Call of Duty 2 (2005)

I am on a journey to beat 360 random Xbox 360 games. Here's my next adventure

Game number 63 was Call of Duty 2. This is a first person shooter game set in world war 2 and was the first COD game released on the 360. COD was incredibly influential on my childhood and I have always loved this series. I have always been a huge zombies player, but the campaigns are fun too! The multiplayer was not available for me; however, this was the first big 360 multiplayer game and played decently well!

Graphics/Sound: COD 2 was a release title for the 360 and therefore doesn’t have the world’s best graphics, but they are great for the time. The effects were truly next generation. When you destroy the Nazi building in the first couple of missions it is an awesome moment that was not powerful before the 360.

I also really enjoy the sound effects and music. Early COD was focused on making the player feel like another soldier in war and wanted to emphasize on the chaos of the battlefield. There are always characters screaming at you to take cover or to hold the line and I felt like the team succeeded in using sound design to create that chaos.

Story: There are three separate campaigns that focus on the different Allied countries in WW2. The first campaign focuses on Russia and the battle at Stalingrad. The second is the British in North Africa. The third and final one is the Americans on D-Day and crossing the Rhine river. There is some superficial story about each of the individual soldiers… but it was not very memorable. The story here is mostly focused on placing the player into recognizable events from the war.

Gameplay: It is Call of Duty. Who doesn’t know what these games play like? Jokes aside, I can’t emphasize how well the FPS gunplay is done in all of the COD games. Shooting is buttery smooth and feels fantastic! Every shot connected and playing through the levels was wonderful.

I would say that the gun variety is not the best. There are only a dozen or so guns that I came across and some of those really were not feasible. I LOVE the garand, but hate the Kar98k. Grenades are wonderful and almost every enemy replenished them back. I was very liberal with them and I am happy with how it went! Finally, the smoke bombs are essentially get out of jail free cards. I cannot overstate how powerful they are and how useful they can be to escape from a bad spot. Just throw one down and you are good to get to the next spot or you will be safe for 30-45 seconds if you are waiting on a timer. They are so useful.

Mission structure is very similar. Most missions have the player go from point A to point B fighting enemies along the way. There are a few that will include cinematic moments like a car chase or tank fights, but most are standard missions. The worst missions were definitely the ones where you have to fight off waves of enemies while defending a place or ones where you need to wait off a timer. They were just boring.

My experience: I had a great time! I played through the campaign on hardened mode and I thought the difficulty was perfect. There were a few missions that I died on repeatedly, but it always felt like my fault. I think some of the on-wheels sections were designed for normal difficulty because I was taking a lot of unpreventable damage. Maybe I just need to get better lol.

Overall, COD 2 is a wonderful game and anyone that enjoys FPS games should go out and play it. These early COD games were made at a time where the campaign was a large amount of focus and it shows. This is definitely a memorable and fun COD game, please play it! (8/10)

I spent 7 hours, 32 minutes, and 32 seconds playing Call of Duty 2.

I have spent a total of 825 hours and 14 minutes on the Road To 360 challenge so far.

Next Game: Catherine

This title is a standout WWII first-person shooter that still holds up surprisingly well. It improved massively over the first game with better visuals, more cinematic set-pieces, and smart AI for the time. The campaign takes you through the Soviet, British, and American fronts with a strong sense of atmosphere and pacing. The sound design, rifles cracking, tanks rumbling, soldiers shouting, is immersive and intense. Gameplay-wise, it introduced regenerating health and grenade indicators, which became staples in later shooters.

The shooting mechanics feel tight and responsive, and each mission feels varied enough to keep things fresh. While the story isn't personal or deep, the game focuses on large-scale battles and delivers on that promise. It's a classic that helped define the modern military shooter. If you can look past the dated graphics and linear structure, it's still a thrilling and respectful depiction of WWII combat.

The campaign’s structure also deserves praise for how it balances spectacle with grounded combat. Some missions throw you directly into massive assaults with explosions and collapsing buildings, while others slow the pace down with defensive holds or careful advances through tight urban streets. This constant shift in scale keeps the experience engaging from start to finish. The game understands when to overwhelm you and when to let tension build more gradually, which adds to the overall immersion.

Another aspect that stands out is how focused and streamlined the experience feels. There’s no unnecessary padding or distractions, just a well-crafted series of missions that respect your time. It may not reinvent storytelling or offer deep character development, but it amazing when it comes to delivering intense, cinematic combat. Even today, it serves as a strong example of how to execute a straightforward military campaign with confidence and impact.

