Call of Duty 2 is, at the time
of it's release in October 2003, the best war
shooter to date. It's not quite the best shooter
of 2005. Quake 4 is my pick with F.E.A.R. slightly
ahead as well. But being third best of the year
in a shooter sub-genre dominated by bland level
design and repetitive gameplay, is a good accomplishment.
Call Of Duty 2 proves that
the realistic level design required for war
shooters doesn't have to be ugly and uninspiring.
It's miles ahead of 2005's other contenders
including Vietcong 2 and Brothers In Arms. While
the original Call Of Duty was okay in the design
department, particularly for 2003, it wasn't
amazing. Call Of Duty 2 doesn't look amazing
either, but it's the consitency that counts.
There's variety in design from Moscow and Stalingrad,
Egypt, Libya, Germany and even the expected
Omaha beach raid. The highlight for me was running
up a giant French hill with mortars and machine
gunners mowing you down from above.
So overall, the design and
levels were consistently sprawled with debris,
destroyed houses; everything to make them look
like they've been part of a war. And importantly,
there's plenty of vertical movement instead
of huge flat levels.
Having said that the design
looked good throughout, it was the gameplay
that is COD3's main feature. You can only carry
two weapons at a time, although once you have
an automatic that's all you need. There's no
healthbar and in fact no health pickups at all.
Instead, at least in medium difficulty, it takes
around 4-5 shots to kill you. If you get shot
once or twice, you can duck down and your health
will regenerate in a few seconds. It ends up
being a great way to manage health as you'll
still die plenty but also have many close calls
where your on the verge of death but manage
to somehow find cover and survive. Unfortunately
the game uses checkpoints instead of quicksave,
but there's several per level, all at good saving
points.
Enemies are all the same, just
with different weapons. However machine gunners,
tanks and other vehicles help to break up the
action. You also have plenty of objectives per
level, from clearing out buildings, disabling
tanks, destroying obects. The game is only several
hours long but never gets dull. The action is
constantly full-on and intense.
