Call of Duty 2

[Bob the Insane]

I picked this up in EB Games yesterday and had a long blast at it last night...

What can I say, the gameplay is pretty much the same a CoD with a couple of additions.

1. The enemy AI, enemy soldier while not exactly immune to suicidal rushs is much improved. Moving in response to the player rather than simply being scripted. If uses cover more effectively (rarely are any knees or elbows left sticking out) and will move to flank you if the map allows of it. It's use of fire to surpress you and grenades to flush you out is very impressive... Friendly AI is good too without being too good. It seems to be tuned so that you never feel alone, but always feel your impact is significant and making a difference. The AI often advances on your que, but then you always seem to be 'on point'!!

2. Some of the (later) maps are much more wide open (the demo was not a good example of this. These maps allow the AI (see above) to really shine. In the tighter maps it is really not the different to the first game. In fact the map will have several objectives that you are free to complete in what ever order you wish moving through the map in a route of your chosing. Additionally the level design is excellent and very authentic. The best of it is in the American campaign...

3. Smoke... You have smoke grenades you can use at any time, but you only have 4 and it is rare to find more on the field. They are really effective and one of the best smoke effects I have seen. It really is significant enough that it adds a whole new element to the gameplay. The smoke is very thick and it is pretty safe to move behind it and through it. Moving through it is awkward as you can barely see anything and you suddenly find yourself in the middle of a whole group of Nazi's!! While you can use it whenever you want they are some areas where if you pretty obvious you need the smoke and if it is all gone you are going to have a very hard time...

Sound is as good as ever and cover another new feature. Described as Battle Chat, the friendly AI will dynamically and accurately spot the enemy for you. Shouting things like 'jerry over to the left, by the supply crates' or 'enemy on the 2nd floor in the red brick building'. This is done dynamically when the friendly AI spots them and is both immersive and useful. The music is good as is all the other sounds, but that is nothing new in FPS...

Graphics, basically very good. Pretty much in the same style as CoD but with all the upto date bells and whistles. Textures are very nice. Loads of very stronge particle effects, loads of haze and smoke and often some pretty big draw distances.

I have a AMD64 +3200, 1GB RAM, WinXP SP2, 6800GT and Audigy 2ZS (the important bits), and I am running the 81.85 Nvidia drivers.

I have the resolution on 1240x1024 and had all the graphics maxed out. This worked fine of the training level but as soon as you get to the first real mission and see a well lit large expanse the framerate went into single figures. In the end I disabled FSAA (by default it is on x4!) and 'soften edges' and set 'number of dynamic lights' to medium. I have a pretty solid framerate so fair after the changes. The desert towns in the British campaign can be a serious framerate killer...

I made the mistake of selecting Regular difficulty. Now I play quite a lot of FPS (especially the more real work and tactical ones) and while it has not necessarily been easy, I have not died very much, and so far there has only been one point where I have had to reload a few times. So I guess if you consider yourself good at FPS don't even bother with anything under Hard.

This leads me on to another nice new feature, saving. No longer can you save your own game whereever you want. The game autosaves at pretty frequently though and if you die you automatically go back to the last autosave. While this sounds annoying at first it is in fact enlightened. You don't have to worry about saving the game or interupting the gameply looking for F5 or something. Additionally the autosave system is intelligent and apparantly will not save while the enemy are aiming at you or throwing a grenade at you! Effectively the save feature appears to work exactly as if you where constnatly quick saving yourself without you having to break the immersion factor...

Anyway, overall 8/10. It is not revolutionary but it is a solid evolution of CoD. Losing nothing of the original game, improving most things and introduce a whole bunch of new features. Having said that, overall it is pretty much still the same game at heart... You are not so much on rails as a pretty wide road (room to move around but all going in the same direction)...

I don;t think I missed anything out... And please don't play it on easy, you will be finished in a single evening!!!

[Taurus]

Thanks very much for the review Bob the Insane.

It sounds like it has improved on an already awesome game and I will be getting it for sure.

