These fits of boredom really don't melt into the otherwise outstanding game too well. Most of the game also transitions remarkably well from open field combat to trench warfare to frantic raids to chopped shootouts behind broken pieces of cover, but the experience is hurt by a few funnels that force players into unwanted stationary shooting segments (like manning a turret for far too long, or playing gunner in a bomber and downing the umpteenth enemy). Every one of these rides is utterly exhausting and filled with an unprecedented amount of scripted conflicts that use explosive set pieces, lively backgrounds, believable AI and lots of incredible audio and visual effects to heighten the impression of war. Each begins with a specific type of combat and then ends over 20 minutes later in a place that feels dozens of miles away. Troina, Operation Husky and Piano Lupo are truly amazing. Though Big Red One spreads its action across Africa, Sicily and central Europe, the Italian missions are the most interesting. This lack of a compelling narrative coupled with no real explanation of the benefits of success and the consequences of failure diminishes the drive to complete missions, and yet the game is still thrilling thanks only to the development team's uncanny ability to captivate with an endless stream of exhilarating sequences. With such a talented cast and such a lively group of protagonists, the bigger Treyarch should have worked to develop the real relationships between these soldiers, especially since, according even to their own behind the scenes footage, all of the soldiers fought for the guy next to them and nothing else. In this way, Call of Duty feels remarkably like every other WWII themed shooter in recent memory and it's a real shame, too. And yet their roles take a backseat to the more conventional focus on the war itself. The actors are also used to provide some remarkable motion captured animation sequences to make in-game cutscenes more believable. Ubisoft's Brothers in Arms might draw a more obvious comparison to HBO's acclaimed Band of Brothers miniseries, but Call of Duty 2 is the game that enlists many of that show's talent to portray its soldiers. And so we must look to the soldiers of these actions on a more personal level to get some motivation to power us through the sequenced missions. But even with a few 40s styled propaganda highlight reels designed to segue gamers into new theaters of war, there is no real sense of why the army is attacking certain places, how it plans to win, or even what that victory might accomplish. Missions logically progress and are tied together via map screens that trace the route of the player's company. The focus gives Big Red One a good amount of appreciable consistency.
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