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.

I bought this when I found out it was backwards compatible and wanted something to wet my WWII FPS appetite until MOH Airborne comes out. I'll start by saying that the graphics are some of the best current-gen (or last-gen, or whatever) graphics I've seen. The gameplay is good and solid, apart from the annoyingly weak 30 calibre machine guns. Also there were too many of those dull missions where you get stuck in a tank or on a mounted machine gun.
However the attempt at making you care about your squad pretty much failed. You only get a sort of (without sounding too nerdy) game relationship with them if you listen intently during cutscenes, and even then it's shakey at best.
All in all though, a good game and worth the fiver I paid for it.

I really don't see what is wrong about this game, the graphics as far as the ps2 and xbox go are very good with uneven,accurate and impressive landscapes similar to the real battle fields, the game play is varied with being a gunner in a war plane, being either a pilot or a gunner in tanks and heavy armoured veichiles or just shooting and running and taking cover. The weapons are all the same as the weapons used at the time, the weapons use can help in all sorts of situations like using a thompson to mow down crowds of germen soilders...or you could just throw a well placed grenade and save ammunition, or shooting tanks and heavy gun turrets with a panzerfaust (a rocket launcher) or using snipers for a long distance kill...cool. The situations the big red one faced for real are what you face as a soilder of the big red one in the game. And teamates who you play with you get emotionaly attatched to and you feel angry at the germens when you're best freind in the game is blown to pieces (not to real germen people, i mean the germen soilders in the game).
And once you win the war you'll shout for joy like the rest of your squad. this game is quite hystorical and should be cherished by anyone who owns it...and if the visuals arn't enough for you, have a look at the xbox 360 version! And i'm looking forward to buying, playing and completeing call of duty 3 and call of duty 4...

Having played on a number of wolrd war 2 games over a number of years on both consoles alot of them don't dissapoint like the excellent medal of honor series on PS2 and X-box.I bought this game after i played on call of duty 2 on the x box 360 and i was somewhat dissapointed The live game on it is crap .And the main campain mode is ok i picked it up cheap on amazon.Brothers in arms is a much better game than this.The graphics are good , the gameplay is good for a wolrd war 2 FPS.

A lot of unfair criticism has been levelled at this game for the linear, on-rails nature of the single player campaign. Well come on, this is a Call of Duty game and that kind of goes with the territory. What really matters is the sense of imminent danger, with bullets flying at you from all directions.

The feeling is present at all times but the danger is largely absent, only stepping up a little during the last mission. This leads to an immensely entertaining tour of duty, albeit brief and fairly easy to complete.

There was plenty of scope for several additional missions, as the final newsreel played at the end of the campaign clearly testifies (finish the game and you'll see what I mean).

Ultimately I found this game thrilling and disappointing in equal measure - excellent entertainment while it lasted, but it sure didn't last long.

I'm a huge fan of first person shooters and have probably played a good chunk of the games available in this genre on both PS2 and Xbox. In terms of WW2 shooters, this is in my view the best so far and, considering the next generation consoles are here, I can't see anything set to beat this.

The visuals are pretty impressive, much more detailed than the previous CoD game, and the missions are more varied too, with a wide variety of gameplay situations (standard FPS view, manning a fixed gun, driving a tank, manning an AA gun or 88, moving between the various gun turrets on a bomber, riding on a half track manning the gun, etc) plus constantly updating mission objectives which keep you on your toes. The action is relentless and the sound really drags you into the action with great atmospheric effect.

Being an ancient genre it's hard to be too innovative, so there isn't too much that hasn't been done before, but it's put together so well that it's easy to forgive.

There are a few glitches - your squad has a knack of getting in your way or in your line of fire at times, you have to rely on them to open doors (you can't open them yourself) and there is the usual 'can't jump higher than a couple of inches' caged in feeling sometimes, robbing you of a truly free roaming feel. But again, these are minor niggles which may stop it scoring a peferct 10 certainly don't stop it getting a very commendable 9. Probably only bettered by Call of Duty 2 on Xbox 360...