Thanks,
- Hero

[Fragony]

I am probably the only person that didn't like the first, but it sounds rather awesome!

[Bob the Insane]

Thanks...

And check this out, nvidia have a released a beta driver 81.87 that specifically states:

"Improved performance and compatibility for Call of Duty 2."

Going to give that a go as soon as I get home...

http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_do...bit_81.87.html

[Murmandamus]

Sounds great. It's not released over here until next week :(

Is the performance better than the demo? The demo ran a little slow for me and I'm wondering if I will have to go SLI.

[Taurus]

It's out here on the 4th of November so I will be getting it then.

Looks like B&W 2 is gonna have to wait.

[Bob the Insane]

Finished SP last night (the wife is away and I was bored) and it adds up to about 10 hours gameplay...

The US Ranger missions really are the pick of the bunch...

Switched up to Hardened for the US missions and it was a much better game, genuinly hard in places. Very authentic action... I am still remembering bits from last night so it must have been good... The end of Hill 400 is particularly scary in a 'i'm gona die, i'm gona die" kind of way. I genuinely found myself thinking "I really, really don't want to be here!" and this is just a game!!!...

In the french villages I got a feeling for what my poor soldiers went through when I was playing the old Close Combat series of games... It's alot easier to command your troops the throw smoke and then storm the old church from an above view. In first person charging through the smoke with rounds zipping past it is not as easy...

It is odd really, that when someone invents a truely realistic and authentic WW2 FPS, the people who play it will probably not find themselves enjoying it, but simple trying to get through it so they can "go home and never do this again!". Now that would be authentic!!

Performance...

Well it depends on the setting you use, set everything to max and you will get that AMD46 FX, 2GB and nvidia 7800 rig to stretch it's legs a bit...

Personally I have it running on 1240x1024 with everthing maxed except (important!) Dynamic lighting (appears to be a real killer), FSAA (switched it off) and somthing called 'Soften Edges'...

So bascially it is very scaleable for different machines, but at lower resolutions and textures it will look just like CoD. With a more powerful machine and Graphic card (and at least 1GB RAM) then it can look a bit special...

Additional the new nvidia beta driver I mentioned above made quite a difference too!

[Bob the Insane]

I have been giving the CoD2 MP a go and it is pretty cool. Plays just like the CoD MP but with way better graphics. The smoke sees a lot of use too, especially in the more open maps.

It is interesting to see that a proportion of the MP maps are based on the CoD MP maps but given sweet graphical overhaul...

Gameplay seems fast and frenzied, but after you play for a while you notice the players that do well are more careful and patient and take advantage of the chaotic environment to kill without being killed. It is nice to have a WW2 game where the plain old battle rifle is pretty uber for once...

More annoying is the fact that the large style maps and gameplay in CoD:UO (MP of course) is not there. Maybe we will for a expansion patch for CoD2 as well...

[Shaka_Khan]

Wow! I saw a picture of it and thought it was a real picture from Iraq.
I waited two years without a game console to buy an X-Box 360 or a new Playstation.

Here are two trailers: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2672321

[[DnC]]

I've just unlocked the American Scenario and thus far it's amazing. I personally think CoD2 is better then the first and not just visually! The smoke grenades are indeed useful and most impressive eyecandy.

Usually I'm not really fond of the missions where you're driving a vehicle or flying a plane, but driving in one of those Crusader tanks was done very, very well! Anyone played Pacific Assault (yeah, yeah different developer) and did that airplane mission? That was godawfull! Horrendous controls and utterly frustating mission. I used godmode to get through that mission fast! Didn't want to waste time on such a pile of crap.

Is it me or does CoD2 seem more epic? It's really immersive. I especially got that "holy crap" feeling in a brittish mission where you're advancing with a whole bunch of tanks as a grunt. Simply WOW!

