Was Call of Duty 2 one of the best games to come out during the launch for the Xbox 360 to give it a little kick start? Yes, but it isn’t as great as Halo was when Halo was released with the Xbox console as a way to boost its popularity. Halo increased sales of the Xbox system but unfortunately Call of Duty 2 is no match for Halo in that respect.  More importantly, it does give you an idea of what we are going to be seeing from the next generation games and game consoles for the Xbox 360.

            This game is so much fun to play and is such a challenge but not so much of a challenge that the campaign is going to take you weeks on end to beat. It is just enough of a challenge so you have so that you have a great time beating the game or playing selected missions after you have unlocked them. You have to play each level differently so this gives you a different perspective of what is going on in the war. In addition, you are going to be different characters fighting for different nations so this will give you even more of an idea on what is happening in the war. You will have to successfully complete different tasks in each level with very little repetition.

            The only drawback (in a way it is a drawback with all video games but not in making a game more realistic) of this game is you aren’t really able to tell who your enemies are until you get right next to them. I have accidentally shot my own guys many times because I wasn’t able to determine which side they were on. But if you wait until you can tell which side they are on then it could be too late and you will get shot.

            The one disappointment of this game is the Multiplayer feature. When you compare this game to games like Halo 2’s Multiplayer it is like night and day. When you are going to play a simple game on-line, the game isn’t going to be set up with the person that has the fastest connection. In other words, you can host a game even if your connection is really slow. Because of your slow connection, all the players are going to be lagging in the game unless you quit and then the game will be transferred to a player with a faster connection. The second point about the Multiplayer is, you are going to be able to have a system link with 1 to 16 people, which is really cool. But you are going to have to get a bunch of people together in one place to use the system link.  On the other hand you are only going to be able to have 2 to 8 people on-line which is somewhat of a disappointment because you should be able to have up to 16 people, the same as the system link.  So overall, the entire Multiplayer system needs some improvement because this is the one major fault in the game.  Another aspect of the multiplayer that I have a big issue with that there is no Co-operative play. This is something that they really should have included because it would have given the game another level. 

            The graphics on this game are out of this world, even if you don’t have a HDTV. The people have much more detail to them. There is more detail not just in the characters but in the entire game including all the settings and all the weapons. This game really does set a benchmark for all future Xbox 360 games in the graphics category.

            The controls are great, once you get used to them, that is. At the beginning of the game you are going to go through and complete a training mission so you will have a chance to get used to the controls and learn everything you need to complete the game.  You are also going to get messages in the game about things that you didn’t learn how to do in the training mission. You aren’t going to have to remember everything from the training mission because there will also be some reminders.

            Generally, I would have to say that this is one of the best games that I have played, if not the best game for the XBox 360 to date (3/19/06). So, I would rate this game a 9.2 out of 10. It is so well rounded and just far beyond other games that are out there in the single-player aspect.  I think we should expect that there will be another game developed in this series for this system and it will be even better than this one.