Just does not live up to the Call of Duty name.
You play as an American soldier throughout the entire game (a first for the series). You fight along side of the 1st infantry division also known as the Big Red One. The game is narrated by a series of in-game cutscenes. These cutscenes move the story along and are very well done. The voice acting is pretty good and the cutscenes arnt that long keeping you in the action. I do have to mention the first level completely rips off the game Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30.
The Call of Duty series is known for its epic battles and making you feel like you are just a very small part of something much bigger. Big Red One trys to pull this off but it doesnt work very well.
The gameplay is rather bland and outdated. You shoot yourself though hoards of enemy soliders. The action is pretty fast paced at first but it becomes very old very fast. The weapons just dont feel really powerful and the weapon balance is, well lets just put it this way, there is no weapon balance. You can use a SMG as a sniper rifle if you wanted. This leaves to even more boring gameplay.
Also there are the random tank missions that you will have to blast your way through. These are fun and the ragdoll physics are cool but even these can get old and very frustrating as your are sometimes pitted against almost impossible odds.
The sound in the game is also very bland. Most of the weapons sound the same and it just does not nail the intensity of battle like other games do. One cool thing about the sound is that your allies yell out enemy positions and is sometimes pretty useful.
The graphics are agian very bland. There are some excellent textures, even for the PS2, but the framerate never is constant and there are far to many glitches. The game nails the grittyness but the crappy framerate at times really ruins the experiance.
The worst part about the single player mode is it is short. You can blast though this game within under 7 hours. Also the final level is a huge disapointment. You will be saying to yourself, "I just wasted 7 hours of my life for that!"
Is there any hope for this game? Well there is some online with some potential. Even though it seemed promising the execution is flawed.
The online is a standard kit based system that we have seen in games like Battlefield 2 and previous Call of Duty games. At the beginning of each match you are started at a private. At this level you are given basic weapons with limited ammo. When you advance a rank you are given some sort of special ability and more ammo. If you advance to the highest rank (level 3) you are given more ammo and more grenades. This is really cool.
There are multiple problems with the online. For starters the framerate drops almost every second and you will have to learn to shoot between frames (if it is even possible). Next there is a lot of lag, lots. On the higher player games you will be lucky if you can see a guy long enough to shoot him before he flashes off of screen.
You can drive tanks and these are balanced very well. But agian lag ruins this possibility.
Overall this game just plain sucks. There are very few redeeming qualities with it. This game is all about pretty looking graphics and gameplay but flawed horrible execution and dull gameplay. Take my advice and play through a copy of Medal of Honor Frontline instead.