In the waning days of summer as endless Target back-to-school ads ramble across the airwaves and last-minute trips to Mexico crowd airports, I take this time to play games that are short, comfort-food experiences. Something to enjoy before the stresses of college gain full force. Of course, what a more fitting setting for this relaxing gaming experience than the horrors of World War II.

“Call of Duty 2” is a 2005 first-person shooter by Infinity Ward, the sequel to the original title that started the infamous franchise and launch title for the Xbox 360 — making it the oldest game I physically have in my collection.

Every Call of Duty game I have played leads to something really stupid, annoying or downright depressing. My playthrough of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare” (a six-hour-long game) took me eight days to finish because so much life got in the way; I questioned if it was truly divine intervention from continuing to play that trash.

However, my playthrough of “Call of Duty 2” was the opposite. Uneventful and quite enjoyable, it is a really solid title 16 years later.

The game came in the early Xbox 360 days of ugly 3D that ironed out by 2007, but it is not intolerable. The guns and character models are quite solid, and the sound design is fantastic — great features to distract you from environments that look like driving school simulators from the ‘90s.

Gunplay is shockingly the same as much of the modern Call of Duty titles, from the same crosshair to the ladder climbing to the name-tag spotting. The plot is mostly nonexistent, rather emphasizing immersion into several iconic battles of the war. From Stalingrad to Omaha Beach, the campaign is split between British, Russian and American prospects. The most frustrating part is the imbalance of such.

The Russians — the best storyline — get only three missions, the British get five and the Americans get three. The imbalance is worsened as the British campaign follows the North African front, and the repetition of the environment gets stale quickly, eventually to the point where I lost track of the mission count as the seemingly same town was invaded over and over.

Nonetheless, the American campaign following after it made up for such with probably the best mission in the series taking center stage, the invasion of France. Fully embracing “Saving Private Ryan” to the point of plagiarism, the game sticks the player in the full chaotic and muddy downpour of the war.

It wrapped up around the five-hour mark, but given the overdone nature of WWII games, it seems the most appropriate length before true burnout. It’s not a game for everyone, as many have trouble getting into playing old games. But of all the classic titles I’ve reviewed, this one has the easiest learning curve by far. It’s a great time, and you can’t ignore the Call of Duty franchise’s impact on the industry that irrefutably dominated the seventh generation of consoles.

“Call of Duty 2” is available on PC and Xbox One.

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