For those that are thinking about trying to play through COD2 on veteran (I recommend it to anyone) I would like to point out a few things that I took away from the experience.

Some notes on gameplay:

1) On veteran this game is hard. I don't care how skilled in FPS you are (I have been playing FPS since Wolf 3D rocked the 386.)

2) Expect to die a lot. By the time you are done you will have all the death quotes memorized. You are extremely lucky if you can take more then two shots without dying.

3) The game is very fun on veteran... most of the time. There are parts that are extremely frustrating and will take you to the edge of hating the game.

4) The game will get cheap shots on you. While skill plays a large part in completing the game on veteran luck also plays a large part.

Some notes on strategy:

1) The number one thing to remember is that you have to take every chance to advance you can. Advancing is key. Your men usually will not advance until you do. In a lot of scenes the Germans can throw an unlimited supply of men at you. They will continue to spawn and attack until you advance. This can cause you to get stuck on a scene for a long time.

2) Speaking of scenes... the game is different on this skill level. While playing on regular makes this game feel more like a running action game it becomes a scene based game on veteran. The reason is that you can spend a considerable amount of time on different parts through each level. You will realize that things are setup to happen in a certain way with only slight variations.

3) A big key is to keep yourself from getting too frustrated. YOU WILL GET THROUGH THE PART. On a lot of scenes it is almost required to die at least once. You have to realize the position of the enemy and a lot of times even the order that you need to take them out. There is also usually a correct order to how you move and where you move. A good example is on the last level when you get a checkpoint and almost instantly a tank will come around the corner and blast you. You will restart at that checkpoint again and again and it will seem like there is no way to escape the blast. But, if you run towards the tank and jump over some boxes in a certain sequence you can escape the blast and then plant your explosives. Regardless of how good you are at figuring out these scenes you will still get stuck on certain parts of the game where you restart the check point over and over and over. There are some scenes that only last a few minutes but took me an hour to complete. Stay calm!

4) If you are stuck on a scene try something different! A lot of times the problem is that you just can't keep from getting shot by a particular guy or something and you just need to get him before he gets you. But, sometimes you are doing the wrong thing and need to try something different. Sometimes the easiest route is not even the correct route. In one scene there was a very large open field with a lot of broken up houses along the edge of it. I was having a lot of trouble going the route you are supposed to go through the houses (which is the way all your men are going.) I decided to take out some gunners and hike tail across the field. I reached the other side by ducking behind some cover along the way. This caused the other men to blast their way through the correct route to meet me at the next checkpoint around the same time I got there.

5) In my opinion the easiest tasks were rigging explosives (whether it be on tanks or on guns.) The most difficult levels were the ones that required you to capture multiple buildings. These missions can take a lot of time and can be extremely frustrating. I found the easiest way to go through these levels was to take the buildings in letter order. Taking the buildings in a random order tends to stick you in a nearly impossible situation (there is no impossible scene in this game though some get very close.) You can go through the game in any order you like and still get all the GP. While I took it in order I would recommend saving the multiple capture levels for the end.

6) Any key character in the game (someone that gives orders or has their name used in the dialog) can not die. I watched the Captain on the American campaign take two shots in the head and keep running. If it is convenient using these guys for cover can make running from one checkpoint or cover point to the next much easier.

That is all I can think of for now. I hope this is helpful to anyone that wants to try to complete this game on veteran (do it... it is great!) If you have completed the game on veteran please post any tips you can think of that I may have not mentioned. Good luck!

wow i beat this game ages ago but it was pretty hard.

I beat it on regular in January but just recently decided to play it on veteran.

I'm playing through on Veteran right now and I'm loving it... I've completed all the Russian and all the British (including Caen) missions and I'm exactly 2:30 seconds away from completing the first american mission (D-day)

So far I'd have to agree, Tiger and Silo (the building capture missions) are easily the most difficult missions I've played so far.

I actually wrote up a how-to on capturing the buildings in Silo as it literally took me 3 days to do just that part of the level (I still haven't finished the sniping part at the end, I just barely finished the building capture part last night). I think Tiger was a harder level overall.

anyway here: my mini-guide to building capturing in Silo: http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?s=&...dpost&p=3298359

Also your tip for saving the building capture missions for last doesn't work for people like me who set it to Veteran their first time through playing.

