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PGC had a chance to check out Activision’s latest WWII shooter for GameCube last week, Treyarch’s Call of Duty 2: Big Red One. Despite Activision’s odd numbering system, Big Red One is a completely separate game from Call of Duty 2 on PC and Xbox 360. Unlike other games in the series which put players in control of a variety of characters from US, British, and Russian squads, this time around you’ll follow the heroic American unit Big Red One from beginning to end. Missions take place in countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Italy, France, Belgium, and Germany, so there is a bit more variety in the scenery.

Keeping with the team is an important part of Big Red One. You’ll often be given verbal orders to flank an enemy or cover the squad from a specific location. Activision went all out with the vocal cast this time, as many of the actors also had roles in the television series Band of Brothers. When in the heat of action, a handy icon will pop up to identify teammates so that you don’t fire on them by mistake, but unfortunately, other friendlies don’t always get the same treatment. Trying to move ahead of the squad will usually get you shot down pretty quickly, but it really doesn’t feel constraining.

As WWII game developers love to bring up, the weapons are all authentic, and Treyarch took the time to examine the real guns and record sound effects from them. Another interesting trait the weapons have is that when you zoom in, the HUD cursor fades away, and you’ll be left using the actual sight on the gun to aim. This can be a bit challenging, especially when you have to learn how to aim a new weapon, but it’s an added flair that gun junkies will surely love. You also won’t be carrying full arsenals around with you. It seems that you can carry two guns and some grenades at any given time, and you can drop either gun to pick up new weapons that you find along the way.

Big Red One isn’t afraid of bright colors where appropriate, with the sun beaming down on green rolling hills at times, which is in stark contrast to the drab palettes other war shooters tend to take on. That isn’t to say that the game is cheery, though. The camera shakes a lot to simulate the rumbling earth beneath you, and there are constant gunshots and explosions in the background. At times, you’ll find yourself just inches from death, as you walk into a room just as it gets hit by a shell. You black out for a second, and wake up breathing heavily next to the bodies of soldiers who were standing just in front of you a moment ago.

The main level we had a chance to play through is the Piano Lupo scenario. The stage opens with an air raid on your camp, and you have to quickly jump on an anti-aircraft gun to blast the approaching planes out of the sky. It’s a thrilling experience, and you have to keep a constant eye on the objective radar to see where the next bird is coming from.

From there, you head out on foot with your squad. Coming upon a bridge, you find an enemy convoy stuck trying to cross and are asked to use your binoculars to spot a few vehicles as targets for an allied aircraft. Once the enemy’s out of your way, you move through a few more sections on foot and then man a machine gun to fire on a ridge with rapidly advancing enemy troops and trucks.

As you move on through a series of tunnels in the hillside, your squad will stop as they see enemy tanks swarming over the hills in the distance. Foreshadowing what’s to come, one soldier remarks that “We won’t stand a chance against those tanks,” with another man replying, “Not from here we won’t.” A little while later, you come upon a bunker complex besieged by tanks. There’s a radio upstairs in the main bunker, but it will take time to fix, leaving you to pick up a bazooka and defend the complex from about half a dozen tanks. Squad-mates will call from individual bunkers getting hit hard, and as the tanks continue to fire on the base, the walls and the very roof over your head will be almost entirely blown away. Finally, the radio gets fixed, and you’ll head back up to the main bunker to spy out the rest of the tanks with your binoculars. Your character gives the coordinates to the radio operator, and he has air support fly in to take out the remaining tanks so you can move on to the next level.