We loved Call of Duty, the World War II-based shoot-'em-up that established itself as one of the best Mac games in years, thanks to its immersive atmosphere, which made you feel like you were just a pawn in a much larger war. Excellent graphics, a rousing soundtrack, impressive voice acting from a large supporting cast with whom you could interact, and challenging level design all made it a fantastic game. So it's hard to see how a sequel could improve on that - but Call of Duty 2 does just that.
For a start, the graphics are even better, with stunning detail on everything from the scenery to the faces of your fellow brothers in arms. Smoke effects, such as when you throw a smoke grenade to provide cover from enemy snipers, and lighting are unbelievably realistic.
All these effects place heavy demands on your processor and graphics card. Even on a machine that meets the system requirements, the frame rate can drop frustratingly low when there's a lot going on. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find that if the graphical settings and resolution were turned down sufficiently, the game was perfectly playable on our lowly 1.5GHz G4 PowerBook.
The visuals certainly do their bit to recreate the wartime atmosphere, but the addition of the music, sound effects of weapons, vehicles and other soldiers, as well as cut-scenes of real wartime footage, are just as important. So, too, is the feeling that the game isn't centred around you: success in any mission depends on co-operation between yourself and other soldiers, who, thankfully, are controlled by an impressive AI system.
As in the original Call of Duty, all the action is targeted against the Nazis, but from three different Allied perspectives: those of the British, American and Russian armies. A nice feature new to version 2 is the ability to jump between the three campaigns at will. This is good, as it allows you to experience all three armies without having to complete a campaign, but on the downside, it rather gets in the way of any kind of coherent storyline. Not that this will be too much of a drawback to gamers, as who plays shoot-'em-ups for the plot?
The levels now have massive expanses of territory to explore, as well as plenty of varied terrain, including trenches, burned-out buildings, desert expanses and built-up cities. As you progress through the single-player game, you'll recreate some famous battles from WWII, including the siege of Stalingrad and the Normandy landings.
Another fundamental change is to the health system. Rather than the somewhat contrived method found in most FPS games of topping up your health level with health packs found lying around, you don't have a health bar in Call of Duty 2. Instead, when you take a hit, your vision starts to blur and go red around the edges. You must take cover and allow yourself time to heal before the damage becomes fatal. The disadvantage is that this equally unrealistic health system can make things too easy. Instead of carefully planning a strategy, you're more likely to go into a situation with all guns blazing, safe in the knowledge that you're unlikely to die as long as there's somewhere to take cover not too far away.
Once you've completed the single-player missions, you can turn to the multi-player game. It's very easy to set up and run your own network game, and just as easy to join any one of the hundreds of games taking place on the Internet. Be warned, though: since Call of Duty 2 has already been out for six months on the PC, there are some experienced players out there. Multi-player games formats include the usual deathmatch and capture the flag, as well as variations such as search-and-destroy and headquarters.
If you're after something groundbreaking, then Call of Duty 2 isn't it. There's little here that hasn't been done before. It's just that Call of Duty 2 does it all better than the rest. It's a must-have, not just for fans of the original game, but for anyone interested in first-person shooters.
Verdict
It's a must-have, not just for fans of the original game, but for anyone interested in first-person shooters
Author: Mike Hirschkorn
MacUser Online