Sorry, but I expect better than this for major title in 2006
Call of Duty 2 single player campaign begins promisingly enough, placing you in a training mission at the hands of Soviet Commander with superb character animation and graphics. After shooting a few bottles and helmits, you're sent off to fight the Germans in the streets of the Russian city. The mission is quite short, and if you're good it will be over in less than 10 minutes. The missions that follow are also short, and in fact, the whole Russian campaign is short. You'll finish it in two or three hours. Then it's on to a Desert Campaign, which is also quick and short...
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
The games strength is the way it (momentarily) immerses the player into a cinematic World War 2 battlefield. This is due mainly to an excellent combination of top notch graphics, clever character animation of the your squad, and some great sound. Explosions, smoke and fire all look totally real; and the dialogue of the characters is very authentic - particularly the yelling of the Germans in their native language when they are being stormed.
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay is strictly linear, and I felt this linearity much more than in other similar games of today, such as Half-Life 2. During one of desert campaigns, I missed a couple of objectives, and had to go back to do them, but I was prevented from doing so as an invisible wall stopped me going to where I had been just five minutes before, while a voice from nowhere shouted "wrong way"! The linear structure also makes the game very easy, since the way forward is always obvious. The missions are the canned type, so if you play them again, everything happens exactly the same.
PHYSICS
Another downside to this game is the lack of real physics. After Half-Life 2, which set a new standard for real-time physics simulation, who cannot fail to be disappointed when you shoot a wooden crate and nothing happens? And when the oil drum fails to roll or explode?
VEHICLES
Vehicles are present, but you can't get in and drive them at will; you are either in a vehicle, or not in it. Again, would have been nice to have that freedom here, as in like Operation Flashpoint, Far Cry or Mafia).
MISSION EDITOR
Sadly, no mission editor!
VALUE
At a standard retail price range of between $40 and $50, I think this game is overpriced when you consider what you get for the same money with games like Half-Life 2. Once you've played the Single player campaign, you don't really want to play it again because it will be identical. The only saving grace in terms of value is the multiplayer mode.
Sorry, but I expect better than this for major title in 2006!! I kept mine for two weeks then put it out on Ebay.