Review - Call of Duty 2: Big Red One for Xbox by Activision
Overview: Call of Duty 2 is the successor to the original title from a couple years back. The original game definitely left a strong impression with me and I was looking forward to the sequel when I heard it was announced. Both the original and the new version have been released for every current, non-handheld gaming type system. I played the original on the PC, but this time around, I have the Xbox version.
The game takes you back into the gritty World War II setting. You and your team have to proceed through a varity of missions though various locations throughout the war. It's your job to stay alive throughout and accomplish your goals. It's pretty standard fare for an FPS, and Big Red One does it well.
There are, however, a couple of aspects that make me wish I was playing it on the PC again instead of on my TV in my living room.
Funness: I whipped right through the original Call of Duty game because I just wanted to keep going through it. Call of Duty 2 is still very fun, but it hasn't quite grabbed me like the first one did. Most everything about the interface and gameplay of Big Red One keeps the same strong, solid style as the first game. The compass in the corner of the screen keeps you on track to where you're supposed to be headed. It won't point you around every turn and corner, but it's better that way. You know generally where you need to be going and it's up to you to find the right way to get there. A quick press of a button will let you know your mission objectives, and they are constantly and usually frequently updated as you progress. They will also often change depending on how the situation unfolds. If a bunker you're supposed to reach and defend is taken out by an enemy air strike well before you even have a chance to get there, you'll be given a new objective. And it's nice that the objectives aren't always just "go over here and then go over there". Sometimes you have to take out an enemy tank, sometimes you have to hold and defend your currente position, and sometimes you have to get into the big ol' anti-aircraft guns and blow some dirty Nazis out of the sky.
Your teammates also play a decent role in this game. It keeps it more true to reality that way, in that you're not just one guy taking on the entire Third Reich by yourself. Your squad will actually move forward in steps, take up flanking positions, and actually take out enemies. You need to use your teammates because just running and gunning will get you dead very quickly.
The controls are also very smooth. The ability and the necessity to be in either a standing, crouching, or lying position adds a nice aspect to the game. Sure, lying down makes you a smaller target from someone coming head on, but you also can't get out of the way very quickly. The only issue I had with the controls was that it took me a while to get used to the fact that the button I was used to being reload in Halo 2 is the button for chucking a grenade in Call of Duty 2. It's not particularly good for your health to accidentally drop an explosive at your feet when you're trying to put in a new clip. But that's pretty much my own fault.
On the other hand, the control is one of the aspects that is better done on the PC. The realism of the game makes the gun in your hand not the most reliable piece of equipment. Many of the weapons are only semi-automatic and require the precision that a mouse is much more capable of providing.
Shininess: The visuals in this game are well done. They aren't anything amazingly outstanding, but they're not lackluster either. Being a gritty, dramatic war setting, everything is very muted. Lots of browns and greys and greens. It looks very good and realistic, but it unfortunately adds to the notion that this game is better for the PC. Sitting 5-10 feet away on a couch sometimes makes it hard to discern enemies from the background, especially if they are a good ways off in the distance. Sitting close up next to my computer monitor makes this game much easier to play. Though I suppose if I had a big ol' mega high-def flatscreen plasma jumbotron 2000 and the Xbox 360 version, it probably wouldn't be an issue.
But overall, it looks pretty good.
(The "Shininess" section of our reviews, I believe, is becoming harder and harder to write. It's pretty much a given any more that a game is gonna look pretty good. We've just reached the point of diminishing marginal returns on graphics. It's just expected for a game to have good visuals if it's going to be released at all. I'm considering dropping this section from my reviews entirely because I just don't think it's worth it any more. I may just intigrate a few comments about the graphics into the Funness section. Let me know if you think is a good or bad idea by dropping me an email at thegeek@weeklygeekshow.com)
Worthiness: If you're big into first-person shooters, Call of Duty is a good, solid game. It's also an nice change of pace from Halo and everything else that's trying to be a "Halo killer". This is its own game. It doesn't try to be Halo or Counter-Strike or anything like that, and that's nice to see in a game.
If you're trying to decide between versions, I highly recommend going for the PC one. This game is just all-around better suited to the KBAM setup and a nice monitor no more than a foot and a half from your face.
If you're not a PC person, I think the Xbox version should be what you go for. You'll get more for your money because of the Live connectivity.
Thanks again to our good friends at Activision for hooking us up with a review copy.
--The Geek (thegeek@weeklygeekshow.com)
