In the last few years, the sub-genre of World War 2 shooters has grown exponentially, swarming over the market like angry German infantry, overwhelming the sales charts, and capturing many a wallet, as well as the odd heart and mind to go with it. But for every exceptional combatant, there are always half a dozen dullards who serve as little more than cannon-fodder. Old veterans like the Medal of Honour franchise struggled to find purchase in the treacherous landscape, while green rookies like Brothers In Arms earned accolades and promotions aplenty. Somewhere in the middle was Call of Duty, a competent foot-soldier, if a little unremarkable on the consoles. Well all of that is about to change as the Xbox 360 welcomes Call of Duty 2 to the frontline.

Call of Duty 2 is a port of the PC version of the game, and has nothing to do with the recent Xbox game, Big Red One, which focused on America's Fighting First Infantry Division. Rather than being Ameri-centric, the 360 title encompasses action on the Eastern and Western fronts, as well as taking the action down south...to Africa, that is. This is the real drawcard of the PC incarnations of the Call of Duty franchise; players are engaged in a variety of battles, usually as lowly grunts, rather than the one-man-army approach of the Medal of Honour series.

Throughout the American, British and Russian campaigns, you will slog through some of the most famous battles of the 2nd World War, but not always from the traditional perspective. Your American D-Day mission in Normandy, for example, doesn't send you running up Omaha or Utah beaches, rather it puts you in the shoes of a Ranger given the seemingly impossible task of scaling the cliffs of Pointe Du Hoc. A lesser known part of conflict, but one that was vital in disabling the 155mm cannons that would have devastated the Allied D-Day assault.

There are over ten missions like this one in Call of Duty 2, and each mission contains anywhere from two to four levels, which will take you 15-45 minutes apiece to beat. And during the 15-hour singleplayer campaign, there is rarely a quiet or dull moment. In fact what really sets Call of Duty 2 apart from the rest is the sheer level of intensity and scale of its battlefields. It isn't often that a game is so powerful that it gives you pause, and no, we don't mean the Start button! Whether you're hitting the deck and bracing yourself against the wall of a trench against withering German fire, or feeling a genuine emotional upsurge as Eisenhower's speech plays at the conclusion of your successful mission, Call of Duty 2 manages to bring you as close to the sensations of war without leaving your living room.

Aside from cleverly utilised scripted sequences, it does this by providing you with the richest, most heavily populated battlefields ever. No doubt the Xbox 360's powerful hardware helps here, but the difference between fighting a manageable, unrealistic handful of enemies and the insanity of battling dozens at a time is incalculable. You will be under fire from any and every direction at any given time, from enemies concealed in 2nd storey windows as well as machine gunners lying prone on the ground. Your foes will make use of cover, retreat when you advance, lay down suppressing fire, and even pick up the grenade you just threw at them and lob it right back at you!

The level-design in Call of Duty 2 is excellent, managing to combine fairly linear, directed gameplay with the illusion of almost complete freedom. The finest moments come either as heavily scripted sequences, or on the rare occasions when you're presented with multiple objectives and allowed to tackle them in any order - or manner - you please. Your objectives are fairly straightforward: they involve a lot of killing and destruction, but from time to time you'll gather intel, signal HQ to commence an attack, or just defend an area from a counter-attack. In the British campaign you'll get the chance to drive a tank, but aside from acting as a gunner in other vehicles, you won't be piloting or driving anything else in this game.

Which is a bit of a shame really, because a few inches worth of armour-plating should be essential for Call of Duty 2. On 'Regular' difficulty it's not so bad, though you'll still find yourself dying quite a bit thanks to the 360-degree nature of battle, but with a little care and patience you'll make it through just fine. Not so for 'Veteran' difficulty... when the game says "you will not survive" it isn't joking. One or two shots equals death, and when you're surrounded by 15-25 Nazi soldiers all gunning for you, survival is but a fleeting moment between the (thankfully!) brief load screens.

Infinity Ward have locked away most of their Gamerscore achievement points into beating X level on 'Veteran' too, so don't expect to walk way from Call of Duty 2 with a chest-worth of Gamerscore medals. On the plus side, the game eschews the traditional health-based system, so you won't need to scamper around looking for a health pack and/or a living medic.

Take enough damage and the edges of your vision turns blood-red and your breathing becomes laboured... take more, and you die. Avoid damage, and you'll eventually be alright to fight again. It's not the most realistic system on the planet, but it works well here, except on 'Veteran' difficulty, when you're usually dead before any of the on-screen visual aids appear. Speaking of on-screen, there's virtually no HUD aside from an objective compass and your current level of ammunition and grenades, which certainly helps with the immersion factor.

Obviously the graphics play a huge part in a game like Call of Duty 2, particularly as a launch title, and neither Infinity Ward or the Xbox 360 disappoint. This is without a doubt the best looking war game ever to grace a console, and it runs like a German blitzkrieg! Plus it has blood, which is a nice touch for a game going for realism, and something that is conspicuously absent from many other WW2 shooters. Throw in epic explosions, impenetrable thick smoke and a variety of weather effects, and you've got a good idea of what to expect. Character models look excellent; at least as detailed and diverse as those seen in the likes of Brothers In Arms, and move in a realistic manner.

Combined with the scripted sequences, the visuals help create what can only be described as a cinematic experience. And thanks to the superior quality of the game, this blockbuster feel is never diminished or broken by glitches, bugs or problems with models or their textures. Not once during the entire game, or if there was, you certainly wouldn't notice it because you're so busy fighting for your life. Nor do locations feel like they've been cut'n'pasted from pre-fabs or other levels... in fact, the way that Call of Duty 2 manages to make the level of destruction and devastation present in urban settings feel totally organic is kind of scary.

The audio plays a huge part in the Call of Duty experience, and the Xbox 360 version of the game is no exception. Blessed are they who possess a 5.1 surround-sound home theatre system to be overwhelmed by this aural tour de force. Your squadmates shout advice, the enemy screams in pain, gunfire is constant and explosions are deafening. It's so intense that, if you're at all like me, you'll probably cower in a trench and wait for it to quieten down a little before poking your head out again. The music is good but used sparingly, which is fitting, because the chaos of battle is really all the sound you'll want when you're pinned down in combat.

Call of Duty 2 features full multiplayer support, both offline and on Xbox Live. All the usual modes are present: deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag, as well as a few new modes. There's a sabotage mode that requires you to destroy key enemy positions (like cannons), and there's a HQ mode that requires you to set up and defend a radio while preventing the enemy from doing the same. Performance on Xbox Live is really solid even with international players, although it does take a bit of a dip in 8 player games, which is sadly the maximum for online play. Offline you can get the full 16 players, which is far more reminiscent of the singleplayer bedlam.

The game has a few other nifty features; a TrueSkill system for rankings that tries to match you with players of your own skill level, and KillCam, which lets you watch how you were gunned down while you wait to respawn. It's a little macabre, but it's an essential tool for learning from your mistakes and getting an insight into what your foe is up to. Strangely, there are no Gamerscore Achievements for online play, so don't expect to rack up any points for playing multiplayer. But hey, it's rewarding enough just blasting away Americans playing as Nazis... it's like a two-for-one special!