The most intense, immersive, and fast-paced game in existence. No game has my heart pumping as fast as this one. *long*
BAD: Repetitive objectives; almost too intense at times; sometimes feel too powerful; difficulty almost frustrating at times; can't save
All I can say is: wow! Call of Duty 2 is a spectacular game. As soon as you start the game, you're thrown into the immersive world of Call of Duty 2.
The first campaign has you fighting in the cold, snowy streets of Moscow and Stalingrad. While the graphics aren't amazing, the attention to the technical details is awesome. Grenades throw up a chunk of the ground when they explode. This isn't just a flashy touch; it actually obscures your vision for a time. The snow flying through the air blurs your vision beyond a certain distance.
As you advance through the campaign, you'll notice that, while the game ultimately relies upon a series of mostly linear objectives and scripted sequences, they're integrated into the game so smoothly that you'll hardly notice them. In addition, the AI is intelligent and puts up a good fight. You're part of a squad of team members, and while your allies continually respawn, the enemy puts up a fierce resistance. They'll use grenades to flush you out, advance or move to a safer position, scramble out of the way of grenades, corner you, flank you, use smoke grenades to obscure their advance, and even hit you with their gun when deemed appropriate. All the while, your allies will fight just as intelligently as the enemy.
In addition, the game uses a Halo-type health system. Although at some points it can make you feel almost too powerful, it really does help the flow of the game. It's pretty obvious when you're badly hurt, as you'll fall to the ground and gasp for breath as the screen gets flushed with red, forcing you to duck behind the nearest building or sandbag while you recover. While sometimes the game turns into a one-man show, you'll never be able to sustain that for more than a couple of small fights, as whenever you're fighting alone you'll always wish that an ally will soon rush up beside you and provide cover fire (and they will, eventually).
The game also uses a series of relatively linear objectives. While at first it introduces a nice variety of objectives, it eventually does bogs down into "advance on this position, destroy the tanks, hold position until reinforcements arrive, destroy mortar/artillery teams." There is one level where you're in a tank, but the tank controls don't feel as smooth or easy as you'd like them to (especially when compared to such games as Battlefield). In addition, in some of the later levels some of the combat can be frustratingly difficult. The game autosaves frequently (and never autosaves while you're actually fighting somebody), but you'll still sometimes wish you could save it whenever you wanted, as there are a few select difficult sequences where it doesn't save often enough, and the hordes and hordes of enemies never stop coming at any point during the game. And while your objectives are always clear when you get to where you need to be, you won't always know how exactly you're supposed to get there. Your squad will stand around the path to the next place, but it's not always clear exactly where they're standing around (they'll rarely ever advance until you do).
The truly phenomenal thing about this game, however, is the atmosphere and immersiveness. As you're fighting you'll hear a constant stream of bullets, explosions, and shoting from your allies. They'll yell a veriety of things, such as asking someone to cover them while they reload, warning of a cluster of enemies behind so and so object, warning of grenades, etc. There are two simple types of guns you can use: rifles and machine guns, and both are important in their niche rolls (rifles generally from far away, machine guns in intense, close-up combat). There's sniper rifles and anti-tank rocket launchers, too, but they're only available in select sequences. Also like Halo, you can only carry 2 weapons at a time, but that's all you'll ever need (a rifle and a machine gun, generally). There's also grenades, which are extremely useful in this game, and smoke grenades, which you can use as a screen to advance to the next position. The smoke looks awesome from afar and within. In addition, there's a handy grenade indicator that warns you of grenades anytime they fall near you, allowing you to scramble and take cover. The sheer number of sounds that are going on around you are absolutely phenomenal and must be experienced to be believed. No amount of words can do it justice. One level even featured you wiping out numerous houses filled with Germans one by one...as a lightning storm rages overhead and rain falls heavily. However, the game features no leeway on friendly fire. Accidentally killing even one teammate automatically forces you to reload, and it can be hard to diferrentiate between ally and enemy. There will surely be several times throughout the campaign where you accidentally kill a teammate and have to reload from the last save.
The game also features a wide variety of enviroments, from fighting on the cold, snowy streets of Moscow and Stalingrad in the Russian campaign, to fighting Rommel in the dusty desert towns of North Africa in the British campaign, to fighting in quaint European villages house-by-house in the American campaign, providing you with a solid 12 hours of gameplay. The scripted sequences are incredibly believable, helped in no small part by the fantastic voice acting. One particularly awesome sequence has you riding in the back of a truck right before you collide almost head-on with an oncoming German truck. Another has you riding to the beaches of Normandy and climbing up the side of the cliff on D-Day as bullet fire and dead bodies rain down on you. It's a thrilling experience. The entire D-Day level is maximum intensity from start to finish as you climb the cliff, advance methodically through the trenches, move onto a small village to blow up artillery, advance back through the town, and fight your way back to the beach to rendesvous with reinforcements. The game is insanely immersive and intense from start to finish. Sometimes, especially in the D-Day level, the action was so non-stop and intense that I actually had to take a breath and gather my senses for a few minutes. No other game has ever made me do that.
While I certainly didn't cover everything (I haven't even scratched multiplayer yet), the game is truly an inredible experience. It forces you to work with your teammates, take cover, and think strategically to win, while providing you with non-stop combat. The interface is non-existent and there are no performance issues. It provides an excellent experience in graphics and sound, while making them both essential parts of the gameplay experience. So, if you don't like shooters, there's nothing here that's going to convince you otherwise, because it's still definitely a shooter at heart. However, if you're looking for an intense, combat-intensive game that strays just a bit from the traditional shooter formula yet nails down every aspect of a typical shooter with near-perfection, this game is for you.