Call of Duty 2 is a truely brilliant game. Is has all of the main ingredients to produce a great game. Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Intelligent AI, Level Design and Lifspan. Similar to Medal of Honor: Frontline on the PS2, Call of Duty 2 is set in World War 2 during the Nazi invasion. Unlike MOH, you play the Americans, Russians and even the British. Your also not alone in COD2, in MOH your on your own in most of the game as you try to kill every single Nazi by yourself with no one around to help you at times. However, in Call of Duty 2 your aided constantly by your own troops (friendly AI) who cover your back, fire upon Germans while you reload, tell you where to go and even give you hints to where the next enemy or sniper is. And when your fellow American, Russian or British troops tell you which window the sniper is in, it actually helps. Example: one soldier shouts out "SNIPER ON THE LEFT, SECOND FLOOR", you then instantly know where the sniper is and take your shot. This is an example to the game's engine. Intelligent AI that can enhance gaming experience.

But its not just the friendly AI that are intelligent, the enemy AI are also intelligent too. As Nazis dive for cover, call for re-inforcements, run away from genades, throw grenades back at you with tremendous accuracy, run towards you shooting if cornered, hide behind walls or vehicles if fired at and even hit you with their guns if your close enough. The enemy AI in this game are truely terrifying. If its not their dangerous accuracy and speed, then its their running towards you screaming German harse language that will terrify you. The enemy AI are just as quick and as accurate at shooting as you are so quick reflexes and thinking are needed to survive. This is where Call of Duty 2's action comes in. With horrific speed and thundering noise, this game oozes action as soldiers beside you get violently blown away by German machine guns, a soldier in front of you gets thrown into the air by an enemy grenade, helmets flying off heads, tanks bursing through walls and fighter planes flying overhead. Along with the excellent action, this game also has its terrifying moments. For example; in one level you have to crawl through a small pipe over German defences, when all of a sudden your Russian team mates in front of you get shot to pieces by the Germans below causing the light from the bullet holes to brighten up the dark tunnel that you are in. Another example is when a smoke bomb is thrown to blind the Germans of your location when suddenly, Germans come running through the smoke filled area screaming and firing blindly. Moments like these and many more cause panic and terror. Eventhough some levels seem impossible and the player starts to panic and possibly die, all hope is not lost as the game or level doesn't end when you die. Unlike Medal of Honor in order to survive you have to find health, in Call of Duty 2 there is no health bar. When you get hit or damaged, a red mist decends around the screen as a warning that you are hurt and your health replenishes when you're not being pounded by bullits. Also, if you do happen to die you don't have to re-play the whole level again as the game saves automatically as you advance forward. When you die, you simply go back to the last moment in where the game was saved. Automatically and without confusion, this adds to the game's gameplay and is much better than a health bar in my opinion. Same thing applies with Shadow of the Colossus. 

With each level a different experience with different objectives and missions, Call of Duty 2 is by far repetetive. The X-Box 360 version is also very good but it is flawed in terms of speed as it seems slower than the PC version. Better than Medal of Honor: Frontline and Big Red One, Call of Duty 2 is by far one of the best FPS I have played since Quake 4, Halo 1 and 2. Call of Duty 2's incredible graphics (showing off its light, shadow and smoke effects) are perfectly juxtaposed with its booming loud sound effects. Gameplay with a keyboard and mouse is also excellent and is actually quite easer to use than the X-Box 360's control pad.

Call of Duty 2 is an incredible first person shooter and an amazing experience that is not to be missed. I would recommend Call of Duty 2 Collector's Edition on the PC to anyone interested in high voltage action, superb sound, realistic graphics and frightfully addictive gameplay.

In my opinion, this is one of the best first person shooters out there that will surely brown your pants.