Call of Duty 2

As good as the first, though the nostalgia pulls me more the the original's side. The Russian campaign in this one is much more consistent, and I love the North African setting the British campaign starts with. Pointe du Hoc and Hill 400 are also great highlights, and the game obviously looks much better. Really good level design, replayable as hell, but the tank missions are boring as usual.

This would probably be one of the best WWII FPS were it one for one thing, its still a Call of Duty game. I'll try to explain this.

First what the game does right. It looks and sounds fantastic for its time, and has aged remarkably well. This is clear in the big set pices of the game, which is where it really shines. The big battles were you can see almost hundreds of soldiers fighting are real excellent and very impressive. Though Call of Duty has never been realistic, they do make you feel like part of an actual war. The levels are fairly open, and in a couple of them you are given the choice to tackle the objectives in the order you prefer. I like the war quotes as well, they are a nice touch. The weapon variety is limited by reasonably accurate to the historical setting.

The bad parts are the same problems that htis series has ever faced. First the gameplay isnt good, at most its mediocre. Shots dont feel powerful, and you have terrible aim unless you are rellying on aim down the sights all the time. Because of this, and the regenerative health and high enemey damage, the game quickly becomes a cover shooter. The enemy keeps spawning until you reach a certain location, which can really make some battles drag out unless you take the initiative and run for it, which is descourage by almost everysingle mechanic of the game. Not to mention how artificial it feels to keep shooting the same respawning dudes that get on the machine gun. The level design ends up being deceptively linear, as the path to be is most of the time very clearly shown by your allied soldiers. There are also a lot of turret sequences, and these are never good. The enemy AI is terrible, often looking at you dumbfounded. There is also a massive abuse in the grenade spam, often you find yourself with 3 or 4 at your feet. This is really annoying.

Storywise i was surprised to see Captain Price, but at the same time i couldnt really care about what happens with these soldiers. There is no emotional connection at all, and obviously everyone already knows the outcome of the war.

Because of the over the top action, it fails as historical accurate game. Because of the regenerative health, gunplay and enemy spawn, it has way too many flaws to be a great action game either.