History VideoGame / CallOfDuty2

Of special note is that this is the first ''Call of Duty'' game to introduce the RegeneratingHealth mechanic that would be a staple of later entries in the series. It is also the first ''Call of Duty'' game to use the in-house IW engine, rather than a modified ''Quake III: Arena'' engine like its predecessor.

The one that brought Nazi-killing goodness to [[UsefulNotes/Xbox360 a new generation]].

''Call of Duty 2'' is the second entry in the ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' series, developed by Infinity Ward and released on October 25, 2005 for UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows and UsefulNotes/Xbox360, the latter notable for being a launch title. It is a loose sequel to ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty1'', sharing little beyond the basic premise of fighting the Nazis across several fronts.

!''Call of Duty 2'' provides examples of:

* WinterWarfare: All of the Soviet campaign levels take place in the freezing cold of the Russian Winter. As such, both they and the Wehrmacht are shown wearing thick winter clothing while struggling to continue amidst supply, ammunition, and fuel shortages.

Like its predecessor, the game features 3 single-player campaigns set during the WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica. For the Red Army portion, you play as Pvt. Vasili Ivanovich Kozlov of the 13th Guards Rifle Division during the Battles of Moscow and Stalingrad. The British campaign is divided into two stories. The first focuses on the exploits of Sgt. John Davis, an infantryman attached to the 7th Armored Division from El Alamein all the way to Normandy. The second, meanwhile, tells the story of Tank Commander David Welsh, the commander of a Crusader Mk. III tank during the advance into Libya in 1943. And finally, the American campaign focuses on Cpl. Bill Taylor of the [[{{Ranger}} 2nd Ranger Battalion]], during the Normandy campaign as well as the Battle of Germany.

* AirVentPassageway: "The Pipeline" has Pvt. Kozlov and a few other Soviet soldiers using an old, damaged pipeline to advance through German lines in order to rendezvous with a larger Soviet force intent on capturing a nearby train station.

** "Comrade Sniper" for the Soviet campaign. Here Kozlov, Volsky, Pavel Semenov, and several other Soviet soldiers hold back a last, desperate German counterattack in the ruins of Stalingrad.

** The Soviet campaign focuses on the 13th Guards Rifle Division, an elite infantry division that served with distinction during the the Battle of Stalingrad.

* AirVentPassageway: "The Pipeline" has Pvt. Koslov and a few other Soviet soldiers using an old, damaged pipeline to advance through German lines in order to rendezvous with a larger Soviet force intent on capturing a nearby train station.

** "Comrade Sniper" for the Soviet campaign. Here Koslov, Volsky, Pavel Semenov, and several other Soviet soldiers hold back a last, desperate German counterattack in the ruins of Stalingrad.

Like its predecessor, the game features 3 single-player campaigns set during the WorldWarII/WarInEuropeAndAfrica. For the Red Army portion, you play as Pvt. Vasili Ivanovich Koslov of the 13th Guards Rifle Division during the Battles of Moscow and Stalingrad. The British campaign is divided into two stories. The first focuses on the exploits of Sgt. John Davis, an infantryman attached to the 7th Armored Division from El Alamein all the way to Normandy. The second, meanwhile, tells the story of Tank Commander David Welsh, the commander of a Crusader Mk. III tank during the advance into Libya in 1943. And finally, the American campaign focuses on Cpl. Bill Taylor of the [[{{Ranger}} 2nd Ranger Battalion]], during the Normandy campaign as well as the Battle of Germany.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Call of Duty 2'' brought the ''Call of Duty'' gameplay style more in line with what's now familiar to longtime players, with things like {{regenerating health}}, the LimitedLoadout slimmed down to two weapons with grenades (now including both regular frags and a secondary "special" variety, in this game's case [[SmokeOut smoke grenades]]) in separate caches that are tossed at the press of a button rather than given separate slots, and a proper mission select with a console-style checkpoint save, but there's still a few oddities. Chief among them is that you ''still'' can't sprint, which wouldn't be standardized until ''Call of Duty 4'', but there's also that it's the last game in the series to heavily avert BagOfSpilling: if you drop one of your starting weapons for a new one at any point during a mission, you can usually keep it with you throughout an entire campaign. This would be dropped from later games after that freedom conflicted with the game's [[{{Railroading}} heavier attempts at scripting]], particularly allowing you to bring the game [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable to a screeching halt]] in the last Russian mission by grabbing a sniper rifle off a German two missions beforehand and using it to accomplish an objective before it's given to you.