A good shooter with excellent graphics for its time. In my opinion, it loses to Medal of Honor in terms of presentation, as nothing much has changed since the first Medal of Honor. In the end, I liked Medal of Honor more, even though it was released about three years earlier. What can I say, the pleasant thing is that this game gives a strong feeling of "DAMN, OUR GUYS, KICK THEIR ASSES!".

As usual, the Russian campaign is rather jumbled. Not sure about the first part; I'm downloading it now. The game length is not too long, and the multiplayer is not for me, mainly due to the lack of sprinting, which, in my opinion, is complete nonsense. From the good stuff, I liked the Normandy mission, especially the part where you defend the base you climbed up to. There was a pretty funny moment: the Germans had already pushed my guys back, and there were probably about six of us left. One guy got separated, and two Germans with rifles attacked him. Apparently, he ran out of ammo and just beat them up with shovels. It was very funny, though he got shot in the back afterward, which was quite heartbreaking.

Overall, the game is very strange in the context of all the guys running around with you. To say they are useless is an understatement. It really starts to piss you off towards the end, as the enemies specifically target you and can throw up to five grenades into your cover, which is absolute madness. We didn't get completely wrecked on the missions, but it was amusing. I was afraid there would be no variety in the missions, but I was wrong. There's little of the usual "run to the anti-aircraft gun and blow it up," and that's very pleasing.

Even considering the year of release, I would give it a 7.5 out of 10.

FPS - Follows soldiers from the Soviet, British, and American armies as they battle through pivotal World War II campaigns, including Stalingrad, North Africa, and Normandy.

PROS:

++ Significant improvement to gameplay. Movement is noticeably faster. Introduced regenerating health and removed the health pack system. Guns feel much better to control and aim with. Vehicles also controlled well. Addition of smoke grenades was great and allowed for slightly more tactics in a firefight. I also thought that the enemy's behaviour was aggressive. When you would go prone, they would always flush you out with grenades. If you get too close, they would quickly rush you with melee attacks. Overall, there was solid improvements across the board in the gameplay department.

++ Great soundtrack. Some tracks gave me goosebumps. Can't remember which ones, but they were effective at the time I was playing.

++ Graphical improvements. More details in the faces and environments.

++ Standout missions. I really enjoyed the beginning of the Russian campaign, DDAY and Hill 400. These segments had the best battle/war atmosphere.

CONS:

-- Narrative. The game is still told in documentary-style so the game itself doesn't have its own original story/narrative. But you can see them starting to focus on individual characters (i.e. Captain Price).

-- No variety. Many of the levels felt and looked very similar with one another. Many objectives were also repeated throughout the campaign. And there was a noticeable lack of set-pieces in this entry, which meant that the player spent majority of the game just engaging in normal shootouts.

-- Guns. The guns sounded weaker and wimpier compared to COD 1's weapons.

Call of Duty 2 is a big upgrade from the first one, from a time that game developers actually cared. In the basis, it is still a WWII shooter, like the first one, but with some new perspectives, storylines, improvements and a leap in graphics.

In Call of Duty 2, you get three separate storylines which you play in order. First, you play as Vasili Koslov in the Russian army, who fights in the battle of Stalingrad during the German invasion. After that, you are warped to the British army as Sergeant John Davis, which is stationed in Egypt in the fight against General Rommel. Halfway the campaign, you are switched to yet another character, David Welsh, a tank commander who is tasked with destroying enemy artillery. After the battle, you take on the role of John Davis once again in the defense of Matmata.

Lastly, you play as Bill Taylor, an American soldier which fights in the battle of Pointe Du Hoc. Afterwards, you play three more missions deep into Germany, on your way to Berlin.

The variation of the missions, characters and different cultures is what made this game so great. It shows many historical battles and let you experience the, sometimes hopeless, battles of the war. It really tells a story, something that is greatly missing in the Call of Duty games today.

The graphics in Call of Duty 2 are a huge improvement over the first game. Weapons, animations and environmental design are greatly improved and the game felt so realistic at the time. The new blood animations and the corpses that stay on the ground for long periods of time, really improved the experience. There is still no ragdoll in this game so the death animations of the enemies are still “static”, but that does not matter. There where, even then, also mods to make the game even more realistic like more blood, and even dismemberment. It was even more epic and realistic with those mods installed.

The only problem I encountered was a bug in the animations of the enemy soldiers, in which their mouths still move and produce silent slurs, while you just put a bullet between their eyes. This really freaked me out as a kid.

