I have to admit that Call of Duty 2 was one of the most anticipated titles for me in 2005. Forget about the others, previously named "Game of the Year 2003" was hands-down one of the best game concepts with near perfect score in almost every aspect. Last year's extension was good but way too short and the already announced sequel so unbearably far out. Time of waiting is over and the sequel tries to be more than just an updated game of what won numerous awards in 2003.
The general concept of the game didn't change and you're still serving with any of the allies (Russia, UK, USA) in the war to defeat Fascism, or at least the German Army from those times, a.k.a. the bad guys. Scenery changed in some cases significantly and you even get to leave the European continent and experience the African part of WWII. In the attempt to be authentic; weapons and other equipment are modeled after the technology of the time and don't expect any magic machinery (or secret weapons). What you should expect is lots of refinements of a game that took the PC by storm in 2003 and sure had me enlisted in no time, willingly -- in the safety of the virtual computer world that is.
I can take this upfront, the sequel disappoints the PC gamer in me with a massive move toward console game play and obnoxious voice overs for the German troops. If that's not enough, the gamesave is bug ridden too. Nevertheless, there are a few things that are worth the consideration. So let's look at the features one by one.
CALL OF DUTY 2 in DETAIL
Installation: [GOOD] The six discs translate into 4 GByte of hard drive space that's required. Installation is standard procedure and once complete, disk 1 is needed as a hardware dongle to play the game. A valid product key is mandatory to participate in the online game.
Rating: ***--
Manual: [GOOD] The printed manual is kept in black and white, and covers controls aspects and situations very well. The tutorial in the game is relatively short, but with the printed manual you should have mastered the basics to go to war in a few minutes. (To be successful is a totally different issue!) However, nowhere is mentioned what the differences in difficulty are and other missing information like that before committing to a mission.
Rating: ***--
Graphics: [VERY GOOD] It's not DOOM III, Quake 4 or even F.E.A.R., but an improvement over and above the (not too bad) original Call of Duty. Improvements are visible mostly in form of more detailed textures and better particle effects (i.e. smoke). This looks very real when throwing a smoke grenade too closely. ;-) Textures on human faces are more real too, though some now remind me of a "wrinkle dog" at first glance. (Realism gone bad due to simulated "dirt"?) Weapons are rendered beautifully and more realistic that Call of Duty as well, but overall feel a little bit low-res. Watch real-time soft shadows of your comrades abd dynamic lighting (indoors). You can even see breath in cold climates (like Stalingrad). Given the vast environments, the engine truly amazes with the provided features while remaining very playable.
Rating: ****-
Story Line: [VERY GOOD] More of the same, you get thrown into unrelated sections of the war and either is played from a specific part of the Allies. (Of course playing as an American in Stalingrad wouldn't work anyway.) It's a good thing that not much changed as nothing was broken. However, the only connection each section seems to have is war in itself. For fans on non-linear scripting, this is not how COD2 works and your way to complete a mission is fairly defined unless you're in the multiplayer part of the game. Scripted missions are not a bad thing though, as they give the guidance that otherwise might make it hard to "get anywhere". In Call of Duty 2 (and the original) you're not in command and basically have to follow orders (like most would in any given war), unlike Brothers in Arms where you command groups to accomplish given tasks. However, you get to follow commands by Russian, British and American officers.
Rating: ****-
Violence: [VERY GOOD] In typical manner for Call of Duty (both versions) the dismemberment of limbs is not shown is such a detail as say DOOM III. Even the typical red splatter is not all over the place and only used to show that you hit somebody. With today's overload of gore this is certainly a good thing -- despite some inevitable complaints that it's not "real". On the positive side, team mates are not bulletproof and "accidentially" shooting captured enemies or "friends" will have a negative effect on your mission -- typically resulting in instant termination. So overall, it's well executed without being too much gore and still convey the cruelty of war.
Rating: *****
Controls: [OKAY] I may not remember Call of Duty correctly, but the sequel feels strangely foreign to me. Despite the standard WASD control scheme, switching weapons and other tasks hint a preference for console gaming and are not my cup of tea. Nor do I think it's the best way to do it on a PC either. (i.e. only toggle weapons by pressing either "1" or "2" with basically interchangeable effects.)
Rating: **---
Physics: [OKAY] Not much to talk about here. You don't have much time to some puzzles or re-arrange stuff, but I would have expected some advances in the "force" feedback of bullet impact, meaning to visibly see where I actually hit that guy. No such thing here! (Well there is hints of it, like helmets flying off in realistic trajectories.)
