Call of Duty 2

reviewed by Daniel MacKenzie

Intense, heart-pounding action, and realistic come immediately to mind when you look at the introduction to the game. You get hooked almost instantly. Astounding graphics topped with a great story mode meld together to make a home run for Aspyr, Activision, and Infinity Ward.

In Call of Duty 2, you go through the game as part of the three Allied Forces, the Russians, the British and the Americans. You start the game as Vasil Ivanovich Koslov of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, a Russian private in training. As you fight your way through Russia on three missions, pushing the Germans back, you will unlock the British campaign. DonÕt worry, there are several parts to every mission. This is NOT a short game. The British have four missions, 3 infantry and one tank mission. You are Sergeant John Davis of the 7th Armoured Division and Commander David Welsh of the 7th Armoured Division fighting in North Africa, Egypt and in Normandy. You play 4 missions on the British campaign. Last but not least, the Americans. You rush the beaches on D-Day as Corporal Bill Taylor, D company of the 2nd Rangers Battalion. You will dash over hedgerows and through trenches in this game to become victorious. I had a very good experience with this game. Sometimes I felt like I was there.

Call of Duty 2 is an amazing game. You travel from Russia to Egypt and France throughout the 4 years of World War Two. Visit famous cities such as Moscow, Stalingrad and Normandy. Storm the beaches on D-Day or blow up a German King Tiger. You can do it all in this game. Most of the game is historically correct which adds even more interest to the story line. Building look very realistic and if a wall explodes, it looks just like it would in real life. All of the people look the same which was kind of weird because you shoot a German and you turn a corner to see the same person. But thatÕs understandable, because it would be very time consuming to design thousands of different faces. Also, people donÕt fall down the same way every time you kill them. This used to be a problem on computers and console games for years. Just a warning to younger children, there is blood and the violence may frighten them. The weapons are the weapons that all of the armies used to fight with in World War Two, such as the MP40 and the Thompson. They also looked like theyÕre suppose to. Just everything about the setting looked and felt real.

The music in Call of Duty 2 sounds very patriotic. Something that you would hear in a movie. A lot of brass instruments. I enjoyed the music, because it really set the mood. If you finished a mission, victory music plays in the background as your commanding officer gives you the victory speech. Everything really worked well together.

Another segment of the game is the online multiplayer mode. You get to choose which side you want to be on. The sides depend on the map that your playing on. There are many modes to play in such as Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. You get to use the weapons that are used in single player and even a few more. ItÕs a lot more difficult, because youÕre playing against real people instead of the bots. I didnÕt use it much, but it looked like a lot of fun.

Most of us wonÕt be able to enjoy all of this, because of the overwhelming system requirements. You need one of the new Intel Core computers or a Power Mac G5 to make the game run smoothly without many pauses during game play. 512 MB of RAM is essential. The game becomes discoloured if you donÕt have the latest video cards. The smoke is blue and the ground is red. This is really bad, because if youÕre firing a machine gun, blue smoke billows out in front of you and you canÕt see where to shoot. This really bothered me. Call of Duty 2 eats up a fair amount of space. 4 GB is required. Wow! But there is a reason for this. A game that has all of this intense game play and graphics, needs to take up some space on your Mac.

But donÕt let this stop you from buying it. If your system meets the system requirements, than these problems wonÕt interfere with you. And if your computer doesnÕt meet the requirements, go buy a better Mac. I strongly recommend you go out and buy this game. You havenÕt played an action game until youÕve played Call of Duty 2.