Call of Duty 2

Now, I'm a huge fan of military-style shooters; Ubisoft has made a fortune out of me in the last 6 or 7 years.

But, back in the mists of time - a time when I sold my soul to a credit card company and purchased a rather nice leather jacket, a PlayStation, a couple of games called Tekken and Medal of Honour, that was the last World War game I played and enjoyed...I tried a few more; the other MoH games for example, Commandos - which I should have burned immediately upon purchasing, and Return to Castle etc. etc.

Anyway, the point is I avoided period shooters for many years, satiating myself instead on the technology-laden antics of Sam Fisher, Gabe Logan, "Ding" Chavez, and Captain Scott Mitchell. That is until my father-in-law loaned me his copy of Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox360.

I have to admit that the game just sat around gathering dust while I finished Oblivion and Command and Conquer on the 360, and Ace Combat on the PS2. Eventually there were no more games to play, no more demos to milk dry, and no more XBLA games to be disappointed with; the time had come to try it out.

Here's a nice vid I found on Youtube to whet your appetite...

What a great game!

The overriding memory I have of the game is its pace. The fact that the war is just exploding all around you, leaving you no time to think at all makes for a thrilling experience. Couple this with the fact that if you do fail to heed the ubiquitous grenade alerts and get blown up then the check-point system ensures that you jump straight back into the action very near to where you were killed, and you end up with an extremely fast-paced, enjoyable game that flows brilliantly. In fact if I were a better gamer then the fact that the game might be considered too easy might be a complaint. But I'm not, so it isn't.

You get to drive tanks, shoot down planes, run through the enemy's kill-zones - I'm glad I quit smoking; there really is very little toke-time...

The graphics are fine; definitely next-gen but not jaw-droppingly amazing, but this has no impact whatsoever on the experience.

Sound is utilised beautifully in CoD2, the battle-noise is bowel-wateringly manic, and the cries of both your squad mates, and those of the enemy are all around you.

Perhaps it's only in terms of the game's longevity that it might lose some points. The pace of the game meant that I just could not put it down and completed it in 3 days. I don't think there's any point in playing it again though; there aren't that many ways to complete the missions.

Overall, however, a rock-solid, frantic, hugely playable game.

Update: Played, or rather, started playing CoD3 but found that it was just no where near as much fun as No. 2. Wonder if anyone else has found this?