Call of Duty 2

released on Oct 25, 2005

Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter that has a single-player story mode and a multiplayer mode. The player takes on the roles of several Allied protagonists in specific missions during World War II. The player can crouch and lie prone, and is able to scale low walls and other obstacles. Two firearms can be carried, which can be swapped with those left on the battlefield, and both fragmentation and smoke grenades can also be carried. A gun's iron sights can be used to aim more accurately. A compass on the heads-up display (HUD) shows both allies and enemies, and objective markers to indicate locations the player must reach, areas to defend, or enemy cannons or tanks that the player must plant explosives on to disable. Emplaced weapons such as machine guns and flak cannons are available in some locations to take out enemy troops. In addition, some missions place the player in control of a tank.


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esas son padtatas, camarada comisarrrio

I remember playing Call of Duty 2 right after it came out and the immense impact it had on me. I’m not sure how many times I started the campaign (never cared much for the multiplayer), but I definitely spent most time in snow covered Stalingrad, mowing down hundreds of Nazis. I can still quote word for word the training Vassilyi receives from Comrade Commissar. I also remember having to quit the game to cool down after clearing the German hideouts in one of the missions in North Africa - that’s how powerful the experience was for me back then. And recently, after going through my Steam library looking for something to play, I stumbled upon this oldie and thought I could give it a go, all these years later.

Alas, some childhood experiences are not meant to be repeated in adulthood. The second installment in one of the biggest gaming franchises in history did not age gracefully. And I’m not even talking about the graphics, although naturally they show their age. The character models hold up pretty well and some of the animations still look decent. The main problem is the levels - most of them look drab and empty, and it’s sometimes difficult to spot any differences in levels across the same campaign - all levels in Stalingrad look alike, same with the deserts of Libya or the villages in France. This is a serious problem that made me feel like I was replaying the same level over and over again until I got to the next campaign.

What exacerbates this feeling of running in circles is mission structure. Throughout all three campaigns - Soviet, American and British - the player is usually given the task of clearing houses/bunkers/fields/whatever of German troops and moving to the next location where he’ll be doing the exact same thing. Sure, there are some variations - shooting down a tank, sniping enemies from a high vantage point, a (very underwhelming) tank battle or some on-rails vehicle sections (which would become a series staple in further installments), but they are mere drops in a sea of mundanity. Yes, the shooting is still quite fun and the weapons feel fine (although I think they could’ve used some more variety), but repetitiveness is still the defining factor of most levels.

What I found most frustrating is the AI on both sides of the conflict. Enemies tend to run out of cover for no good reason and sometimes spawn right behind your back, just when you thought you had cleared the area. Your brothers in arms are even worse, unfortunately. They love to get right in your line of fire, they block hallways and stand on German grenades, waiting for them to explode and end their short lives. I also witnessed the legendary Captain Price throw a grenade right into the wall in front of him and the thing ricocheting back to one of his soldiers, who patiently waited to be blown to pieces (by the way, the game could do with fewer grenades available to your enemies, on Hard difficulty especially, as on some levels I felt like I did more running away from grenades than actual shooting, and in this game you can’t throw them back yet).

And when your companions and enemies meet, miracles happen. There were so many instances of German and Allied soldiers standing right next to each other and not acknowledging each other’s presence simply because the AI was focused on enemies tens of meters away. This obviously kills any sense of immersion, where you’re thrown into an environment where you’re supposed to be fighting for your life but every minute you stumble upon soldiers so stupid you just stop and look in sincere admiration instead. These moments kill the feeling the game tries to create - of facing overwhelming Nazi forces, fighting side by side with your compatriots. Instead, the faulty AI made me feel like I was the only human amongst malfunctioning robots.

There are some interesting ideas regarding AI, e.g. your brothers in arms will often shout the current location of enemy soldiers. This would be useful in a game with more open levels, because apart from some specific scenarios where enemies approach you from all sides this was rather superfluous. On that topic - yes, I realize it’s Call of Duty and it’s expected to be linear, but I felt like some levels were too limiting in where I was allowed to go. There are some levels with opportunities for flanking for example, but there is also a large number of corridors where you’re just supposed to face the enemy head on.

There are some truly amazing moments and I’d like to make it clear. Taking down the first tank in Stalingrad, landing on the beaches of Normandy (yes, ripped straight from ‘Saving Private Ryan’, but still pretty effective), the first level clearing Nazi bunkers in North Africa. But they’re few and far between, and the vast majority of the game is a pretty run of the mill World War 2 era FPS. I found out rather quickly that the game is quite tedious in longer sittings and works best in short, no more than 30 minute sessions.

One quick note - I was taken aback by the choice of quotes that are shown on screen when I died or reached a new level. The game clearly tries to romanticize the conflict it portrays - the score full of pathos, the Hollywood-like last minute rescues, the over the top voice acting (the British sound like caricatures), or the soldiers that are always eager to jump into action to ‘take down some Krauts’ and never express any fear or discomfort. The only level that might be considered an attempt to emulate ‘real’ (very thick quotation marks here) experience is the Normandy landing with its well directed introduction and incessant, deafening artillery strikes (although that might just be the Spielberg influence). Other than that it’s a pretty clean, inoffensive, ‘Greatest Generation casually killing Jerries’ type of narrative that doesn’t have absolutely anything to say. Why the odd choice of quotes, then? There are plenty of examples of lines harshly criticizing war and lamenting the loss of life, which are in stark contrast to the actual game which makes war look fun. Also, I wonder how some historical figures who said those quotes, e.g. Churchill and Zapata, would feel about being placed next to each other. Perhaps I’m reading too much into this and the developers simply looked up ‘quotes about war’, chose some that they thought sounded cool and never thought about it again. All in all, I think that the following Erasmus quote sums up the whole experience and at the same time it’s extremely ironic for having been included in this particular game: "War is delightful to those who have not experienced it."

The 2nd installment is already the same game as the first one

eu gostava de jogar mas não sabia pra onde ir