Review: Call of Duty Two

I have always been a FPS (first person shooter) and WWII genre game fan. I have played all of the Call Of Duty (COD) games on my desktop since the conception of the franchise. That is why when I say COD2 was available for PPC along with my new Touch Pro with an insane amount of memory and decent processor, I was itching to give it try. I have to be honest that even with some apprehension about how good a FPS shooter could be ported over to a PPC while keeping it easy to control and without bogging down even the highest end phones, I have to admit that I was amazed. To find out all the details and see all the screen shots, take a look inside at WMExpert's full review.

THE GAME

If you are not already familiar with any of the COD games, it takes you through real WWII campaigns from the perspective of the Russians, British, and American troops who were all obviously fighting against the Germans.

In COD2 you start out as a Russian defending your homeland from the German invasion. The game itself does a good job of developing a story line and giving real purpose and objectives to each mission.

THE GRAPHICS

It does a great job of creating a feel for the environment you are in, whether in a basement or walking through the snow in a sniper infested bombed out city. The in game graphics with hardware acceleration are absolutely phenomenal. Even without hardware graphic acceleration the graphics are impressive for such a potentially power hungry game. As it is, it flows and moves nicely on my Touch Pro. Here are screenshots with graphics acceleration and without:

It may be important to note for some that there is blood when enemies are shot. It is not graphic by today's standards, but enough for some to be aware:

THE CONTROLS

The game is easy to control. You use your stylus to look around and point yourself in the direction you want to run and to aim your gun. You then use your 5 way nav to run, move side to side, move back, and shoot. Each corner of the screen can be configured for common controls like throwing a grenade, changing your stance from crouched to standing, or switch weapons. You can then configure your remaining hardware buttons to any additional controls you want.

I did have some small challenges configuring some of my hardware buttons on my Touch Pro. Since this is not the only program to exhibit similar challenges with button assignments, I do not place 100% of the blame on the game for this. As it is, it is not a major challenge with all the added on screen controls as well.

GAME PLAY

Moving around is smooth and easy to do, though it may take a little getting use to at first. Since this is only the second installment of the COD franchise, the AI (artificial intelligence) of the enemies are basic by many of today's standards on PS3 or Xbox FPS games, but it is still very effective. This port of the game holds just the right balance with being challenging enough without being discouraging. Simply put, it is just fun to play.

MULTIPLAYER

Any FPS fan will tell you that no FPS shooter game is complete with multi-player options. To answer this need, Aspyr has released a FREE Multiplayer add-on that will allow you to play a 4 player Deathmatch and Team-Deathmatch modes. It works over 802.11 WiFi and subscription-based mobile broadband.

SUMMARY

If you like FPS genre games, then there is no doubt that you will love COD2! The only complaint I have is... why aren't there any more games like this around?!? This is a must have game.

JUST THE FACTS

Call of Duty® 2 Pocket PC Edition

Platforms: Mobile

Genre: Shooter

ESRB: Teen for Blood, Mild Language, Violence

Mobile Release Date: January 2007

Compatible with

• both Windows Mobile 2003 and Windows Mobile 5.0
• A personal computer: Running Microsoft Windows 2000/XP or later with Microsoft ActiveSync 4.0 or later

Software Version:

• Any Pocket PC or Smartphone with 28mb of free RAM
• 400 MHz Intel XScale® processor
• SD Card with 32mb

Hardware accelerated version:

• Any Pocket PC or Smartphone with the Intel 2700G or Nvidia GoForce 5500 graphics chip
• 400 MHz Intel XScale® processor
• SD Card with 32mb free
• 28mb of free RAM

Additional requirements for Multi-player:

• Required space: 36mb of storage
• An internet connection is required over WiFi or over Mobile broadband (EDGE, GPRS, etc.)