Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

Join the Big Red One

NA release: 1st November 2005
EU release: 18th November 2005
JP release: N/A
Developer: Treyarch, High Voltage Software
Publisher: Activision
NGC Magazine Score: 80%
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

Following the campaign of the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division during World War II (their patch was a red number 1, hence the nickname), this is a first person shooter taking place in Africa, Sicily. Omaha and Germany. It’s intercut by historical footage with voiceover from Mark Hamilton and attempts a group dynamic similar to Band of Brothers, even using many actors from that show. They all come across as annoying there, though, and you seem to be a nameless, voiceless person in the middle of all this action.

It’s quite a solid first person shooter, too, feeling more like modern shooters compared to other military shooters at the time. Movement is smooth, aiming feels accurate (even at long distances) and there’s plenty of set prices along the way. You can definitely see how Call of Dirty 4 evolved from this.

That also means similar issues to those games. Quite often you’re waiting for your squad to catch up and perform actions like opening doors (you’re incapable of doing so) and going off the beaten path will start to show the holes (sometimes literally, I accidentally went towards some enemies and the building they were in had no floor).

Still, if you do as you’re told, you’ll have a good time and there’s even some tank levels for a bit of variety. Even better, none of the enemies feel like bullet sponges, which can be a problem with FPS games from the era.

Fun

Fortunately, it’s possible to alter the difficulty level each time ou restart, and this commendable brand of user-friendliness helps Big Red One stand out from the usual WW2 game template.
Martin Kitts, NGC Magazine #114

Remake or remaster?

A collection of older Call of Duty games would be good.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Call of Duty 2: Big Red One.