I got stuck in certain parts for huge amounts of time simply because I'd never played a particular level before and didn't know where to go next. For instance getting out of the trenches when you first start Du Hoc on D-Day. When ever I poked my head up to look around and figure out where to go I'd get killed instantly... it took me a few days and I finally asked here where I got a few different paths I could take, As soon as I knew a path I was able to finish the level with (relative) ease. I wouldn't have had that problem had I simply played the game once before.

thats a really good point! i realized captain price didnt seem to die ever but i never thought of using him as a shield

I was steadily making my way through veteran until I got stuck in the British campaign in France. I may have another go at it, but the part I'm at seems nigh impossible.

I beat it on both Hardened and Veteran in less than 3 weeks time, needless to say I need a break. Recon couldnt have come at a better time, I have grey hairs from Veteran CoD

yeah I used him as a shield through almost all of the Caen levels, him and McGregor

I beat COD2 on hardened mode when I first got it, then I put it off of a little while then decided to play it on Veteran. I've been playing on Veteran here and there, beating a mission at a time, because I've been playing a lot of new different games lately. It definitely is difficult though, I played that Silo house capture mission last night, it took me 2 1/2 hours on that part alone, the other 2 parts before it only took about 30 minutes each. And even though I was about ready to throw my controller out the window a number of times, it is very fun. I actually turned off the game twice, then within a minute I would turn it back on saying "fuck that, I'm finishing". It's definitely tough on Veteran and very frustrating at times, but you definitely feel a sense of accomplishment on playing a game this tough. I'll probably finish the last few missions this week.

Looking at my profile it shows that I finished regular on 1/17. I started veteran on 3/4 and finished on 3/12. Any day that dosn't show an achievment I didn't play. So that shows you how much frustration I put myself through lol. I didn't give myself much break time between starting a new mission. That is a week and one day lol!



I used McGregor most of the time

I can't figure out where you guys find the time for this? I'm still working on whatever difficulty level I decided to start out with. And it's been long enough that I forgot. Hell, I'm still workling on Legendary on Halo2. I can never find the time to sit down and play long enough to get through such difficult settings. I'll definitely lopopk this thread up again if I ever decide to try Veteran, but I doubt I'll ever have the chance.

dude... i just 5 minutes ago beat the last mission for battle of caen... LITTLE TIP save some smoke grenades to help you destroy the tiger tank

i cant express enough how frustrating this was... but, all i have to do now is beat the american campaign...

gotta say.. this game has lots more excitement than GRAW single player.. CoD2 single player is probably the best there is right now on 360, as hard as it is, i love beating each mission... awesome sense of accomplishment.

good luck all who are attempting this, as its no easy feat....

skills and patience... and of course, patience... did i mention patience?

if you have an hour a day you can do it... I usually trade sleep for gaming

A typical day:
6:30AM -wake up/take a shower
7:00AM -get some food check my email/PMs
7:30AM -leave for work
WORK
6:00PM -leave work and head to the gym
8:00PM -head home from the gym
8:30PM -get home and take a shower
9:00PM -get some dinner and watch some TV with my GF
10:00PM -GAMING
12:30AM -go to bed

I usually don't have a chance to game during the weekends as I'm often doing things IRL with friends, also thats when my GF gets her gaming time in, though she just finished her latest distraction (playing through Final Fantasy X again) so I'll get a few weekends in before she picks up another new game.

When I got in the house I found a niche facing the door and a couple windows and just started taking them out until the time ran out. Run along the right edge toward the tank then stop and wait for a couple of your buddies to catch up to you when you get to the barrier to the tank. Then simply jump over and plant your explosives. No smoke needed. The ending wasn't bad at all. I still think planting are the easiest ovjectives. But, catching the buildings before hand was a pain.

I used a dirty tactic to finish that level in Caen.

I went up to the wall where the tank appears and stayed on the other side in the corner. I just killed any Nazi that came in my direction the whole time, and then when he asked me to kill the tank, I hopped the wall and popped it.

Hey,

I don't get to play as much as I would like, so it is slow going for me. I am just happy to see the next check
point.

boy am i glad im not the only one... i literally just fniished sniping in silo mission.. holy shit... i think i got lucky on a couple of those captures, as ive been sitting here since about 7pm or so (now 10:30) doing nothing but that mission... now only 2 left! cant wait to beat the last misison and watch 3 achievements pop up!