The AI is really good, never played against such a good AI before in a FPS. Ducking and running for cover. At one point a german sniper or rifleman stood somewhere up a building, I spotted him and aimed my sights at him. I had to duck for cover because I was being shot at, then promptly aimed my sights again in the same direction and didn't see him, looked around and saw that the guy had moved to the right against a wall and by ducking making himself very small and hard to hit. Really nice! They did an ace job on the AI in my opinion.

The russian scenario is obviously inspired by "Enemy at the Gates". Vasili Koslov instead of Vasili Zaitsev?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A russian officer being shot through the head in the simular looking spot as where Zaitsev shot a german officer? Russians repairing telephone lines instead of germans? Heh. Still nicely done though

All in all it's a great game, despite being expensive and perhaps too short, but I'm not finished yet, so I can't be certain of that. Anyways, the game costs €60,- minus €6,- discount (€54,-) at Dynabyte. Quake IV's just as expensive and some other games too. All the big titles are getting more and more expensive, ridiculous if you ask me.

[Divine Wind]

If anyones interested my clan has just opened up a new COD2 section, and will soon be in training for laddering. Have a look at the site and ask some questions on our board. Its a nice friendly clan with generally older members.

http://www.world-conflicts-clan.com/

[Bob the Insane]

Had the opportunity to go to the local Walmart today and see the XBOX 360 in action (Walmart has a special deal to show off demo ones). Was playing CoD2 of all things so I could do a comparison and they had it hooked up to a HD TV...

Well it looked, pretty much the same as my AMD64 with 1GB RAM a 6800GT... It was pretty cool, though you would have to run them side by side to really spot any differences...

Mind you I still think a gamepad is a daft (and useless) controller for a FPS...

Controls appeared to be the same, but I could not work out how to lean or go prone...

[Kraxis]

All the big titles are getting more and more expensive, ridiculous if you ask me.

The big ones have slowly been creeping up the priceladder over the last 6-8 years. A very sneaky and effective approach to it. They are in effect slowly wringing as much juice out of us as they can. And I honestly think there is a bit of a cartel between the big publishers. Their titles are always at the top end of the price and more or less the same. That can't be right... I mean they must be able to underbid each other.

[[DnC]]

Really? Haven't noticed that. As you say it must have been done very sneaky.
Only now it is rather apparent due to the large inclimation of the prices. The only other large inclimation of the prices I had seen was due to the Euro. Before the Euro a price for a game was usually around 100 Guilders. 1 Euro = 2.2 Guilders (roughly). Now most games are €50,- and ofcourse the big titles above that, some €10,- higher. Bah!

[Kekvit Irae]

CoD2 is a beautiful game, if extremely overdone.

Pros:

1. Finally, an African campaign!
2. Finally, a D-Day landing that was NOT Omaha!
3. The battleshouts ("Jerries, on the second floor!" "Jerry grenade!") and the new grenade indicator WILL save your life. I cant imagine how many times I was saved a reload by ducking out of the way of a potato masher. If this was CoD1, I would have been dead hundreds of times over.
4. AI is better. Germans now liberally use their grenades when you are pinned down or dug in.
5. The African Crusader missions were no longer just a linear pathway with enemies lining the roads. Now you are free to pick your path (with a LOT of open space), and one mission has you in a MASSIVE point blank tank battle, where friendly fire is common if you arent careful. I loved it much more than the Russian tank missions of CoD1.
6. German MG-42s + tight city street + rushing under the cover of smoke grenades = tactical satisfaction.
7. ALL tanks in the infantry campaigns now have points where you can place demolitions, instead of requiring you to run around and find a Panzerfaust. The downside is, you usually have to run in the field of fire just to catch the Tiger or Panzer to do so.
8. No more health indicators, and you regenerate your health. As broken as it may sound, it's actually quite balanced as you can now take much less damage before you keel over and die than you could in CoD1.

