. Once again though, you have the wonderful job of being the one guy in the entire army who seems to be able to use any weapon other than the bog standard rifle. As your commanding officer will ask you to pick up a sniper rifle, and then 2 minutes later get in a machine gun nest. Although this is not as bad as CoD:United Offensive, in which the commanding officer would run across a blazing battlefield to fetch you from your post, and order you to fire a machine gun, while you stand wondering why the 3 men playing cards next to it couldn't fire it instead.
There is an annoying feature of the missions, in that particular events cannot be stopped. One such event is on the British campaign in the midst of a town, a few tanks appear to save the day, but suddenly 2 panzerfraust armed Germans appear and take it out, and try all you want, you can't seem to take them down until that tank is toast. That said maybe its better that way, after some hilarious memories of spoiling scripted events in half-life by shooting various people, and watching the events mess up.
There are, again, 3 different mission sets, the Russian, in which you fight through Moscow and Stalingrad with your trusty posh. The British, this time fighting for Field Marshal Rommel in North Africa with the desert rats (on some occasions fending off wave after wave in the middle of the night). And the Americans in Europe, including a D-Day landing! All of these missions naturally coming along with a wonderful selection of a slightly different Olympics, by that obviously i mean endless running, vaulting, jumping, climbing, and rifle shooting, all whilst under heavy machine gun and tank fire!
There are one or too driving mission sections, usually involving you sitting atop a tank endlessly gunning on the turrets pintle-mounted machine gun. Some of the sections of missions are absolutely evil in my opinion, one British section in which you get turfed out of your jeep, and have to try and fend off Germans appearing on the rooftops all around you, whilst you're enclosed in some sort of little rectangular killing pit (think along the lines of the shower room from The Rock, but outdoors and sandy). This would be alright, if half the Germans weren't armed with anti-tank weapons and causing horrifically large explosions making you shell shocked and usually, dead. I must say that the British missions are my favorite, possibly due to the wonderfully large automatic rifle of sorts, the Bren LMG.
Weapons, hmm, well theres a number of new weapons/weapon changes, the Russians now have a smaller, slower R.O.F, and more accurate version of the posh, which i believe is the PPsh 40, i may be mistaken, and i shall find out when i repair my GFX. The British seem to have gained the Thompson, much to my delight. The main gun i noticed being new, and possibly the only one I'm ever going to mention now, is the (As far as i know), multi-player only weapon, the Trench Gun! Available for all sides this weapon is pretty much, a shotgun. Something i sorely missed in Call Of Duty. There is also a new American weapon called the 'Grease Gun'. A Very small fast firing Sub-Machine gun, with quite an amusing pinging sort of firing sound, (For those Counter-Strike lovers out there, think a gun like the Mac10, with the firing sound crossed with a TMP).
The multi-player has entranced me severely, fast paced, and with the excellent sounds, does give a feel of being in a war. I enjoyed thoroughly sitting on online servers leaping through windows with the shotgun. A few things have changed in the multi-player, for one thing there is no more weapon pickups (such as panzerfrausts) lying around. Grenades no longer seem to be dropped and able to pickup (although you could only do this if the player died with one in their hand). And, something i am unhappy about, the United Offensive ranking system (the more kills you get, the more grenades you are gifted, and eventually, artillery!) has gone away. Now, the grenades you get are dictated by what weapon you choose (or i suppose, as i should call it now, 'Kit'). Some people have found a bug in the multi-player which allows people to see through walls, in fact there was a gamer strike against the makers for not fixing this. But, a patch is soon to be released (this is actually one of the first games I've played which hasn't required patching before online play), and personally I've not seen any of this (and if they were cheating, they weren't very good :) ).
All in all, in my opinion, a fantastic game, which i give 9 out of 10. And i eagerly await a team game online...now...if only i could find someone to play with, and a new graphics card.
