Call of Duty 2

eXpendabLe

Anyone else pick this up? I know there's been tons of new releases lately, but couldnt resist the free t-shirt from my local game stop store... exit another $50 from my wallet.

anyhoo.. I've played some hours of both single and multi yesterday and it's good. Not groundbreaking or even different enough to bear the "2" moniker imo.. but CoD quality none the less. The new tech is purdy and there are some new gameplay elements such as the use of smoke, but dont expect a big leap from CoD. MP is as fun as ever and the new maps are pretty good. If you liked CoD and United Offensive then you'll like this one too.

LordScottish

I only played the demo so far and hope to get the game next week. Imho it's a big step towards a more authentic war feeling. Especially the sounds were incredible and the atmosphere blew me away. The germans actually talk good german, yay
I can't talk about mission design yet, but overall I would easily buy cod2 instead of doom3

edit: oh and it looks like the developers did a good amount of research on the historical background, that's good. GOOD!

Soccerman18

Been playing this at work since it came out, pretty fun. Only done multiplayer deathmatch so I don't know how the single player or other multiplayer game modes are, but deathmatch has been great. The only thing that's really annoying is the spawning, seems to put you close to where you died, had many times where the same person kept killing me cause I kept spawning in the same place. One time I threw a grenade, go killed, then spawned right on top of the grenade. Other than that, good times, especially with a lot of people.

Ryno

Mmmm.... COD2.... I'll be picking it up this week, and am looking forward to it. I absolutely loved the first COD's multiplayer, and can't wait to try out the new one. Hopefully my skills will translate well from the first one...

LordScottish

I finally got to play cod2 for some time. I was a bit worried when I played the russian campaign, but now that I finished the british north africa campaign, I think cod 2 is groundbreaking. It has not very much story, which is quite a handicap compared to F.E.A.R. for example, but the gameplay mechanics and the scripted sequences make me go on all the time. There is so much going on around the player, it's unbelievable how tense the atmoshpere is. F.E.A.R. doesn't come close to this by any means.
Now I just imagine how cool it would be to have gamemechanics like those of Cod2 combined with good story telling!
I suggest you go and pick up the game today if you have the money And don't stop to play until you get the chance to fight Rommel in North Africa, this is where the great parts begin!

Ruz

I enjoyed the demo . great fun. Not my kind of game normally, but really cool.

I thought fear was awful though. Could they have made the environmets any more blocky? and the shadows were blacker than night even on full brightness

danr

undecided about the health system ... feel almost indestructible a lot of the time, as long as there's a wall i can duck behind for a quick breather.
Aside from that, it's as visceral as i could hope for, so it seems like money well spent so far

LordScottish

I'm quite happy with it. I play it at the second hardest level and I don't have the feeling of being indestructible. I die from time to time, but not too often. And I don't have to reload my quicksaves just to survive with more hps than the time before. This helps me to relax

danr

yeah, i'm playing second-from-hardest too ... i've ploughed through russian and half the british campaign in no time at all, don't really feel challenged. In fact, i've done some downright ridiculous things ... like charging full pelt at a panzer over 200 metres, shellshocked for most of the way due to shells exploding near my head, near death about 5 times due to nasty bullets, only to recover and plant a sticky bomb right on its nose. Boom. Game saved. Back to normal and ready to charge through the rest of the level like superman. Hmmm.

Joshua Stubbles

The first CoD was something special. CoD2 just feels like more of the same, though. I was hoping for something more (better AI, better pathfinding, etc). It's certainly not a bad game at all (the demo was a blast), but it's not what I expected/hoped for.

Ryno

I understand that people always want something groundbreaking, but if the original COD was "special", should they have thrown all of that out the window and gone for something completely different? I mean, if it ain't broke...

Played the multiplayer at a little lan get together the other night, and here's my initial take:

1. Shooting on the move. It seems quite a bit more difficult to shoot while on the move. The targeting reticule completely disappears while moving. This was annoying for my style of play, but does add to the realism. I was unable to zig zag charge opponents head on with a thompson and just mow them down. You are forced to flank more, or stop to shoot, in which case you are a sitting duck. I noticed quite a bit more sitting and camping from players, as they were unable to defend themselves while moving. Sure, it is more realistic, but this is hinders run and gun fireteams quite severely. I am very concerned about this change to the gameplay.

2. Environments. The maps have the best ambient feel to them of any multiplayer levels ever made. They are beautiful and well layed out. Smoke drifts out of bomb craters, flanking routes are improved over the original, and chokepoints have been reduced. Vegetation looks great, and the smoke is great.

3. Health auto healing. Now there is no health meter at all. You are either near death, in which case your breathing gets heavier and vision gets obscured, or you are at full strength. I seemed to heal up in about 10 seconds or so. Since I had taken close quarter gunning and health snatching to an art form in the original, this will really alter my gameplay style. It is MUCH more difficult to dance through multiple opponents killing and snatching health. Once injured, death is imminent for about 10 seconds, meaning that you may beat the first opponent or two, but after that you are pretty much doomed. In COD1, you had a health boost coming after every kill, which allowed a skilled close range gunner to go against numerous less skilled multiple oppents head to head and often win. In the original, I wouldn't even hesitate to go 3 on 1 head to head, as the odds were pretty even against soft competition. Sometimes I'd even pull of 6 to 1 odds. In COD2, 2 to 1 is something of a challenge, even against noobs.

4. Weapons. Some of the best weapons in any semi-realistic shooter. They have a nice feel, are fairly well balanced, and the sound is amazing. Some of the rifles seem overpowered. I seemed to be getting nailed with one shot kills even more than in COD1, where a Kar would cause 90% damage when you are at full health. Since everyone is at full health now due to auto-heal, rifles seem to drop you in one shot every time, to ensure riflemen get kills. Consequently, there are a lot more riflemen and long range dueling. This makes carrying an smg much less appealing, as rifle camping with a big crew is much more effective. The disappearing reticule while moving is my other gripe, particularly for the smgs.

All in all, I'm undecided. I should get a copy myself tomorrow, and will give it a real test. I am excited about capture the flag, which I have yet to try.

Ryno

OK, it actually seems that the rifle reload times have been greatly decreased, which allows you to put a lot more bullets in the air. It also seems like the rifle kick may have been reduced. This would explain why I was getting nailed by 50 rifle bullets every time I tried to advance.

You'd think that they would try to minimize snipe camping, but this appears to encourage it.