Cons:

1. Stalingrad. Again.
2. The defense of Moscow is JUST a tutorial! Wtf?
3. Smoke grenades, while lifesavers, can bog down your computer if you need to lay down a full line (4) of them. Mileage may vary, but this was taken at 800x600 with AAx4 with a Geforce FX 5600 Ultra.
4. The Russian campaign is nothing BUT Stalingrad.
5. The British tank missions are too damn short, and there arent enough of them!
6. Did I mention Stalingrad?
7. Only once did I hear a historical recount voiceover, during the victory screen after the battle of Point du Hauc. This displeased me, as I wanted historical recounts of the other battles as well.
8. MP-44s are almost virtually non-existant in Stalingrad and Africa. This annoys me to no end as the MP-44 Battle Rifle is my favorite weapon to salvage.

Bottom line: If you are a fan of CoD1, there's not much here to see that you havent seen already. If you havent played the original, this is a very good, if extremely short, buy.

[Kraxis]

No MP-44s in Stalingrad or Africa... How come? As far as I know around 0 were ever present at either place.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Wiki on MP 44's.

[Kraxis]

"The STG44 can still be found in action to this day in some places including Iraq, although not it is not currently being produced."


WOW!!! How the heck do they get their hands on them? And use them since they are bored for 7.92mm rounds (which haven't been produced since West Germany entered Nato).

[Kekvit Irae]

I mean in the game

[Kraxis]

I mean in the game

Exactly... Why should the weapon be there? Just because it is the best? No it fits very well that it isn't there. Cityfighting should be as problematic as it was. A StG44 would make it too easy.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

I didn't much like it...

The health thing sucked, duck behind a wall and you regain all your health in a couple seconds? healing yourself with health packs was way better, they were limited and only in certain locations. There was none of this "shoot some enemies, get hurt, duck behind wall, heal, shoot some more enemies" nonsense. Pretty much the only way I ever died was from grenades. The grenades were also pretty annoying since the AI threw them every time, way to predictable.

None of the missions had an epic feel to them the way united offensive and some of the original missions did. There was no tension or suspense. There was a distinct lack of blowing shit up, like lighthouses and bridges with trains going across. What there was a lot of was running into a town with 8 or so soldiers to help you, and then clearing out about 6 houses one by one, completely on your own while your "allies" sat around outside.

Some of the british missions were cool, I liked fighting in the desert. The russian campaign was pretty boring except for the bit in the pipes, and the American campaign was terrible. You run out on the beach, get shot a couple times, regenerate your health, and then climb a rope in complete safety from which point it is just like any other mission.

The fact that you were always in full health meant you didn't have to worry about being killed by a couple bullets and the autosave feature meant when you did die you just started back a couple feet.


It didn't have any great moments and I never felt any emotion. Bleh.

I was dissapointed.

[Bob the Insane]

Horses for courses I guess, personally I found lot of exciting moments...

While the US beach lands was not one of the hardest missions it was extremely historically accurate and I simple keep thinking "I can;t belevie people actually did this for real!"...

I remember climbing up Hill 400 and then defending it from counter attack, I remember in one of the pausing during the German counter attack thinking "I really don't want to be here"...

I found the missions to be much more militarily authentic in style, you are simply one of the troops (on point maybe, but no superhero) in a military encounter, try to stay alive and do your job. There is no real story thread to the game, just a group of events/encounters sometime base on real world events (some missions more losely than others)...

The health thing while not realistic at all, I don't find to be any worse a concet than magical health packs...

Well hopefully they will do an exapnsion worthy of UO for CoD2...

[jeffreyLebowski]

i don't really get all the complaining about the health system. how exactly was running around picking up magical health packs that instantly heal you any more realistic than the current system? at least the new system keeps a nice abb and flow to the gunfights.

besides, if you're playing on the higher 2 difficultly levels, you can barely take 1 or 2 shots before dying anyways. you never get a chance to get back behind cover.

[Viking]

i don't really get all the complaining about the health system. how exactly was running around picking up magical health packs that instantly heal you any more realistic than the current system? at least the new system keeps a nice abb and flow to the gunfights.

