Walkthrough

Russian Campaign One: The Winter War

Red Army Training

Moscow: December 16, 1941

You begin Call of Duty 2 as a raw recruit into the Soviet army, possessed of nothing but the wits in your head and the rifle in your hands. But hey, you don't even have a rifle in your hands! You'll have to follow the orders of your little squad commander here to get outfitted, at which point you'll be stuck in a bit of a tutorial level. If you're an old hand at FPS games, then none of this should be unfamiliar; if this is your first, then the tutorial itself will help you more than anything we could say will.

Although most tutorials are their own, self-contained levels, this one will actually extend into a bit of combat, as you'll discover that the Germans are massing for an attack on your position. What follows is a rudimentary bit of combat, as you'll have to make your way through the town, taking cover, learning about smoke grenades, and the like. So long as you don't run into the path of the machinegun that's firing down the street, you should find it relatively easy to avoid dying (although all bets are off on Veteran difficulty).

The first of many, many dead Wehrmacht.

When you get closer to the Panzer Hummel, the mobile artillery that the Germans are using to shell you, you'll have to take out its guards, then approach to the Hummel itself and destroy it with explosives. Don't forget to aim down the sights with your PPsh gun, as it'll greatly help your accuracy.

Demolition

Stalingrad: December 2, 1942

It's been almost a year since you joined up with the Soviet army, although it feels like just a few minutes! Odd how time flies. Anyway, the defense of Stalingrad was one of the turning points of all of World War II, as the German army surrounded the city and lay siege to it. The Russian resistance and counterattack sparked a battle that lasted for almost 200 days, and is still regarded as the single bloodiest battle in the history of warfare, with casualties estimates ranging up to two million.

Most of the Stalingrad battle involved dirty fighting in the streets and ruined buildings of the city, and this level is no different. You begin inside a department store, and have to push your way through heavy German resistance to reach the far windows, which are of course missing by this point. Your teammates here can be counted on to take the bulk of the bullets for you, as well as put up a strong fight, but you'll have to prod them along by attempting to stay out in front of them, as that will encourage them to move forward themselves. This is especially true of the no-man's-land between the first two buildings here, where you'll have to rush out, lie prone behind a wall until your teammates come out behind you, then repeat the process until you reach the far building.

Heck, don't even stick your head out here; just hide behind the windows here and wait for the Germans to retreat.

After you crawl through the trench here, you'll have to repulse a German counterattack on your position. There are going to be at least a couple dozen German soldiers coming your way from across the field here. Now, if you're playing on a normal difficulty setting, you may be able to pop your head out of cover and actually attack some of these guys, but on Hard or higher, you're going to get chopped down to size relatively quickly if you actually try to stand up and fight. It's far better to sit back in the building here, around the corner from one of the windows, and chuck a few grenades in the path of the incoming Germans. When you've done that, just sit back out of sight and let them get right up next to the window. By the time they get close enough to shoot, you can pop a few of them from your little hiding spot; shortly after that, you should get the signal that the Germans are retreating, and retreat they will, back to their local HQ.

Your last charge here will be to get to the far side of the courtyard. Unfortunately, it will be covered quite well by enemy MG's. If you picked up the Scoped Mosin-Nagant back at the house, then you can probably pick off a few of the baddies from a good distance away. Alternately, you can just lie prone in one of the trenches off to the left and crawl your way to the building, which will let you flank the gunners and kill them, providing an easy approach for the rest of your teammates.

After clearing out the building, you'll be asked to grab some dynamite and rig the building to blow. Follow the compass to reach the engineer that'll hand off the charges to you, then find the three hotspots and place your explosives. Watch out for holes in the ceiling through which the trapped Germans will fire on you. When the building's destroyed, then you're done with this level; you'll also unlock the first British campaign for play.