Call of Duty 2
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 "Those who have enjoyed long such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." - Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Call of Duty 2 is a 2005 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the second main installment in the Call of Duty series, not counting the original game's expansion pack United Offensive and the console game Finest Hour. Announced by Activision on April 7, 2005, the game was released for Microsoft Windows on October 25, 2005, and as a launch title for the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005 and later became backwards compatible with Xbox One in August 23, 2016 along with Xbox Series X/S. Other versions were eventually released for OS X, mobile phones, and Pocket PCs.
Plot
Soviet Campaign
The player controls Private Vasili Koslov of the 13th Guards Rifle Division, initially involved in the defense of Moscow from the advancing German troops. The next level involves the destruction of a German stronghold in Stalingrad during September 1942. The next objective involves battling for strongholds throughout Stalingrad throughout December 1942, including re-connecting cut telephone wires and re-capturing the rail-yard and train-station. The final mission takes place during the final Soviet offensive in Stalingrad in January 1943, which involves the re-capture and defense of city blocks and Stalingrad city hall.
British Campaign
The player controls a British soldier, Sergeant John Davis of the 7th Armoured Division in North Africa, led by Captain Price. The first level has the player taking part in a sneak attack on German Afrika Korps troops, ending with the destruction of a German supply station. The next level has the player defending a town from overwhelming numbers of Germans sending counter attacks from North, West, South and East; finally achieving victory by destroying much of the German tank force using artillery. This is followed by the Second Battle of El Alamein, during which the player has to fight through several trenches, machine gun nests, 88mm Flak 36 guns and finally taking the German field headquarters. The assault on El Dabaa to intercept the remaining Germans in Egypt and destroy several 88mm guns soon follows, ending the first British campaign.[21] An addendum to the second set of missions has the player taking on the role of a British tank commander, David Welsh, while engaging German forces in Libya. The first mission of the third campaign in Toujane, Tunisia, has the player immediately under fire, holding a house until they break out and rendezvous with the second squad. They then retake Toujane with reinforcements the next day all before assaulting Matmata. The final British campaign takes place during the Battle for Caen as part of Operation Overlord.
American Campaign
As Corporal Bill Taylor of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, the player starts off by playing a part in D-Day, at the assault of Pointe du Hoc, to destroy a German artillery battery, and hold it against a massive German counter-offensive in the following mission. Soon after, the player captures a nearby town and serves as a sniper against mortar crews until reinforcements arrive. The second objective is focused on Hill 400, involving the capture of Bergstein, a disastrous charge at Hill 400's bunkers and the defense against the German counterattack, with the player again performing sniper work against German mortar teams, destroying enemy armor, and generally holding the hill against a massive counter-attack, all the while burdened by artillery and overwhelming numbers of German soldiers. The final mission is set amongst the Americans in the Rhine River crossing into Germany. It begins as one of the few missions with the player immediately under fire, providing cover fire against the Germans until reaching the river banks and then fighting through most of the town. The final fight has the player defeat two German Tiger Is.
Ending
The end credits depict the dramatic rescue of Captain Price from the Germans by a group of American soldiers. After the credits end, the words "No cows were harmed in the making of this game" appear, as in the original Call of Duty. This is a reference to the dead cattle visible in the Normandy missions.
Why You Should Once Again Call For Duty
- This is the first game in the series to feature four different campaigns each with different settings and protagonists, followed up by Call of Duty 3 and Vanguard.
- This is also the first game in the series to make use of the random enemy taunts.
- It introduced regenerative health, which became a staple of the franchise and replaces the annoying medkit healing system from the first game.
- This is the only game in the series to have a neat and easy-to-use level select screen. And better yet, unlike later games, once you've beaten a level you can either choose to continue to the next level, or return to the main menu, which makes navigating through menus much easier.
- The graphics are a huge improvement from the first game and looks stunning for 2005 standards and an Xbox 360 launch title, which still looks great to this day.
- Great soundtrack by Graeme Revell.
- Just like the other games in the series, it has a nice multiplayer mode.
- The PC version has many custom content for both single-player and multiplayer, such as skins, maps, and mods that greatly expands the game's content, most notably Back2Fronts, WCP and even a mod that adds actual blood in the game.
- Some of the cutscenes are presented through documentary films about real events of WW2.
- The gunplay is slightly improved from the previous game.
Bad Qualities
- As with the rest of the series, the campaign is pretty short, and can be finished in 5 hours.
- The multiplayer mode loses some of the features introduced in United Offensive, such as driveable vehicles. Not only that, the Xbox 360 version can only support 8 players at a time; in comparison, the PC version has a maximum of 64 players.
- The graphics in the Xbox 360 version are slightly downgraded from the PC version having some blurry textures.
Reception
Call of Duty 2 received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. The graphics and sound were widely praised and the reactions to the regenerating health system were mostly positive, with reviewers from GameSpot and GamePro calling it an improvement over the previous health bar system.
Trivia
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Videos
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