It's aight.
I'm happy I played this game. It's a great case study of a CoD game with one foot in modern (2 and after) CoD, and classic CoD. While it has old school CoD design like the health bar and a more cartoonish vibe, it has more modern elements such as a more forgiving checkpoint system and a bigger focus on a more action-focused approach. I believe that, as a game, this is much better than Finest Hour, but as a story, this is a weaker entry compared to the aforementioned Finest Hour.
This game was made as a companion piece to Call of Duty 2 and a sequel to Finest Hour. It was also the first full entry that Treyarch made (United Offensive was not really a full entry since it was an expansion). It differs greatly from Call of Duty 2, to the point where it's barely even worth mentioning Call of Duty 2 in light of this game. It's a completely different title.
I questioned as to whether or not I even needed to type up a review for this, because the CoD series fixed almost all of the gripes I had with the design of this title. For one, health bars. Health bars in FPS games are not inherently bad. In fact, there are certain types of FPS games where health bars are much more preferable to regenerating health. This is not one of those games. Health bars and CoD mix about as well as water and oil. The cinematic setpieces and stray bullets will chip away at your health and you'll constantly be scrambling for the next health pack and praying not to get taken out by a stray bullet in the meantime. It disincentivizes playing the objective. Many people prefer health bars in shooters but it's a much more nuanced conversation than many YouTubers give it credit for.
Another issue I had with this game was the horrendous AI. I'd say this was fixed in later entries, but it was already largely fixed by the time Call of Duty 2 itself dropped. Friendly AI constantly runs in front of you and blocks you from your objective. Keep that in mind before playing this game.
Another big gripe I have is with grenade spam. CoD is no stranger to grenade spam on higher difficulties, but this game does not have a grenade danger indicator to mitigate the annoyance and it does this even on normal difficulties.
The final issue I have is the way the level design disincentivizes strategic play and paying attention to the map. This is an issue because instead of being rewarded for picking off enemies from a distance and paying attention, more enemies spawn in their place almost as if to tell you that you're playing the game wrong unless you do it in the specific way that the game demands you play it. This can lead to the game forcing you into strategically disadvantageous positions to stop the infinite flow of enemies.
This was still a decently fun game, however. It had a sense of momentum and action, and the members of the squad were entertaining enough. Though the narrative was not as memorable as that of Finest Hour or Call of Duty 2, it was still serviceable.
Overall, this game is worth playing if you're interested in seeing the roots of the series. Don't expect it to be as good as Call of Duty 2 or even the first game on PC.
I'm happy I played this game. It's a great case study of a CoD game with one foot in modern (2 and after) CoD, and classic CoD. While it has old school CoD design like the health bar and a more cartoonish vibe, it has more modern elements such as a more forgiving checkpoint system and a bigger focus on a more action-focused approach. I believe that, as a game, this is much better than Finest Hour, but as a story, this is a weaker entry compared to the aforementioned Finest Hour.
This game was made as a companion piece to Call of Duty 2 and a sequel to Finest Hour. It was also the first full entry that Treyarch made (United Offensive was not really a full entry since it was an expansion). It differs greatly from Call of Duty 2, to the point where it's barely even worth mentioning Call of Duty 2 in light of this game. It's a completely different title.
I questioned as to whether or not I even needed to type up a review for this, because the CoD series fixed almost all of the gripes I had with the design of this title. For one, health bars. Health bars in FPS games are not inherently bad. In fact, there are certain types of FPS games where health bars are much more preferable to regenerating health. This is not one of those games. Health bars and CoD mix about as well as water and oil. The cinematic setpieces and stray bullets will chip away at your health and you'll constantly be scrambling for the next health pack and praying not to get taken out by a stray bullet in the meantime. It disincentivizes playing the objective. Many people prefer health bars in shooters but it's a much more nuanced conversation than many YouTubers give it credit for.
Another issue I had with this game was the horrendous AI. I'd say this was fixed in later entries, but it was already largely fixed by the time Call of Duty 2 itself dropped. Friendly AI constantly runs in front of you and blocks you from your objective. Keep that in mind before playing this game.
Another big gripe I have is with grenade spam. CoD is no stranger to grenade spam on higher difficulties, but this game does not have a grenade danger indicator to mitigate the annoyance and it does this even on normal difficulties.
The final issue I have is the way the level design disincentivizes strategic play and paying attention to the map. This is an issue because instead of being rewarded for picking off enemies from a distance and paying attention, more enemies spawn in their place almost as if to tell you that you're playing the game wrong unless you do it in the specific way that the game demands you play it. This can lead to the game forcing you into strategically disadvantageous positions to stop the infinite flow of enemies.
This was still a decently fun game, however. It had a sense of momentum and action, and the members of the squad were entertaining enough. Though the narrative was not as memorable as that of Finest Hour or Call of Duty 2, it was still serviceable.
Overall, this game is worth playing if you're interested in seeing the roots of the series. Don't expect it to be as good as Call of Duty 2 or even the first game on PC.
Shooting little brown dots on a grey background. I wish there was more close quarters because visibility felt terrible. Maybe I should have played on Xbox?