I just beat it last night

Monday night I finished the sniping part of silo... and I had to do the last 2.5minutes of it THREE TIMES because after finishing it when I went to go down the ladder... I fell... TWICE

Anyway I breezed through Hill 400 and Crossing the Rine. I don't know why people say hill 400 is the hardest level in the game. I flew through the first two levels of it and though "oh they must be talking about the third level"... nope that was just as easy.

I think they just worked well with my play style, they reminded me a lot of the Russian missions but without the snow, and I was really good at those.

Some tips if you are having trouble with hill 400, when you heading up the hill the 2nd bunker has a scoped gwer, it makes it easy to snipe th MG42s. When you get to the point with the half track, take out the guy on top and walk with it staying to it's right, it will eventually stop and wait by the back to mow down any survivors still inside, you'll get a check point here and have a much better position for taking out the mortar crews around the summit bunker.

The part where you have to snipe the mortar crews, take your time. The crews off to the side of the bunker entrance are the hardest to get because there are the most Germans there trying to shoot you, so start on the opposite side. Keep your machine gun handy and make your way to the parameter, take out anyone in your way... I started by going straight left and staying under cover, then going counter clockwise once I got to the parameter. use the machine guns to clear an area then once they're gone take your time with the sniper rifle. Unlike Silo the only thing that can kill you here is machine gun fire, mortar hits probably could too but I never got hit so I don't know. Also there's no time limit so take your time. Some mortar crews you'll have to stand up to see... if there's an area that's too heavily covered with Germans stay under cover and wait for back up. If you just barely got a checkpoint use that to your advantage as it might be worth it to just Kamikaze the snipe.

IMO that was the hardest part of the level but it still wasn't that hard. once your done sniping run all the way back to the bunker and into the doorway. you can pretty much sit around the entry way of the bunker for the first 2.5 minutes of the attack and not worry about doing much except running away from the occasional grenade and stay German. After the first 2.5 you'll need to move to the parameter as they'll bombard you with grenades if you stay near the entrance. I picked the parameter shelter straight right from the entrance. it's a little harder to hold down then the entrance to the bunker was but it's pretty much the same technique.

Then you're on to crossing the rine.

LMAO... actually, i beat that level by after taking objective A, dropping smokes and rushing up the latter to snipe everyone in the village, then going to take the rest of the objective with less people in them, and i fell about 3 times after a 10 minute sniping spree, then realized how to climb down... just walk backwards into it!

hope you are right about the last 2 levels, i hope to get this game squared away so i can get back to GRAW and burnout.

yeah the firs time I just walked regular and fell straight down, the secon time I walked backwards but I guess I went to fast so I STILL fell down, the thrid time I turned around looked straight down and walked backwards as slowly as possible, no way I was going to do that AGAIN.

just finished it... what a task.. only took me 3 months to the day! lol

i obviously didnt play it stright through, i took some breaks... but damn.. what a game.

that was probably one of the best single player experiences ive had in a long time... lots of crappy parts to get stuck in... bad checkpoints... but all in all, worth the frustration id have to say.

good luck anyone who attempts this...

yes it was a bumpy ride thats for sure, but since i went through on regular first, i jumped around a bit when i got stuck in veteran, the only thing im not likeing about these games with achievement for different difficulty settings is that if you finish the game on the hardest difficulty first they should give you the achievments for the lessor difficulties, look at PD0 you need to finish the game on all difficulties to get all achievements, if you go through on the hardest first, fine then the easier ones should be a breeze but still

yeah that really bugs me... too

COD2 was cool though I only played through it once and that was on veteran got all the points....

I'm looking at Gun though you have to beat it on easy, normal, hard, and insane to get everything... that's just ridiculous. I rarely play though the games I LOVE 4 times never mind something I'd rent, borrow, or pickup used.

I agree that if they're going to do tiered achievements like that , earning "hard" should automatically give you easy and normal.

same thing with quake 4, gotta do it on all difficulties to get some points, yeaaaaaah that'll be the day. And whats with quake 2?! I like that more than quake 4 and it gives you NO points for getting any of the 9 achievements?!

well we can't have games giving out more then 1000 now can we? maybe Quake 2 could have given out PGR3s and Condemned's leftovers

and Recons....I think it only offers 925?

something...anything would be nice!

I'll tell you what, these games that don't offer the full 1000 better have some DLC with more achievments down the road...