One of the best CoD games.
Call of Duty 2: The Big Red One continues CoD's tradition of focusing mainly on the exploits of the average soldier, this time focusing on the major battles fought by the US 1st Infantry Division "The Big Red One" inlculding Operations Torch, Huskey, and Overlord. Dispite what it's title says, this game isn't a direct sequel to the original Call of Duty or Call of Duty: Finest Hour, the original Call of Duty 2 is infact an Xbox 360/PC game, with Big Red One ammounting to a side-story/spin off the original.
One of the things that gamers will notice is the additions of a new battlefront, one that has yet to be covered in any other CoD World War II game: the Italian Front. While the game's first level is similar to that of the British Campaign in the original CoD 2, the second campaign takes the player through the opening campaign of the Italian Front: Operation: Huskey, the Invasion of Sicaly. However, one of the best levels in the game acutally occurs at the end of the first campaign, in this level the player takes control of a B-24 Liberater on a bombing mission over North Africa, this level actually has a lot of potential, and it would have been even better if it was included in a CoD game based on the exploits of the RAF and 8th Air Force.
Another excellent feature Big Red One has is that the enemies are more varied then in most Call of Duty WWII Games. In nearly all CoD games set during World War II the enemies are always German Wermarcht or Waffen SS Units. Though they only appear breifely Big Red One includes Vichy French and Italian units in the North Africa and Sicily Campaigns.
Despite it's gameplay and the addition of more variety in the campaign, Big Red One ultimatly has it's fair share of flaws, the biggest of which is that it only has one campaign. Unlike most CoD games which have two or three campaigns strung together, Big Red One has removed the Russian and British campaigns. The other major flaw this game has is that it's repetivitve, covering much of the same ground and battles that every other World War II game has covered .
Overall Big Red One is a very good game, but it can at times have that been there done that feelings, especally if you've played a lot of World War II games. Over all Big Red One will appeal to fans of the Call of Duty Series, and World War II games in general.