The Army's back in Activision's latest title Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, with graphics and sound effects not suited for the PlayStation 2 console and a rich story line. Call of Duty 2 promises to be a tough competitor for the PS2 action game of the year award.

Call of Duty 2 takes us into the ruins of Europe and the war zones of North Africa as the First Infantry Division (The Big Red One). On August 1, 1942, the 1st Infantry Division entered combat in World War II, in the invasion of North Africa, the first American campaign against the Nazis. On May 9, 1943, the commander of the German "Afrika Korps" surrendered his force of 40,000 and North African operations for the Big Red One ended. With the help of naval gunfire, its own artillery and Canadian allies, the First Infantry Division fought its way over the island's hills, driving the Nazis back. On D-Day, June 6,1944, the Big Red One stormed ashore at Omaha Beach. Activision's game pays homage to these hardened heroes, who put their necks and lives on the line to break the grip of the Axis forces on Europe and the rest of the world.

Call of Duty 2 captures the feel of a real battle field, with awesome visuals in the single player campaigns, astonishing cinematics and in game special effects such as planes falling from the sky and zooming past your head as they crash into the ground and the ability to blow apart structures as you play in infantry mode. One down fall to Call of Duty 2's graphics is that the developers really didn't take the time to put the special effects you see in single player campaigns into their multiplayer maps - no destructible walls or planes at all the graphics in the multiplayer game - which do not hold a candle to the single player campaigns.

The Sound in Call of Duty 2 is one of the best assets of the game, with dialog in the single player campaigns from your squad, giving you the feeling like you are part of the action, amazingly done cut scenes at the start of each level and astonishingly done sound effects including overhead artillery explosions, bullets and shrapnel flying through the air, aircraft flying over head and the destruction of the environment. The only bad part of Call of Duty 2's sound effects were that they didn't take advantage of them in the multiplayer levels, with almost none of the top notch quality sound effects. (other than bullets and shrapnel) Sadly you won't really get much of the feel you do in the single player campaign in the multiplayer games.

While on the same level as the Xbox and GameCube versions when it comes to graphics and sound, the PlayStation 2 version has far better controls, with two triggers on the top of the PlayStation 2 controllers you have the ability to use grenades with the left trigger rather than having to reach down to the right control pad and still be able to keep your aim with the same relaxed style the GameCube and Xbox have with the GameCube and Xbox versions. Another upside is, of course, the free multiplay, with the GameCube version course not having any and the Xbox version requiring Xbox live.

Multiplayer seems to be a bit buggy, with a "can not connect to all users" error frequently causing you to lose connection and being locked out of the server you've attemped to play on. This error makes it nearly impossible to play at titmes and because the lobby seems to be very basic, having a quick game almost always gives you the same error. The only other option, pulling down a list to select your game and searching, is nearly impossible with the search engine - it sure seems like the engine is not following through with searches and just giving you the same list you had if you hadn't searched in the first place. Perhaps this has more to do with the current state of GameSpy's matchmaking technology, but it seems to work fine in other game's so who knows..

The special Collector's Edition of the game for PS2 offers 4 extra skins in multi player levels, interviews with developer, in-game voice actors from the cast of Band of Brothers, Interviews with World war II Vets of the Big Red One, commentary from Treyarch, discussing development of Call of Duty 2 and a concept art gallery with art, storyboards, sketches, and renders.

With an amazing single-player campaign and superior control system over its counterparts Call of Duty 2 Big Red One for the PS2 is an all around great game. The only real trouble is the multiplayer aspects the game, which can be problematic at times. If you are buying Call of Duty 2: Big Red One on the PlayStation 2 for it's multiplayer you may want to rethink your purchase, but if you're the kind of person that loves an amazing single-player campaign then this is your game and will probably be one of the best single-player First Person Games out this year you'll play. Buy it or rent it today.