Rating: **---
Sound: [GOOD] Everything feels a little bit like the original game, with a good epic score, but almost too subtile to be memorable. What sticks out in Call of Duty 2 is the often annoying voice acting of mostly the German troops. First of all, I understand every single word, which makes it harder to ignore (and sometimes helps to get a hint on their "strategy"). While Call of Duty 2 avoids obvious issues like a fake accent or wrong grammar, Germans are often screaming in an obnoxious way and most of the time squeamish stuff (i.e. "we will all die") -- very repetitive. If I didn't know better, I'd wonder if all Germans have such a nervous high pitch voice. Not to mention the fact that the German troops at the time of WWII sure would not have called "Soviet troops" by that name. The most confusing part about it though is that despite greater distance, many enemies sound as close as your team. At least the sound of flying bullets and exploding grenades is very convincing. That is if you don't run into hardware issues.
Rating: ****-
Weapons: [VERY GOOD] Don't expect plasma guns or phaser pistols, and that's a good thing. True to the historic times, the weapons are modeled after their authentic originals and once in the game you get to pick up even those from fallen friends or enemies. In addition to the standard arsenal (pistol, machine gun etc.) you now have smoke grenades to conceal your movement from enemies and ultimately allow to cross dangerous passages which otherwise would be passable only with heavy losses.
Rating: ****-
AI: [GOOD] If being more aggressive means smarter, then Call of Duty 2 has much more brains than the previous version. But there are subtile things like picking up grenades and throwing them back that truly make a difference for both you comrades and the Germans (a.k.a. enemy). However, I had trouble to consider any of them smart, despite their ability to seek cover and throwing grenades back at me. Often you find an enemy in a distance standing around with spread out arms and doing nothing until you get closer. (Easy target for the sniper rifle and not too hard for a standard gun either.) In highly intense war scenes as endured in Call of Duty 2 there is rarely time to stand idle, at least one would think so.
Call of Duty 2 doesn't show any "intelligent" idle behavior as seen in FarCry or Thief III. However, don't expect the Germans to sit around once you snipe one of their "Kumpels" (mates). (a la Halo) Nevertheless, you will find that in many situations you just have to wait and they will come to you - ready or not.
Rating: ***--
Difficulty: [GOOD] Unlike the real thing, a single shot barely kills in Call of Duty 2, or otherwise it would be too close to the real thing to call it fun. (Headshots still do!) Nevertheless, even without med packs you "magically" heal simply by finding cover. It only takes about 2 - 3 seconds. This somewhat counteracts the lack of a manual Quicksave, but also conveys a questionable idea about war. Nevertheless, your actual health status is almost a little too real as there is no visible feedback, which of course in real life you would not have a health gauge either. In a computer game though and senses limited to visuals and sound, I am not so sure if I applaud Call of Duty 2 for that. You will know that it's getting critical when "you" are breathing heavily and ultimately vision is blurred. Good or bad, it takes some time to tune into this concept.
Difficulty can be changed mid war, however you will be penalized by being thrown back to the beginning of the current level. That in itself is very discouraging to start out high and adjust in situations that turn out too difficult, unless you like repeating stuff. Yet, even the highest level "Veteran" feels much easier than in the original Call of Duty -- courtesy of an endless health supply when finding cover.
Rating: ***--
Progress: [BAD] Never change a winning team and what I praised in the original from 2003 is now gone. By relying on checkpoints only, the drive to try the highest difficulty level could be greatly challenged by sections you will have to play over and over and ... you get the idea. Of course that is unless you "bunny hop in Rambo style" across the battlefield, dodging bullets and magically heal. Note to the developer: If I wanted to play a console, I would buy one! There is a little wrinke in the checkpoint system, as it won't save if you ran out of ammunition -- until you restock. While that's intentional, there is also some misfire due to a bug that somehow prevents checkpoints to trigger saving (see below in "Updates" for details).
Rating: *----
Multiplayer: [???] I have to admit, I am not a big fan of many of the multiplayer games, and Call of Duty 2 is not different. With that in mind, I find myself in disbelieve when bunny-hopping in the midst of a battle and self-regenerating health when finding cover. Enough for me to desert this war! (That and the tendency for the multiplayer game to crash my computer upon start.)
However, for those interested there are 5 game modes: Deathmatch (every-man-for-himself battlefield of chaos), Team Deathmatch (The team with the most frags wins), Capture the Flag (team capturing the most flags wins), Headquarters (control, setup&, and defend headquarters), and Search & Destroy (search out and destroy a specific target)
Rating: n/a
HARDWARE OBSERVATIONS
I played Call of Duty 2 on the listed system below and it performs very well with most settings to maximum and only Anti-Aliasing turned off. (2xAA is still quite playable but sometimes a little hesitant.)
