Call of Duty 2

E3 Preview 2005

The mission object stated that your troop was to head into the town on the North Africa coast, take out the guns protecting the harbor so that an air strike could take care of the ships ferrying supplies to the Nazis. Of course, the town is crawling with Germans who are opposed to you doing that. 

The transports rumble to a stop and the troops move out. Germans are shooting back, impeding a rapid completion. A platoon mate jumps over a small wall of sandbags in front of you, and his goes flying back over your shoulder. You know he is dead before you even see him fall backwards from the headshot.

There is smoke and confusion, and chaos.

Call of Duty 2, from Infinity Works and Activision, is much more than a sequel to one of the more acclaimed World War II shooter titles, it is a wonderful step forward for the franchise. With campaigns across Western Europe, Russia and Africa, the game plays out with jaw-dropping graphics and intense action. Activision showed off a bit of the title during a pre-E3 event held recently in Santa Monica. There was no hands-on time, and some details were kept a little sketchy – like just what multiplayer would entail – but the game is completely revamped and uses new propriety technology created for CoD2.  

The developers on hand to talk about the title said that there were two elements that were important – first, they are not using anything from the first title; and secondly, they are looking to make huge pioneering strides in the area of AI. That means while you are scouting out German positions, they are scouting out yours (and if you spoke German, you would know what they are saying). Infinity Works has recorded more than 20,000 lines of dialog and the game sports a contact-sensitive battle chat system.  

The game is not set on one path and players can jump to different campaigns through non-linear levels. The cinematics have been constructed to be viewed from any angle and smoke makes a huge impact on the game’s graphical elements. In talking to professions, the developers found out that smoke played a key role in masking movement, so now some soldiers carry smoke grenades – and that meant that a new particle system had to be put in place to effectively render this element.

The action during the level demo was intense, and it was mentioned that it was one of the easier settings. But graphically, CoD2 really gets the juices jumping and even players who are not huge into FPS titles should put this title down as one to see.

It is not so much the major elements that warrant the “wow!” response, but rather the little things happening around the core action. This is a game of constant movement and events, and while there is nothing hidden, and no puzzles to solve, no adventure but a lot of action that calls for smart responses, what has been crafted here is a game that is, simply stated, stunning.