The sound design has also been greatly improved. Shots and grenades sound great and the enhanced bass in the explosions really gets you in the game. Enemy soldiers now throw slurs and insults at you which are hilarious when you understand German like me.

The new mechanics in which you need to take cover to regenerate is a welcome addition. I am used to games with health bars and finding medical kits to stay alive, but here, all is not lost when you just have 1 HP left and the enemy is coming for you. On the other hand, this removes some of the thrill to stay alive and find canteens or med kits, like the first Call of Duty or Medal of Honor.

Most of this review is from pure nostalgia, but nevertheless, Call of Duty 2 is just as good as I remembered it today. It is a huge leap from the first game and a worthy successor.

I would definitely recommend this classic to everyone.

Completely Masterpiece

Call of Duty 2 is one of the best Xbox 360 games, and one of the finest WW2 shooters of all-time. Call of Duty 2 helped usher in the HD-era of video games when it launched in 2005, and showed just how important Xbox Live was going to become to console gaming in the future. Maybe I was a victim of my own expectations, but I really think it comes down to the fact that this game is essentially Call of Duty with a few bells-and-whistles, Instead of feeling like a stale retread or losing steam halfway through, it manages to be a blast from start to finish. The presentation in Call of Duty 2 is also topflight. Each mission is introduced with video footage from the Military Channel, as well as documentary-style narration that helps set the historical setting for what you're about to do. The game's graphics are also great, particularly the smoke effects from smoke grenades and explosions, as well as the fantastic amount of detail put into both the indoor and outdoor environments across a wide variety of landscapes. Textures can sometimes be a little less sharp when looking at vehicles or character models up close. But since most of the game is so fast and chaotic anyway, you don't notice much. The unfortunate thing is that the game can chug very badly in some key spots, reducing frame rate to 15 or less. For the most part, it ran well on our primary test system, a Pentium 4 2.4GHz with 1GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800 OC with 128MB. But in certain spots, like some massed infantry charges, or the armored-car getaway sequence, our rig really struggled to keep up, even using the game's chosen "optimal" graphics setup, which seemed somewhat modest. Sound is where Call of Duty 2 excels like no other. Between the stirring score that kicks up during key moments, to the top-notch gun and explosion effects, the game sounds fantastic. The speech is also pretty good, particularly the yelling that your squad-mates and enemies do during battle, which plays right into your excitement and tension as you fight. Call of Duty 2 is just about everything you would hope for and expect from the sequel to one of the most successful World War II shooters of all time. Its varied campaign, excellent sound and gameplay design, and generally good AI make it a worthy successor to the original. At the same time, though, it's still a World War II shooter, and if you've grown weary of them, then Call of Duty 2's lack of new material might turn you away. It can also be murderous on your computer if you have modest hardware. What Call of Duty 2 does do well is nail down just about all aspects that define an ideal first-person shooter. If you liked the original and have been thirsting for more, Call of Duty 2 will definitely deliver that.

When Infinity Ward called me back for duty a second time I didn't hesitate for a second. I happily served during the first CoD and this time the engine for gameplay and graphics had improved significantly as we get more historic operations covering the Russian, British and American campaigns.

It looks and sounds awesome, and CoD2 is just a juiced up version of the first one, and even though at first glance it seemingly improved on all fronts, in my opinion it lost something. It's very cinematic and presented in a great way, but ultimately plagued by flaws in AI, some level and gameplay design. It sure is worth a run if you're a fan of the series and looking to play through them all!

[3] / [5]

first play

played on gt 730, i3 7100
Runs really smooth and great gameplay, some levels are really really hard. the enemies at the hard level keep coming with no choice or help to win, if you are stuck at a bad place before it auto saves you can't really play the mission have to restart again.

But really great missions.
Don't really think I would remember this compared to other games though.

edit 2024:

played on rtx 4060, amd 7700x
Started playing entire COD series in sequence this is the first one i played in the series and this is really great in modern hardware but the enemies mechanics are too damn realistic, each mission of war is good, but you can't play this game with sniper or long range game as enemies keep coming wave after wave.

and the enemies keep throwing the grenades at you, the only way i managed to beat the game entirely is by throwing grenades at each corner and pushing to one enemy and coming back.
the game mechanics are really great for the time and the difficulty i played at(veteran) is understandable can't every one shot a level need to remember enemy locations and then fight or play too cautiously and prone all game until an enemy runs from behind and stabs with a gun. man, the difficulty is too realistic that is the only part i think i will remember, apart from the world war theme, which i think the entire COD is about.