The question always has to be asked when a game comes out on a console that’s also released for the PC; does it stack up? The simple answer is yes. It’s rare, if ever, that an FPS gets ported to a console so faithfully. In fact, better on a high-end PC. There is also nothing truly revolutionary about the graphics engine, but believe me, it gets the job done well.

Sound: 10 / 10
In most games, sound is not something to get excited about. Call of Duty is different.
It really makes you feel like you are in a war zone when you can hear your computer-controlled teammates barking orders and screaming for their lives during a heated battle while airplanes buzz above you. When bullets are flying, you can hear them whiz right by your head or hit the walls behind you.

One of the most notable moments in sound is when a tank shell blasts a wall right next to you and your hearing goes out. You have a slight ringing in your ears, your heartbeat becomes more pronounced, time slows, and then you gradually gain your bearings. Wow. Amazing.


Controls: 10 / 10
This is what makes or breaks a game for me. If you’re looking to play competitive multiplayer, or even on a high difficulty setting in single play, you’ve got to have great controls.

Thankfully Call of Duty 2 on the 360 has done a fantastic job. The analogue sticks work perfectly for this game, with seemingly no auto aim. There actually is just the slight bit of ‘sticky aim’ (like in Halo), but it’s really not noticeable and makes it feel more like a PC game with a controller in your hand. How this works is that there is no ‘auto aim’, but when you do put your cross hair on an enemy it turns red, and tends to slightly stick to them to make aiming easier. If you’ve ever played Counter-Strike on Xbox, you’ll know how hard it is to aim without this feature.

One of the most unique features of the game is the realistic gun reactions. While walking, the crosshairs grow larger and have less accuracy. Of course if you stop, duck, and crouch, aiming is improved respectively to your position. This is really pronounced while sniping. If you’re just standing there, the crosshair moves around at random and you have to really be good to hit a target, but go ‘prone’ and the crosshair is stable and it’s easy to hit people. When holding down the machine gun trigger, you’ll have to actually balance your gun so it won’t fly straight up and shoot the ceiling by pressing down the analogue aim button. There is simply no other WWII game that feels more real.

And finally, response time. Games absolutely need to respond as fast as possible to your inputs, and thankfully Call of Duty 2 responds instantly. When you look left or right, jump, shoot, or press reload in those pressure situations, your character does so instantly. There is simply no other game that has better response time, and only Halo:CE can match it.

The only complaint I can see anyone having is that you cannot change every button on the controller to exactly what you’d like. In other words, there is no button mapping. However, you can change the control scheme around to suit almost everyone’s needs. If you’re familiar with Halo on the original Xbox, you’ll have no problems here, even if you play Southpaw like I do.

Gameplay: 9 / 10
Overall, the game plays great in single and multiplayer. A notable difference from other games is the lack of a life bar. When you get hurt, the screen turns bloodier each time you take a hit until you're dead, but you can back away and regain your health at any time, similar to Halo 2. This makes it so health packs and medics are not required, as in other WWII games. Although this may sound questionable, they did do a good job pulling it off and it doesn’t distract from the game play.

Single Player
Great over all, but there are some complaints. Objects lying around such as barrels, dead bodies, or vehicles, can’t be interacted with and this leaves something to be desired. Games of the modern era should and usually do have more interaction with their surroundings.

Multi Player
Multi Player really shines when playing on LAN. If you can round up eight buddies and four TV’s with Xbox 360’s, this is the way to play. There are enough game play options to keep anyone happy from the standard death match to the objective based bombing missions. It's just great.

The first complaint you’re gonna hear is that you can only play with eight people at a time on LAN or online. Since this is really the only real complaint anyone can come up with about the multiplayer, you know it’s still got to be good. Playing 4v4 teams is almost perfect on LAN, and even online lags are less than most games for any of the console systems.

Replay value, longevity: 8.5 / 10
Single Player
The first time you play through the game it is awesome. After you’ve beat the game once, you likely won’t want to keep playing unless you just really want to pass the game on a harder difficulty. There should be a greater variety of environments and situations that you’re put in. It becomes repetitive and boring, since it just feels like your doing the same thing over and over again.

Multi Player
Playing with your buddies at home or online is where you’re really going to get the most bang for your buck. Countless hours of my life have been spent on this one. No complaints here! Don’t even bother with the split screen mode though, it’s all about LAN and online.

Overall (personal bias): 9.5 / 10
Combine all the elements here and you’ve got a great game. Considering that it’s a launch title, it has amazing control, a solid single and multiplayer component with great graphics, plenty of difficulty settings, and multiplayer options. It's one of the best WWII games you can buy.