* LeeroyJenkins: "Hill 400" starts with the American soldiers breaking cover and charging the German position without even being ordered to, and it ''[[CrazyEnoughToWork actually]] [[RefugeInAudacity works!]]''

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene:
** One in the first level, no less, where Soviet soldiers torture a German prisoner for intel, and later, execute him on the spot.
** The German defenders at Pointe du Hoc are shown gunning down a US medic, the latter of whom are supposed to be protected under the Geneva convention.
** Defied in the British level "Prisoners of War", where one of your squadmates wants to shoot at two surrendering Germans before Captain Price tells him to back down.

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: A minor example, the Panzerschreck rocket launcher is present in the mission "Comrade Sniper" set January 15, 1943 during the Battle of Stalingrad. The weapons wouldn't be delivered for service until later that year.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Call of Duty 2'' brought the ''Call of Duty'' gameplay style more in line with what's now familiar to longtime players, with things like {{regenerating health}}, the LimitedLoadout slimmed down to two weapons with separate caches of frag and "special" grenades that are tossed at the press of a button rather than given separate slots, and a proper mission select with console-style checkpoint saves, but there's still a few oddities. Chief among them is that you ''still'' can't sprint, which wouldn't be standardized until ''Call of Duty 4'', but there's also that it's the last game in the series to heavily avert BagOfSpilling: if you drop one of your starting weapons for a new one at any point during a mission, you can usually keep it with you throughout an entire campaign. This would be dropped from later games after that freedom conflicted with the game's [[{{Railroading}} heavier attempts at scripting]], particularly allowing you to bring the game [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable to a screeching halt]] in the last Russian mission by grabbing a sniper rifle off a German two missions beforehand and using it to accomplish an objective before it's given to you.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: In the final American mission, you can go [[TankGoodness Tiger hunting]] with a German 88mm gun, instead of running up to the tank with a satchel charge.

* HoldTheLine: Several missions have you and your squad hold back massive German attacks and counterattacks, usually to buy time for friendly reinforcements to arrive. A level early in the British Campaign is literally named "Hold the Line".

* SelectiveHistoricalArmoury: When coming up against German armored vehicles, you must either run up to them and attach a sticky bomb, or in some levels find a Panzershreck reusable rocket launcher [fewer than 300,000 made] lying about. You and your British or American AI teammates will never have [=PIAT=]s or M9 "Bazookas" available, nor will the opposition ever have any disposable Panzerfaust rockets [more than 6 million made] lying about. In the first ''Call of Duty'' the Panzerfaust was a common sight, but many complained that it was a single use weapon that forced them to go back and grab a new one entirely after every shot, especially since even from the beginning of the series [[ATeamFiring explosives were wildly inaccurate]] and you'd invariably need more than one anyway. On the other side, the M1 Carbine is far more rare than it was in the first game, and while the M3 Grease Gun is actually included this time it can only be used in multiplayer. The only German machine gun seen is the MG 42, never the older and slightly more prolific MG 34. Amusingly, a lot of the first game's issues with this trope were fixed with its expansion ''United Offensive'', which added semi-auto rifles for the Russians and Germans, more pistols than just the 1911 and Luger, the Bazooka as an alternate launcher, and several portable machine guns to take over for the pre-placed MG 42s used in the first game - but only some of them (namely, the new pistols and rifles) were carried over to ''Call of Duty 2''.

* RealLife/CoolPlane: The Germans have the Ju 87 Stuka Dive Bomber, the British the Spitfire Mk. IX, and the Americans the P-51D Mustang. All are shown performing close air support missions as well as dogfighting in the skies above the battlefield at one point or another.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Call of Duty 2'' brought the ''Call of Duty'' gameplay style more in line with what's now familiar to longtime players, with things like {{regenerating health}}, a [[LimitedLoadout two-weapon limit]] with separate caches of frag and "special" grenades that are tossed at the press of a button rather than given separate slots, and a proper mission select with console-style checkpoint saves, but there's still a few oddities. Chief among them is that you ''still'' can't sprint, which wouldn't be standardized until ''Call of Duty 4'', but there's also that it's the last game in the series to heavily avert BagOfSpilling: if you drop one of your starting weapons for a new one at any point during a mission, you can keep it with you throughout an entire campaign. This would be dropped from later games after that freedom conflicted with the game's [[{{Railroading}} heavier attempts at scripting]], particularly allowing you to bring the game [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable to a screeching halt]] in the last Russian mission by accomplishing an objective before it's given to you.

