Genre: FPS
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Treyarch/Grey Matter
Release Date November 11, 2005
Today,
a preview about Call of Duty 2: Big Red One could end up very
much like a recap of skiing the hills of Lower Michigan when you just
came back from skiing in the Rockies last week. After all, the hype about
Call of Duty 2 has been huge, and we also got to play it on both
the PC and Xbox 360 last week. So, with that in mind, maybe there just
wouldn’t be much to be impressed about this week when we got to
sit down and get into the world of Call of Duty 2: Big Red One.
After all, with the huge lineup of game titles
Activision is bringing to market in the coming months, there must be a
sub-par game hiding in there somewhere, right? Inquiring minds want to
know, so it was time to look for some clues in the preview build and see.
If it’s there, Call of Duty 2: Big Red
One isn’t the terrible game hiding in the Activision bunker.
From the moment we sat down at the Xbox and got started shooting at the
Axis forces, a thought started to form. Gameplay continued – smooth,
precise, and well-designed – but that odd thought was still gaining
shape. There was something about Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
that felt really special, but what was it? As we headed in and through
the city, with well-rendered buildings and debris down the streets and
alleys as far as the eye could see, something so obvious just wasn’t
coming to mind. Then, wheeling around to kill Axis troops on a dime, using
a console controller and still feeling in control, eliminating the threat
without needing to worry about orientation while spinning in all directions
to neutralize multiple assailants, it suddenly became apparent. Call
of Duty 2: Big Red One was really fun to play, even after playing
the PC and Xbox 360 versions of the sister title. In fact, the game looked
and played well enough to say that it was symbolic of software finally
maturing on our current generation of consoles.
That’s a bit of a snide comment to make,
but when the three platforms you can play Call of Duty 2: Big
Red One on came to market, everyone thought we would see many
games of this potential caliber years ago. Yes, years
ago. Instead, we’ve managed our expectations and let everyone make
do with what they had, without too much criticism to the whole dynamic
of making a console system that’s intentionally difficult to optimize
or copy.
Without too much critical digression, it boils
down to this: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (COD2: BRO) feels optimized
for the Xbox console. (We aren’t too worried about the PS2 either,
but we have yet to play COD2: BRO on the GameCube.) Everything
works, it’s smooth, it doesn’t take long to become a precise
shooter, and the environment is created very well, for the most part.
In the parts of the game we were privy to, it only seemed to be lacking
a little more destructibility of the environment, which could easily be
in the coding plans between the build we played and release.
In the gameplay department, we should
touch on the mechanics of the actual shooting. While the game is very
much the same as prior offerings in this respect, it is now extremely
well balanced. While at first it feels like the old iron sights of the
game are a bit too accurate, keep in mind that most of the 1st Infantry
Division never had the privilege of the scopes we take for granted today.
If you’ve ever hunted big game with iron sights, you know first
hand that marksmen can be very accurate using a bolt-action rifle topped
with a peep-hole sight. This is where you get a little help from the game,
where it assists a bit to mimic the instinctual improvement looking through
a little hole will do for your accuracy.
Next, there’s the AI of your team and the
enemy. OK, sometimes your guys still die like you are wearing the t-shirt
that says I’m with stupid, but more times than
not they efficiently and effectively find cover. The enemy also doesn’t
just have one or two soldiers that are a real pain to eliminate, there
are plenty of them. There might still be too many that you catch completely
by surprise, but this isn’t a simulator – easy kills are fun,
and keep the game moving.
It’s also kind of exciting to storm in and
finally kill some of those fascist Italians! Not so much because they
were the enemy, but it’s fun to get our hands on a Beretta. Of course,
there are other Italian weapons, but everyone can drool a little bit over
the classic Beretta. Back to the AI; coding in the levels we played had
reasonably minimized illogical moves. However, there were a few places
where the enemy had sufficient cover, yet ran brazenly into the fray in
disregard for their lives. Since we weren’t fighting Russians being
forced into combat at Stalingrad, we weren’t sure if this was present
for historical accuracy or if they were mistakenly coded to be the suicide
kings.
The storyline of Call of Duty 2: Big Red
One isn’t chronological, and thankfully someone was intelligent
to make it so. It’s not like every moment of the war was exciting
for the 1st Infantry Division, and in sequence, it might not have been
as gripping as it could be. In its current state, Call of Duty
2: Big Red One is a collection of some very exciting moments
to be a part of the 1st Infantry Division, or to be in combat with them.
Amphibious landings and close-quarters combat are all expected, but to
be part of an airborne unit – bombardier and air-air gunner –
might just make it a privilege to serve. That’s right, you get to
take part in dropping ordinance which never discriminates between friend
and foe, military or civilian. You can’t help but recognize what
a terrible job the bombardier had, deciding what to destroy, and wondering
who of the countless thousands they became personally responsible for.
The air-to-air combat looks to be a bit more exciting,
challenging, and gratifying. As a gunner, you have one mission: destroy
the enemy aircraft trying to destroy you. Sounds like a simple enough
task, but if you’ve ever read about the strength and daring of German
pilots in the European theatre, you wouldn’t be looking forward
to the duty of a gunner in real life. It was a tough, stressful job, the
entire crew’s lives were in your hands every moment you were in
the air. If you let just one fighter get close to the bomber unopposed,
everyone could – and would – be dead in mere moments. This
time around, step into your grandfather’s shoes. Sit in that little
turret exposed to the world, and see what kind of a gunner you are. One
thing we can guarantee is that it won’t be too easy to finish off
this mission.
Finally, we got a little multiplayer action in
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. This is definitely not one of those
games you want to play against a developer. We were in a fairly large
city map that looked like Italy. I was turned into sausage about 12 times
before I started to step up. It wasn’t pretty, and I’m real
glad you weren’t there to laugh at me. There is a lot to be learned
about multiplayer, even if it is similar to past offerings, so take some
time to play it before your friends make a mockery of you.
This was another reason we were skeptical about
how COD2: BRO was going to look in reality until we got to see
it. We were not really sure how DemonWare’s State Engine would handle
the net code, and if it would cause limitations in the multiplayer experience.
So far, what we saw testifies to their abilities and lack of infringement,
but we can’t wait to hammer away, PS2 Vs. Xbox on the final code to see
if we can break it.
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
definitely shows potential. If as much time is spent on the rest of the
game as was spent on the levels we played, it will surely be satisfying
for most any Call of Duty fan. What about the rest
of the world? How well the levels fit in sequence, along with how well
the hailed cinematics are integrated will help define the quality of Call
of Duty 2: Big Red One, but the real crux will be the inter-console
and online multiplayer action. The base is there, and excellently done
thus far, it’s just a question of how well Gray Matter and Treyarch
can finish if off. This is war, so no promises made can be trusted until
the end. Regardless, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One will
be out in just a few weeks, and then the fate of the Allies will lie in
your hands, soldier!
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