Difficultness? There could be long between each of these “magic health packs”, and sometimes I had to reload(sometimes several reloads was necessary) to get past a point in CoD or UO.

UO was at certain places extremely difficult, and in a fun way. The graphics were good too. While the graphics might be better in CoD2, that`s not enough to save my gaming experience. The missions are way too short, and the new health systems is ridicoulous and typically arcade. MoH PA had a much better solution to this: you had too call a medic when you were down. Heck, if you turned the option on, you would even start bleeding when taking hard damage and your health bar would start decreasing until you bandaged yourself, wich took a few seconds, and could put you in serious danger. Oh, and I should mention that the medic did not only have to take care of you, but also your teammates, so you could die while waiting for him to get finished with the others.

I have not completed the game yet, and is unfortunately not looking forward to it. It`s a pity what they`ve done to Call of Duty.

If any expansion, I will not buy it otherwise SP have changed, perhaps back to what it once was. I`m begging there will be a new MoH with battlescenes from Europe.

[Kekvit Irae]

Dont expect anything as momentous as the fall of Berlin for the ending of Call of Duty 2. The endgame left me wanting more, and not in a good way.

[Beirut]

I'm going to pick up Brothers in Arms as soon as I can get to the game store. I tried the demo and it's very good. Great fire & movement action. Nice to be able to direct a tank and a squad at the same time. Really opens up a lot of tactical options. Excellent graphics too. I'm able to run BIA (demo) at 1024x768 but CoD2 (demo) only at 800x600.

I read that the new Brothers in Arms, BIA: Earned in Blood, has excellent AI. The enemy moves, retreats, reforms, fixes, and flanks you. I saw a video of it. Very cool.

The only bad part is the iron sight "zoom" mode, which bobbles up and down to simulate breathing, but acts more like someone having an asthma attack. Very, very hard to aim through the sites.

I played the CoD2 demo as well, while good fun and great to look at, it doesn't look as absorbing as BIA.

[Alrowan]

heh im getting sick of this extra movment down iron sights. ive fired rifles in my time and i know for a fact it isnt the hardest thing to keep it relativly steady while breathing, in fact ive found breathing does nothing to the guns movment, rather the length and weight of the gun afect it more, as your arms tire from holding it out and up for extended periods of time

[Kraxis]

heh im getting sick of this extra movment down iron sights. ive fired rifles in my time and i know for a fact it isnt the hardest thing to keep it relativly steady while breathing, in fact ive found breathing does nothing to the guns movment, rather the length and weight of the gun afect it more, as your arms tire from holding it out and up for extended periods of time

Tell that to the skishooters... They need visible time to get the sight onto the target.

But I agree, in this case it is just not good. At least it should be pretty much gone when prone.

[Alrowan]

im not saying you dont need time to line up your target once you bring the weapon up to sights, but when u have it, and hold it, its fairly steady.

also ive know some people who shoot clay targets for sport, one of them is #1 in his state for his division, and watching them is amazing, these guys can bring thier weapons from the hip to sights, and hit the moving clay targets in a matter of secconds, and not once do any ever mention that breathing hinders thier aim

[Kraxis]

I'm not talkign about SKEETshooting but SKIshooting, you know where the skiers run a specific course, and on it there are 2-3 shooting ranges (standing and prone are the norm but I have seen a few crouched) were they have to hit 5 targets, every miss results in either a timepenalty or a run around a smaller course (200 meters I think).

They have visible trouble laying the sights on the targets, especially on the standing range despite very balanced rifles.

Having shot the H&K G3 I can say that it is not fun at all to shoot standing. After about 5 seconds of aiming you get tired and the sight goes wobbling. Personally I managed to 'invent' a system to lessen this effect by circling the target in ever tighter circles, but this still took a few seconds.
Regarding breathing, I learned that I should hold my breath or slowly exhale when I pulled the trigger... Seemed to work rather good.

So a tired shooter would have real issues with breathing if he was standing but normally it would be the weight of the weapon that caused the inaccuracy.