Fighting in North Africa
Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter that takes place during World War II and is the second game in the Call of Duty series. It is the sequel to Call of Duty and was released on November 15, 2005 for the PC and Xbox 360. It was developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision.
Single-player campaign
Call of Duty 2 starts with Red Army Training, in which players control Private Vasili Ivanovich Koslov of the Russian Red Army, training during the Battle of Moscow. After finishing the "training" by pushing back a German assault, the player takes part in house-to-house fighting across Stalingrad. Vasili assists the Russian offensive in permanently taking back a disputed trainyard and ultimately pushing back a heavy German counterattack on city hall.
In the second campaign, the player plays as the British Sgt. John Davis of the 7th Armoured Division. Davis is commanded by Captain Price, originally from Call of Duty. There is also a Scottish private named MacGregor in Davis's squad, who is one of the more prominent of the British soldiers. During the advance from El-Alamein, Egypt to Tunisia, and the fighting at Caen in Normandy, the character must take over many buildings, towns, and facilities and defend against counterattacks each time. The British campaign includes much armour, which was the backbone of the North African campaign. Throughout most of the missions, the British will be covered by Crusader and Sherman tanks.
British soldiers in El Daba, Egypt.
Another part of the British levels has the player taking on the role of a British tank commander, Commander David Welsh. It is only two levels long, but the player takes part in the 7th Armoured Division's advance across Libya, attacking the retreating Germans.
The last set of missions are the American campaign. As Cpl. Bill Taylor of the 2nd Ranger Battalion, the player starts off by playing a part in D-Day, at the assault of Pointe du Hoc, which was located four miles west of Omaha Beach. The Americans have no more than twenty feet of beach to charge up before having to climb ropes up a cliff to destroy artillery aimed at Utah Beach and Omaha Beach. On arriving at the top of the cliffs, the guns are discovered to be decoys, similar to the real Battle of Pointe du Hoc. The player then has to go through German trenches and a French village to find the real set of guns. The remainder of the campaign consists of the player taking part in the fighting in Normandy and on Hill 400, while under fire of German machine gun bunkers, artillery and Tiger tanks. Interestingly, a Panzer II is seen in Normandy even though they were almost non-existent by then.
American soldiers of the 2nd Ranger Battalion fighting in a trench at Pointe du Hoc.
The final level is of the Americans crossing the Rhine River into Germany. In the last scene, Sgt. Randall receives a field promotion to Lieutenant and suggests to the Colonel that Taylor should be promoted to replace the now empty Sgt. position.
The end credits depict the dramatic rescue of Cpt. Price from German hands by American soldiers. After the credits end the words, "No cows were harmed in the making of this game" appear, as in the original Call of Duty. This is in reference to the dead cattle lying about in many of the Normandy missions.
Multiplayer
A Call of Duty 2 PC multiplayer server can hold a maximum of 64 players. On the Xbox 360, the player limit is 8 players on Xbox LIVE. There are a total of 13 official maps and 3 of these are remakes from the original Call of Duty with numerous other modified maps.
Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 was one of the most popular online games for the console for the first two years of its release.
The maps in Call of Duty 2 vary from Normandy, Africa, and Russia during the winter. There are two teams, the Allies and the Axis, and each team can choose a variety of map-dependent weapons. Depending on the map, the Allies will be American, British, or Soviet.
Call of Duty 2 features several gametypes, including deathmatch, team deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Search & Destroy, and headquarters.
Call of Duty 2 lacks drivable vehicles and the gametype base assault, both of which were in Gray Matter's Call of Duty: United Offensive. This was a major criticism, as it was felt that Call of Duty 2 should have been a continuation of where Call of Duty: United Offensive left off, rather than from Call of Duty itself.
Triva
Call of Duty 2 was the first Call of Duty for enimies to be in last stand.