Call of Duty 2 Preview

Prepare to once again witness the shocking events of World War II as Call of Duty is back. Published by Activision and Developed by Infinity Ward, Call of Duty II builds on the success of the original Call of Duty by making this game bigger, bolder and more horrifically real.

Instead of just playing as one person throughout the game you get to play four characters through the timeline of World War II. At the start of the game you play Vassili Ivanovich Koslov, a private in the Soviet Red Army. The game starts in the blizzards of Russia as you fight just 20 miles from Moscow against the great German Blitzkrieg.  There are two characters from the British Army, Sergeant Davis of General Montgomery’s 8th Army Division and Tank Commander Welsh who’s in the legendary Desert Rats. For the American side there’s Corporal Bill Taylor who’s in the 2nd Ranger Battalion.
But when you play one of these four characters you don’t fight the entire German Army on your own, you battle through it all with your squad. If you want to survive in this game you have to work in a team.  Although this isn’t particularly a new feature, Infinity Ward have coded it perfectly with new options like the all-new “battle chatter system”. This allows your squad mates to inform you of information happening in the game. The chatter is context-sensitive and specific to points within each level. If the Germans are hiding in their bunker then your squad will call out “Germans in the bunker.” But don’t worry about hearing the same line over and over again as Infinity Ward has recorded over 20,000 lines for use with the system.

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COD2 has a new proprietary engine and is making full use of it. Luscious graphics mixed with gorgeous weather and smoke effects bring this game alive. Your squad looks like soldiers should, the water looks like you could dip your hand in it and the snow makes you shiver — it looks so good! There are more levels than the previous Call of Duty and also the levels are longer. Geographically, you play in new continents like North Africa and you revisit classic hell holes like Stalingrad. The objectives in the game can be completed out of order which means you can use military tactics to make sure your squad achieves its missions instead of being shot to little bits by the German Machine Guns.

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While I’m talking about guns, snipers finally get a new trick! They will be able to hold their breath in order to perfectly steady their rifles for a limited time. While holding their breath, they will literally enter a state of complete concentration, the sounds of battle will fade slightly, and they will be able to hear their own heartbeat — What about that for a feature!

The action begins in 1941, during the Russian campaign. After you complete the first mission the following year, 1942, is unlocked. This is how the game progresses. You can proceed to continue the Russian storyline that you’ve begun, or you can open up a British mission and begin that one. Once you reach the moment in the timeline when the American’s came into the War then you can go on those missions. So, as you go deeper into the game, more of the game is opened up.

It seems that this game has left Medal of Honor on the boat as it rushes to the beach armed with a machine gun smashing it’s way through the Germans like Rambo thrown into World War II – in other words if you like first person shooters set in war time, then this is the game for you!

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Russ Clow

Russ Clow not only nearly shares his name with one of the best Gladiators around, but he also has a bundle of experience under his belt. Since a very young age he's been playing video games, and has been working in the video game industry for most of his working career. Russ is a secret Sony Fanboy, although he tries hard to hide it so as to keep his position as Editor-in-Chief. When he's not playing games, Russ likes to play football with the "lads".

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