Call of Duty 2, the follow up to 2003's Call of Duty, brings more of the World War 2 action to life. This one is another stunning reenactment of what went on in key battles in the war. (Even though I not sure how historically correct these games are.) Like the first game this one does a great job of putting you in the action, you almost feel like you're there. Personally I can't decide if this one is better then the first, but it doesn't disappoint.

First of all, probably the best improvement/aspect of this game is obviously the graphics. There are tons of environments to play through from Europe all the way to Africa. Many of them are very similar to areas in Call of Duty, or other WWII games. But these are highly detailed and are some of the best looking areas of any WWII game. There are better looking effects in this game as well. Probably the most notable is the use of smoke. In many areas you have to use smoke grenades to shield your advance. You can sit there and watch the smoke gradually fill the area. Also when the enemy uses this against you, it's sort of eerie watching them emerge from the smoke. This game just does such a great job with this. There are also great effects of buildings getting damaged or destroyed. At time you can watch planes dogfight and end up taking out the top of a building. Or one one mission you have to destroy a building, they do a nice job of showing the explosives going on while it collapses. The character models in this game look pretty good too. I don't think they're a huge improvement over the other games, just smoother looking. But they aren't as life-like or detailed as characters in Half-Life 2 for example. One a side note, this is the one games that made the XBOX 360 not impress me too much. Pretty much since I could play this smoothly at about max settings, this looked just as good as the 360. Plus FPS games are easier to play on computer, or at least that's how I prefer them. It just made the 360 feel more like a PC to me than a next-gen console. (But there are some games that are pretty impressive that are coming out.)

The next big improvement/aspect of this game is definitely the sound. This game just makes it feel so real. If you have a surround system on your computer, it'll use it nicely. Or just put on some headphones for an experience that will suck you in. I'd have to say this is probably the one game I really preferred headphones. Even though some scary games make it a necessity too, but this one just comes alive. And like other WWII games, this one has a soundtrack you would expect from them or any WWII movie.

As being a first person shooter, this game plays like you would expect it too, nothing to new there. But there are a few differences that help the game work, but also might not be for the best. For instance, this game follows the growing trend that newer FPS games are following ever since Halo, you are limited on how many weapons you can carry. You can only carry 2 different weapons at a time, along with grenades you find. You can swap your weapons for any on the battlefield. This is nice if you run out of a kind of ammo, and you can find a gun that uses something different. Personally I don't really like this, even in Halo it was the on thing I didn't care for. I guess I'm just old fashioned and like to have an insanely ridiculous arsenal in my pocket. Guess that's what I get from playing too much Unreal Tournament. Plus I found times I would accidentally swap weapons at the wrong time. That wouldn't happen if I had them all! Another thing that was a change, but not too bad is the fact that you don't really have a life bar to worry about. This means you don't have to constantly be watching for health, especially on harder missions. In this game you can be hit a number of times and not have to worry. If there's a break in the action it's no biggie. You only need to worry if you keep getting hit. Then when you're about to die the screen gets red and a warning pops up telling you to take cover. So you do and wait a bit and you'll recover from the injuries. It's sort of like your part mutant, and can heal fast, like Wolverine! This also can make the game a little less challenging since you don't have to depend on health.

The story of this game, well is supposed to be historic, but it's pretty much a reenactment of battles in WWII. You just take on the role of a soldier in the different campaigns. You play through missions as the Russians, British, and Americans. Most of the missions are in Europe like most WWII games, but a lot of the British campaign takes place in Africa. There are some cool missions where you get to drive a tank in the desert. But you just play the missions and hear the story of the battles. There are lots of nice historical clips to help explain different battles and make the game feel slightly educational.

Overall Call of Duty 2 is a pretty awesome game. It is definably the best WWII game I played so far. I did find it to be a pretty easy game, I didn't have much trouble with the missions. A few seemed to just be a walkthrough since you always have allies supporting you. There were a few challenging spots, but nothing that really annoyed me. If you find this game easy you can always crank up the difficulty. This was a fun one and now I don't think I need to hurry and get it for the 360.