Call of Duty 2 is a solid entry in the WW 2 shooter genre and a great game for the 360 library.
The game seems to pride itself on the recreation of historical battles and scenes and spends great detail in recreating these environments. From the wartorn streets of Stalingrad to the sheer cliffs of Pointe du Hoc, the gamer becomes immersed into the imagery and struggle of world war 2.
Any veteran of WW2 shooters will feel right at home and be able to jump in right from the start. The game controls and plays like your standard FPS. Your character can can carry 2 different weapons at a time and these vary from pistols, to submachine guns, bazookas, sniper rifles, etc from that time period. The character also has access to grenades and smoke grenades that come in very handy in sticky situations.
The gameplay differs from the standard WW 2 shooter in a few aspects. The most important one is the epic scale of the battles. You're not an isolated character fighting his way through enemy lines on some fictional quest. Rather, your character plays as a soldier involved in some of the historic battles of world war 2. You face hordes of enemy troops, but you are not alone. Your allies fight along side you and play a critical role in your success.
Unlike many shooters, there is no health bar or status. As your character gets hit, the screen starts to flash red. You can only take so much damage before your character dies. However, if you find cover and stop taking damage, after a short time your character is fully healed and able to take more damage. You don't need to search for health packs or health upgrades. I would say its similar to the rechargable energy shield of Halo 2
On the lower difficulty levels, it's pretty easy to ignore your allies help and just run and gun. You seem to be able to soak up quite a lot of damage before dying. On veteran difficulty, however, you need to be extremely cautious. One or 2 hits with the right weapon is more than enough to finish your character off. You will find yourself ducking for cover and depending on your allies to help turn the tide.
While the scalable difficulty levels added some challenge to the game, I found the highest level, veteran, to be a little bit cheap. In addition to slight improvements on the AI and much more use of enemy grenades, your character has far less damage reserve at the veteran difficulty level. There are many parts in the game where your character will die before you even know he's under attack. One or two shots and he's down. If an enemy gets the drop on you, it's over. You will literally find yourself simply trying to get from one small checkpoint in the game to another. It would be one thing if it meant that you had to be more skilled at shooting or quicker at moving, but this difficulty just seemd a little cheap and imbalanced. I remember a sequence where my character had to man a mounted machine gun to keep the enemy at bay. Only problem was that by the time my character would grab the gun and stand up, he was dead. No chance to even aim or fire.
To be fair, that's why it was the hardest level, but I just wish it would have required a change in my tactics or skill and just less blind luck.
Graphically the game was very impressive. The characters looked good and realistic and the environments were well done. The sound was decent but nothing groundbreaking.
I have not played much of the multiplayer, but it seemed fairly standard from a fps standpoint. Nothing revolutionary but solid nonetheless.
All in all, this is a decent game for the 360 and certainly very entertaining. While the higher difficulty levels may be a little unbalanced, the overall gameplay is very solid.