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Game vs game · side by side

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One vs Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One is an FPS game from Treyarch (2005) while Call of Duty: Black Ops II is an FPS horror game from Treyarch (2012).

Quick answer: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One has the higher Metacritic, 78 to 74.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

2005 · Treyarch

78Metacritic

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

2012 · Treyarch

7.6GamingPickz Score

$39.99

Steam: Very Positive

What each one is

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One is filed under FPS. In contrast, Call of Duty: Black Ops II under FPS and Horror.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One is a first-person shooter video game developed by Treyarch and published by Activision for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It is a side-story of the original game Call of Duty 2, which was released on PC and Xbox 360. Both were released in 2005.

Description from Wikipedia

Call of Duty: Black Ops II

Pushing the boundaries of what fans have come to expect from the record-setting entertainment franchise, Call of Duty®: Black Ops II propels players into a near future Cold War

Description from its Steam store page

Story, characters and reception

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One
Reception

Reception According to review aggregator Metacritic , the game received "generally favorable" reviews from critics. During the 9th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards , the Academy of Interactive Arts Sciences awarded Big Red One with the " Outstanding Achievement in Story and Character Development " award. The PlayStation 2 version of Big Red One received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association… (Wikipedia)

Call of Duty: Black Ops II
Plot

Campaign In July 1986, retired CIA operative Alex Mason ( Sam Worthington ) lives an obscure life in Alaska with his son David. One day, his former handler Jason Hudson ( Michael Keaton ) shows up with an assignment: Mason's friend and fellow operative Frank Woods (James C. Burns) disappeared in Angola investigating an arms smuggling ring. (Wikipedia)

Reception

Reception Critical reception Call of Duty: Black Ops II received "generally positive" reviews for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U versions, but "mixed or average" reviews for the PC version, according to review aggregator Metacritic . IGN editor Anthony Gallegos describes the game as "a good example of how to evolve an annualized franchise". Gallegos praised the game for telling a story was genuinely interesting and creating a villain that he… (Wikipedia)

At a glance

Call of Duty 2: Big Red OneCall of Duty: Black Ops II
GamingPickz Score—7.6/10
Steam rating—Very Positive (86%, 49,344)
Critic aggregate78/10074/100
PriceUnknown$39.99
Install size——
Steam DeckUntestedunsupported
Released20052012
DeveloperTreyarchTreyarch

Prices and Steam ratings are read live and move over time.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One vs Call of Duty: Black Ops II, point by point

Each facet side by side. A round is marked won only where a figure settles it; feel and "which is better" carry no mark, because no number we hold decides them.

  1. Genre and premise

    Call of Duty 2: Big Red OneFPS game
    Call of Duty: Black Ops IIFPS horror game

    What each is filed as. Each game describes itself in full above; we do not judge a premise.

  2. How it plays

    Call of Duty 2: Big Red OneNo descriptive tags
    Call of Duty: Black Ops IIAction, FPS, Shooter

    The tags players apply most, in order of votes. A read on feel, not a verdict.

  3. Reception

    Call of Duty 2: Big Red One ✓Metacritic 78
    Call of Duty: Black Ops IIMetacritic 74

    Metacritic's critic aggregate, from the game's Wikipedia reception where it was never on Steam.

  4. Content and scale

    Call of Duty 2: Big Red One—
    Call of Duty: Black Ops II49,344 reviews · 5 add-ons

    Reach and footprint, not quality: more reviews or a bigger install is not a better game.

  5. Price

    Call of Duty 2: Big Red OneUnknown
    Call of Duty: Black Ops II$39.99

    Read live from Steam and subject to change.

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One takes 1 of the marked rounds to 0. That is only what a number can decide, not which you will enjoy more.

Which to pick, by what you want

  • The better reviewed of the two: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (Metacritic 78)

Where they differ

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One is also

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is also

MultiplayerActionFPSShooterSingleplayerFirst-Person

Tags players apply to one game and not the other.

Difficulty and who each is for

By the tags players apply, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One is middle-of-the-road on difficulty. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is middle-of-the-road on difficulty.

System requirements, side by side

Call of Duty 2: Big Red OneCall of Duty: Black Ops II
Minimum GPU—Nvidia GeForce 8800GT 512 MB
Minimum CPU—Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66 GHz
Minimum RAM—2 GB
Install size——

Can your PC run them? Check each against your own kit: Call of Duty 2: Big Red One · Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Accessibility features

Steam store pages declare 0 accessibility features for Call of Duty 2: Big Red One and 1 for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. A declaration is a floor, not a review.

If you like one, also try

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Common questions

How different are Call of Duty 2: Big Red One and Call of Duty: Black Ops II in scope?

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One lists little scope data. Call of Duty: Black Ops II has drawn 49,344 Steam reviews and ships 5 add-ons.

Is Call of Duty 2: Big Red One or Call of Duty: Black Ops II better?

Neither carries enough reviews for us to score it reliably, so we do not call a winner. The table above shows what each does have.

Which is cheaper, Call of Duty 2: Big Red One or Call of Duty: Black Ops II?

One or both do not have a current listed price, so a straight comparison is not possible. See the table above.

Should I get Call of Duty 2: Big Red One or Call of Duty: Black Ops II?

Call of Duty 2: Big Red One has the higher Metacritic, 78 to 74. It also depends on what you want: the "which to pick" section above calls out which is cheaper, lighter on storage, better on a Steam Deck and the safer bet by weight of reviews.

Do you rank one above the other for a fee?

No. Neither game, nor anyone else, pays for placement or a verdict here. The order and every figure come out of the same public data the rest of the site uses.

All comparisons

How we compare, and what we will not do

The GamingPickz Score is a composite of player sentiment (adjusted for sample size), the critic aggregate and popularity, computed by the same code every ranked list on this site uses. The Steam rating label is Valve's own, reconstructed from the positive percentage and review count. Prices are read live. We do not write an opinion of which game is "better": we report the numbers and say which wins each measurable question above.

More on each