These old Call of Duty campaigns are insanely good!!! :D
I enjoyed CoD1 so much that I immediately bought this one and this entry improves on literally EVERYTHING from CoD1 and even introduces lots of mechanics and quality of life improvements
They have an incredible atmosphere, level design, characters you can take seriously, sound design, ambient sound design, pretty decent graphics and really polished gameplay especially for back then, it's genuinely immersive even for me who has trouble with that a lot of the time
My favorite missions by far were the Soviet ones, especially because of the "Improvised" combat tactics they used and because it felt more gritty and realistic as opposed to being a handful of super soldiers that clear out an entire country on their own, while the British campaign was the weakest one in my opinion
I really like how "small" this game makes you feel, after you're done clearing out a section or a bunker all you're left with is a mountain of corpses and distant gunfire, explosions, planes and rockets as you walk back to your squad, signalling to you that you're less than dirt in the grand scheme of things and that the battle you just fought was miniscule compared to the war as a whole, this kind of ambience just doesn't exist in modern CoD titles
Another strong point about this game is its continuity, not only do you keep the guns you picked up as you went, but you actually use the points of interests you conquer like bunkers or farm houses, and sometimes you even have to retreat back through the level you just played as opposed to going through a level, a cutscene plays, and suddenly you're somewhere else
Locations are also pretty open most of the time, especially buildings, you can enter most of them and there is usually more than one angle to approach the fight from which I like a lot
You do have more ammo than in 1 here it seems but you're still expected to pick up your enemy's weapons, just not as often as before
The only "negatives" I noticed were that run and gun is very encouraged in this game, hipfire became drastically less accurate and they really want you to aim down sights while holding forward and clearing out rooms at times, and enemies became slower and less accurate compared to 1 on the same difficulty (Hardened), but there are a lot more of them now so it evens out I guess
QoL and general improvements I noticed right away:
[b]Health bars were replaced by health regeneration[/b] - I liked how you had to pick up med kits in 1, but I do enjoy this health system a lot more
[b]It looks better[/b] - Not only do textures and lighting look better, but the weather effects (especially snow) and presentation are really really good
[b]Climbing introduced[/b] - Well, mantling, but it does count!
[b]Ladders introduced[/b] - Nothing major but good to see regardless
[b]Smoke grenades introduced[/b] - Used to cover large openings and are never overused which keeps them fresh
[b]Improved movement[/b]
[b]Improved shooting[/b] - Bullets are more accurate and recoil feels better
[b]Improved sound design[/b] - Everything sounds better, including voices
[b]Crosshair shows red when you look at enemies now[/b]
[b]Helmets actually work[/b] - Sometimes bullets will richochet off them and absorb a bullet
[b]Jumping doesn't force you out of ADS anymore[/b]
[b]Enemies will call out and name specific locations[/b] - i.e. "Enemies at the barrels over there" or even tell you which story of a building snipers sit in
[b]Some of the timer sections from CoD1 are replaced with enemy waves now[/b]
