Call of Duty 2

The Pointe du Hoc D-Day mission in the single-player campaign depicts U.S. Rangers going ashore in LCVP landing craft.

Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter that has a single-player story mode and a multiplayer mode. The player takes on the roles of several Allied protagonists in specific missions during World War II. The player can crouch and lie prone, and is able to scale low walls and other obstacles.[4]

The player can carry two firearms, and may swap them for others found on the battlefield. A gun's iron sights can be used to aim more accurately. Fragmentation and smoke grenades can be carried. Emplaced weapons such as machine guns and flak cannons are available in some locations. Some missions place the player in control of a tank.[5]

A compass on the heads-up display (HUD) shows allies, enemies, and markers that indicate locations the player must reach, areas to defend, or enemy cannons or tanks that the player must plant explosives on to disable.

The player has binoculars. Generally ignored during infantry-centric missions, they are useful for scouting and vital to the long-range use of the Crusader tanks and a mission in which the player must direct artillery fire to defend a town.[6]

Should the player take severe damage, the screen will turn red and the sound of the character's heartbeat will increase in volume; these indicate that the player's health is low. Health is only restored through automatic recharging when the player is not taking fire. Some attacks will kill the player instantly, such as nearby explosions by grenades or shells.[7] A player who dies restarts from the last checkpoint.

In April 2006, Infinity Ward released Call of Duty 2 Radiant, which allows a player to create their own multiplayer or single-player maps. The mapmaker includes Maya plug-in support, an effects editor, and an asset manager that allows custom models to be made and imported into the game, as well as custom effects.[8]

On April 7, 2005, Activision announced that Infinity Ward was developing Call of Duty 2, set for release in fall 2005 for PC. It had been speculated that Infinity Ward was developing the sequel at the same time as Gray Matter Studios developed Call of Duty: United Offensive. Infinity Ward president Grant Collier said:

"Our team at Infinity Ward is committed to thrusting gamers into the heat of battle like no other, taking players on a thrill-ride of adrenaline that leaves everyone gasping for air. In Call of Duty 2, we are creating the most intense and realistic action game imaginable with a stunning visual atmosphere and an advanced technology that delivers an unprecedented level of authenticity".[16]

The press release said players would engage enemies in a less linear battlefield, tackle the major battles chronologically, and use squad tactics not available in previous Call of Duty games. Infinity Ward also confirmed making a "Battle Chatter System", similar to Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault, where squad members converse to create situational awareness.[16]

The game engine—proprietary IW engine 2.0—is a modified version of id Tech 3, which was used in the first Call of Duty game. With the new game engine, Infinity Ward expanded the scope of combat to deliver a realistic battlefield experience and improved the visuals. The developers were able to cloud visibility with smoke from smoke grenades and create weather effects like dusty sandstorms and whiteout blizzard.[17]

The game was known to "let players experience four individual soldier stories as they overcome insurmountable odds in multiple campaigns. Players have the freedom to follow each of the four storylines through for the ultimate character-driven experience, or they can engage in the historic battles chronologically for quick hitting action. Squads now have the freedom to take on a variety of mission objectives, on expansive battlefields that allow for multiple paths and the ability to utilize actual combat tactics like outflanking and fire and maneuver capabilities".[18]

Call of Duty 2 was going to be more immersive than the original Call of Duty. Vince Zampella, creative director of Infinity Ward, said, "We didn't want to take any of the parts out that made Call of Duty so good. But there were a couple of things that we admit could have been done better". A demo of the game showed a more open gameplay style and a better AI for the enemies, who would actively go after the player. There are a set number of enemies set on the map that will begin reacting to the player's presence once the first shot has been fired. Groups of enemies farther away send units up to see what is happening and add to the combat while enemies directly in front of the player will join in and take cover quickly.[19]

Infinity Ward spent a lot of time on WWII battlefields, which led them to scrap whole levels for parts of the game that took place in France, since they found the location very different from what they imagined.

One of the details the team added are post-war effects that continue on the battlefield throughout the game, where dust and smoke continue to roll through the streets, clouding up vision, and junk and debris scattered everywhere. The game has sound attenuation, with a 5.1 surround sound system, and context sensitive dialog, with a total of twenty-thousand lines of dialog. Each of the soldiers fighting alongside the player will call out the position of enemy soldiers, warn of flank attacks, and help out in ways that were not possible in the first game of the series. Zampella said, "We really wanted realistic battle chatter going that's not only entertaining, but actually adds to the gaming experience. So now you'll hear your guys telling you that there's [sic] two guys hiding behind that rusty car in the street or that there are people on the second floor of a building".[20]

A small grayed-out grenade icon appears in the center of the screen when the player is near a grenade, with an arrow pointing in the direction of the grenade. Enemies can sometimes seem to be dead when they are not, where the enemy can still wield his side arm and fire at the player, known as Last Stand, which would later become a perk available to players in the multiplayer of subsequent games.[21]

