Call of Duty 2: The Big Red One (PS2)

Description

Call of Duty 2: The Big Red One (PS2)
There will probably never be a definitive World War II action game, for the simple fact that so many new ones are released each year. Call of Duty 2: Big Red One should certainly be the last word on the current console formats though–which means something at least.
Rather confusingly this has nothing to do with the subtitle-less Call of Duty 2 on PC and Xbox 360. Whereas that game has the usual mix of three different nationalities of soldier to control, Big Red One has you playing the same soldier throughout the whole game. You do get to do quite a bit of sight seeing though with missions in North Africa, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany.
The Big Red One of the title is the nickname of a famous American infantry division and by sticking with them throughout the whole game you do get a much better sense of camaraderie than previous Call of Duty games. Unfortunately it also means that the game seems perilously close to the already excellent Brothers in Arms, except without the strategy bits.
No war game ever seems to do its action quite like Call of Duty though and the set pieces here tread that difficult line between cinematic bombast and harrowing realism perfectly. Big Red One won’t have the same impact on the gaming world as the first Call of Duty games, but it nevertheless looks like having a very good chance of being a better game. –Harrison Dent
This preview is based on an incomplete version of the game; features or problems mentioned above may not appear in the finished game.