* ForegoneConclusion: Anyone who's read up on the Battle of Caen will know that the city will only fall a month into the Normandy campaign, meaning that the actions of Price, Davis, and [=MacGregor=] will be ultimately for naught. This also befalls Captain Price; on the one hand, he's not going to die in this game because all of the British missions take place before those of the first game, but on the other, he's not going to survive the whole war because we already saw him die late in the first game.

* MidSeasonUpgrade: Most of the British Campaign had the Thompson as their sub-machine gun of choice. When they've moved from Africa to France, it's been traded in for the Sten gun with a larger magazine.
* MisidentifiedWeapons: This game would set a standard of sorts for the WWII ''Call of Duty'' games, by remodeling the [=M1A1=] Carbine into an original, full-stocked M1, and then refusing to delete the "A1" from its name. Due to poor coding, the scoped Gewehr 43 in the campaign is also called a Springfield.
* NonstandardGameOver: "FriendlyFire will not be tolerated!", or in the case of the Soviet missions, "You are a Traitor to the Motherland!"

* TheSquadette: Some of your ally soldiers during the Soviet campaign are women. This is accurate, since the Red Army was the only army during WWII to employ female soldiers on the frontline.

* TropeCodifier: While the original ''Call of Duty'' has many EarlyInstallmentWeirdness gameplay elements holding over from the team's previous work on ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'''s ''Allied Assault'' and other ''Quake 3'' engine games, ''Call of Duty 2'' is the game that firmly establishes the core ''Call of Duty'' gameplay formula (RegeneratingHealth, two weapon slots, quick grenades, a proper mission select, console-style single checkpoint saving, etc.) that has remained consistent for almost two decades.
* UrbanWarfare: The vast majority of levels in all 3 campaigns take place in an urban environment of some sort. The Soviet campaign, however, takes the cake as it focuses on the Battle of Stalingrad, one of ''the'' {{Trope Codifier}}s of this trope.

** How Davis, Price, and [=MacGregor=] manage to escape Toujane in "Outnumbered and Outgunned", by capturing a Sdkfz 222 armored car and driving it through German lines.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Call of Duty 2'' brought the ''Call of Duty'' gameplay style more in line with what's now familiar to longtime players, with things like {{regenerating health}}, a [[LimitedLoadout two-weapon limit]] with separate caches of frag and "special" grenades that are tossed at the press of a button rather than given separate slots, and a proper mission select with console-style checkpoint saves, but there's still a few oddities. Chief among them is that you ''still'' can't sprint, which wouldn't be standardized until ''Call of Duty 4'', but there's also that it's the last game in the series to heavily avert BagOfSpilling: if you drop one of your starting weapons for a new one at any point during a mission, you can keep it with you throughout an entire campaign. This would be dropped from later games after that freedom conflicted with the game's [[{{Railroading}} heavier attempts at scripting]], particularly allowing you to bring the game [[UnwinnableByMistake to a screeching halt]] in the last Russian mission by accomplishing an objective before it's given to you.

* TropeCodifier: While the original ''Call of Duty'' has many EarlyInstallmentWeirdness gameplay elements holding over from the team's previous work on ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'''s ''Allied Assault'' and other ''Quake 3'' engine games, ''Call of Duty 2'' is the game that firmly establishes the core ''Call of Duty'' gameplay formula that has remained consistent for almost two decades.

* HappilyEverBefore: The game portrays the battle for Hill 400 as ending in American victory. Historically the Rangers did manage to capture the peak and hold it while under intense assault, but, on the last day of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, Germany recaptured the hill and held it until February 1945.

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* HappilyEverBefore: The game portrays the battle for Hill 400 as ending in American victory. Historically the Rangers did manage to capture the peak and hold it while under intense assault, but, on the last day of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, Germany recaptured the hill and held it until February 1945.