Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (2005) (VG)

Director:

Christian Busic

Writers:

Christian Busic (writer)
Richard Farrelly (writer)

Release Date:

1 November 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure

Plot Keywords:

WWII | Fictional War

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Michael Cudlitz	...	Sgt Glenn 'Hawk' Hawkins (voice)
Frank John Hughes	...	Pvt. Alvin 'Brooklyn' Bloomfield
Richard Speight Jr.	...	Pvt. Stephen Kelly
David Rees Snell	...	Pvt. Vic Denley
J. Matthew Morton	...	Lt. Norman Delaney
Mark Hamill	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Matthew R. Anderson	...	Soldier
Ed Cunningham
Joshua Gomez
Rick Gomez
Bryce Johnson
Yuri Lowenthal
James Madio
Ross McCall
Scott Menville
Rene Moreno
Nolan North
Jamieson Price
Phil Proctor
Stephen Saux	...	Pvt. Roland Roger
James Patrick Stuart
Fred Tatasciore

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:T

Company:

Treyarch Invention

Lesser title of the Call of Duty series

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

While being a huge fan of WWII video games, especially the Call of Duty series, I felt a bit disappointed with this title. The first Call of Duty title for the last gen console ( PS2 and Xbox)a.k.a Finest Hour was a great improvement over titles like Medal of Honor. Although movement in this game was frustrating and slow, the possibility of charging through the gates of Stalingrad was brilliant. Call of Duty is known for its versatility, where you can play through different campaigns ( Soviet, American), different characters as well as locations ( France, Russia, Germany) and the ability to commandeer tanks. Big Red One (BRO), as the name suggests, focuses only on one squad from the famous US army division. Here you travel from North Africa ( taking' down French Vichy troops was a first!) through Italy, Normandy ( of course)on to the Siegfried line for a dramatic showdown. While this could sound great to you, along with the whole cinematic concept of this game ( it really looks and sounds like a movie),it has in my opinion some major flaws. The thing is, a WWII game must be realistic. Sounds, weapons, locations, all must be true to reality as gamers like myself will judge a game on this aspect.In BRO all the rifles and SMG's sound and more surprising, fire the same way (except for the fast rate of fire of the SMG's of course). Here you can head shoot an enemy from a big distance with a Thompson, which would be impossible in real life. So why use a rifle if a SMG would do just the same? Although movement is better than in Finest Hour, it still feels unnatural. And you'll probably spend more time bumping into walls than shooting. It still is a last gen shooter, where you simply go from point A to B. Pretty straight forward.

As graphics are excellent ( PS2 version) and movie-like, it still is a simple FPS shooter. Lack of different parties ( Soviets were great to play in Finest Hour) and terrible weapons lowers the rating. This last fact is the most important: great weapons make you play a FPS shooter in the first place,don't you think?