Reviewing the CPU activity reveals no evidence that Call of Duty 2 is able to use more than one CPU (core), but at least in my setup it's not limited by the provided computing power of a single core either. Load times are reasonable and I have found little to no hesitation within a map (mission), i.e. when loading another part of the section. However, COD2 v1.0 (retail) shows some problems with X2 processors. (See below for details.)
Upgrading to a faster graphics board (Radeon x1800 XL) improved graphics to very smooth even with all parameters (including AntiAliasing) set to maximum with a resolution of 1600x1200. However, it also reveals little change one might attribute to shader 3.0, almost too little to be noticed. Call of Duty 2 supports SLI (dual video cards), but given the high performance on a single x1800, that may not result in any noticeable improvements.
SUMMARY
I have to say that Call of Duty 2 turned out to be one major disappointment for me in 2005. That's not soo much because the game is bad, but rather because it looses some appeal that made the 2003 version a Game Of The Year (GOTY 2003). It appears that in light of the upcoming mega console releases, InfinityWard went overboard, or to be exact threw PC gaming goodies over board. Should you only buy one game this season, look at F.E.A.R. or maybe Quake 4 for an instant reward.
Even several missions into the game, the grudge against the missing Quicksave and general move away from realism is still strong and should this the first Call of Duty you get in touch with, you might not understand what the fuss is all about. In reality, you may be even right as Call of Duty 2 still packs a serious punch strengthened by updated graphics and slight gameplay updates like the threat indicator. Nevertheless, regenerating health and checkpoints simply call for bunny-hopping through war. To each its own but I am having trouble with that.
On the bright side, there are still enough "de ja vu" moments resembling the original, that my criticism may not be justfied. Irony has it that I am German and while enjoying the tougher, more adaptive A.I. of my "fellow enemies", the voice acting alone makes me want to shoot them. I never in my life heard such squeamish jibberish that seems like an attempt to reflect the nonsense from Brothers in Arms. (At the same time, the notably excellent squad tactics from "Brothers in Arms" have apparently not been considered worth adapting.)
Overall, Call of Duty 2 is demanding on your hardware but by far not as much as F.E.A.R. or Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Most might still think about upgrading to a modern CPU (i.e. AMD Athlon64) and/or SLI (or CrossFire) in order to be able to experience this game in all its glory (with all effects set to maximum and AA). Should you have trouble with the original (regarding speed), then "Call of Duty 2" will require that you upgrade before you enlist. Watch out for problems with dual core processors in the retail version (original release).
[11-Nov-2005] - After letting off some steam I finally realized that some of the issues I had with the game were actual bugs. So it just happened that I chose to play in difficulty "Hardened" (3/4), and recently changed to "Veteran" (4/4). It turns out that two specific issues seemed to be limited to "Hardened". Checkpoints are supposedly plenty and kind of try to eliminate the need for Quicksave, but in "Hardened" (only) you have to go loooong stretches without a checkpoint. First I thought this to be a function of the chosen difficulty, but when trying out "Veteran" (the highest level) revealed about 6 - 7 checkpoints which previously simply didn't trigger. By the way, the health system acted up in a similar way, where over the same sections of the map, finding cover would not regenerate anything. Of course that also indicates that it's not by design. In fact, I tried the training section for different graphics settings etc. and by simply turning away from "potato throw targets" for a moment, the game gets stuck by simply not recognizing one of the targets anymore and requesting that you hit the one remaining.
[28-Nov-2005] - It turns out that Call of Duty 2 is apparently having problems with dual core processors, as above problems went away when restricting COD2 to one core (before actually playing a map). To do so open Taskmanager while COD2 is running and right click the COD taks in the Processes tab. Pick Affinity and select only one CPU (core), it's your choice to pick CPU0 or CPU1. I hope there is a patch out soon as this is cumbersome, but the only official way with version 1.0 of Call of Duty 2. A more permanent workaround has been posted on one of the forums, but before you do it be aware that it's not officially supported.
- http://www.robpol86.com/Pages/imagecfg.php
- download "imagecfg affinity mask tool"
- scan for viruses (recommended)
- install imagecfg.exe
- open Command Line
- enter: imagecfg -a 0x1 "c:\path\to\cod_sp_s.exe"*
*... enter the correct path to COD2 based on your installation
That forces the single CPU usage for this program.
[23-Dec-2005] - InfinityWard finally released a patch addressing described issue with multicore processors. Despite the official version being dedicated for Intel's HT processors (which apparently had the same issue), the patch fixed my problem with the AMD X2 dual core. However, you will most likely have to restart the currnt level you're in for the changes to take effect.
ONLINE RESOURCES
- Game Demo (single player)
http://www.3dgamers.com/games/callofduty2/downloads/
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