The game was showcased in E3 in 2005 and was announced as a launch title for the upcoming Xbox 360.[22][23]

The game's budget was $14.5 million.[24] Development time was 2 years with 75 people.[24] Despite being first on the new Xbox 360 platform, the game was developed with no mandatory overtime or weekend work.[25]

Call of Duty 2 received "generally positive" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.[26][27] 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.[38][39]

For the Xbox 360 version, IGN's Douglass C. Perry described the presentation as "classy and well-produced", and said the graphics were some of the best on the Xbox 360 at its launch. He called the sound effects "unbelievable", whilst the gameplay was described as containing an "enormous amount of action".[40] GameSpot reviewer Bob Colayco summarized his review by stating that Call of Duty 2 has "smooth, detailed graphics and great sound", as well as praising the artificial intelligence, realism, and variety in the campaign.[41] GamePro called the game "breathtaking", and commended the game for its "strikingly realistic detail on weapons and walls, emphasized by normal mapping, exceptional shading and lighting, specular highlights, and some absolutely phenomenal particle effects".[30] GameSpy editor Will Tuttle called it "One of the finest FPSs ever created. Thanks to a combination of sharp visuals, teeth-rattling sound effects, and tricky enemy AI, you'll be on the edge of your seat from the moment you're dropped into combat until your dying breath".[35]

For the PC version, IGN editor Tom McNamara was impressed with the presentation and graphics, describing them as "Excellent" and "smooth" respectively. He also said the graphics did not suffer "from also being developed for the 360". McNamara also praised the sound, describing it as "sad music, encompassing battle noise, and excellent voice work".[42] Bob Colayco of GameSpot also reviewed the PC version of the game, as he did its Xbox 360 counterpart. Colayco again commended the sound, calling the presentation of the game "excellent", as well as praising the aggression of the artificial intelligence. Unlike in his review of the Xbox 360 version, Colayco felt the multiplayer aspect was "fun". His main critique was for performance, stating "performance can chug at times".[38] GameSpy's Sal Accardo noted "Instead of feeling like a stale retread [of the original Call of Duty] or losing steam halfway through, it manages to be a blast from start to finish".[34] GamesRadar Joshua Latendresse called the single-player campaign "stunning" and cited that the multiplayer was even better.[43]

Despite this praise, McNamara of IGN commented that he finds implementing regenerating health to be "a little troublesome", and that it allows players to "experience a kind of combat only a mythical super-soldier could withstand" which, therefore, "propels the game from gritty authenticity to John Woo fantasy".[42] GameSpot's Colayco was critical of the game's pricing, stating it had a "higher pricepoint than its PC counterpart". He also complained that the multiplayer aspect could only support eight players.[41] The PC version multiplayer was criticized as being a step back from that of Call of Duty: United Offensive.[44][45]

Call of Duty 2 was the most popular launch title on the Xbox 360, with 200,000 units sold in its first week of availability.[46] 77% of people who purchased an Xbox 360 also purchased the game, which contributed to its high sales.[47] As of July 2006, 1.4 million copies of the game had been sold on the Xbox 360.[48] By January 2008, the game had sold 2 million copies.[49] By November 2013, the game had sold 5.9 million copies.[50]

The editors of Computer Games Magazine named Call of Duty 2 the seventh-best computer game of 2005. They called it "the ultimate WWII shooter".[51]

A television advertisement for Call of Duty 2 was the subject of some controversy in 2006. The commercial, created by a Los Angeles animation studio Rhythm and Hues Studios, depicted a first-person view of events that were supposed to transpire during the game, rather than scenes from the game itself. Some consumers felt that the advertisements were misleading, and in February 2006 the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) demanded that networks remove the advertisements after three consumers filed complaints of false advertising. According to ASA spokesperson Donna Mitchell, "Viewers felt that the ad was misleading because the quality of graphics was superior to that of the game's".[52] Activision denies that the scenes were meant to give an impression of gameplay, stating in a press release shortly after the ASA banning that "The footage was intended purely to communicate the subject matter of the game rather than to represent actual gameplay".[53]

A collector's edition of the game was released for Windows on October 25, 2005 and for the Xbox 360 labeled as the "Special Edition". It features the game and a bonus disc, which includes interviews, a making of the movie and two mission walkthroughs.[54] On May 17, 2006, Activision announced a Game of the Year Edition for the Xbox 360, which includes material from the Special Edition, plus a token to download the Skirmish Map Pack.[55] In January 2006, MFORMA (now Hands-On Mobile) released Call of Duty 2 for mobile phones.[56] The mobile version is a 2D top-down shooter. It received a favorable review from IGN, praising its length and storytelling.[57]

• Official website
• Call of Duty 2 at IMDb
• Call of Duty 2 at MobyGames