Parents Video Game Reviews for Families- Call of Duty 2 (Xbox 360)

Call of Duty 2
Publisher: Activision
Official Site: www.callofduty.com
ESRB Rating: T
Reviewed Platform: Xbox 360
Available Platforms: Xbox 360, PC
For 1 player.

Overall: C
Violence: D
Sexual Content: A
Language: C
Alcohol/Drug Use: A

What is this game about?

Call of Duty 2 for the Xbox 360 should not be confused with Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, which is a first-person shooter that was released for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube. No, this Call of Duty 2 was a launch title with the high-definition 360 console. It was pretty much universally hailed as the best of the 20 launch titles and for good reason: It featured intense, gripping action, compelling stories, incredible high-definition graphics and a near-perfect control scheme that was easy to grasp.

Call of Duty 2 features some of the major World War II battles covering three different fronts. You'll play as a Soviet solder in Stalingrad, a British soldier in North Africa and as an American GI during the D-Day invasion of France.

Is it fun to play?

Absolutely. The combination of a great first-person shooter control system with amazing high-definition graphics, excellent sound effects and letter perfect level design set against the backdrop of World War II immediately makes Call of Duty 2 the standard-bearer for titles of this genre.

Whether you're playing as a machinegun-toting grunt or firing rounds from a British tank while ripping through the sands of a Northern Africa desert, Call of Duty 2 never ceases to be entertaining.

You have 27 solo missions to wade through and each and every one are packed with deadly encounters with Nazi soldiers, as well as tanks and artillery. The enemy artificial intelligence is much higher than you'll find in most first-person shooters, meaning the Nazis don't just line up to get shot. These virtual soldiers will try to flank you, won't leave cover all the time and are intent on killing you Ð whether that's with bullets, grenades or bayonettes.

That makes Call of Duty 2 an incredibly challenging game, but it also makes it a great one.

What do parents need to know about Call of Duty 2?

From this parent's perspective, if you're going to let your young teen play a mature-rated first-person shooter, let this be the one. I'm not a fan of letting anyone 14 and younger play M-rated games, but I can see merit in allowing some mature teens to tackle Call of Duty 2 Ð but with this caveat: Make sure you take time to sit down with them while they're playing to help put the killing in perspective.

Given the situation in the world today, here's an opportunity to show your kids something akin to the reality of war. Halo, for all its gaming glory, is reflective of nothing more than entertainment. Call of Duty 2, and other games based on World War II, offers parents a chance to teach their kids about world history, about tyranny, about honor, sacrifice and service.

But if you merely set your child loose with this game, those themes will more than likely pass them by. They'll get lost in the action.

The violence depicted here is based on the real world. Soldiers go down in a hail of bullets and get tossed like a rag doll when a grenade explodes near them. It's easy to place yourself in the boots of these soldiers because these were real men in their day. And to witness the chaos of the D-Day invasion, or to feel the terror and helplessness of being ambushed in a narrow street as Nazi troops shot down at you from the rooftops is to experience true horror.

You and I know that unlike in video games, in a real war getting shot doesn't mean you get to stand up and fight again. No, it usually means death. And your characters get shot so many times during this game that if you teach your child that each time a bullet hits them that in real life they'd be dead, well, that's a powerful message Ð if you take the time to educate them about it. Trust me, you won't find an opportunity like that with Halo or Half-Life.

But know this: The violence is graphic, there's lot of blood, bodies flying, limbs blown off and disturbing images. This game can be frighteningly intense and there is some cursing, but not a lot. But that's what real war looks, feels and sounds like. So, if you don't want your child or young teen exposed to such violence, this is definitely not a game to put in their hands.

But if you see this as an opportunity to combine gaming and teaching your child something important about the history of the world, Call of Duty 2 can be a really useful tool.