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Call of
Duty: Finest Hour
Screenshots
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The Final Say!
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Gameplay
8.0 | Graphics
7.8 | Sound
8.8 | Value
8.2 |
Call of Duty:
Finest Hour
- reviewed
by Andrew B
Review Date: January 2005
Review Score 8.2/10
Distributed By: Activision
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The original Call of
Duty: Finest Hour was one of the most definitive PC war games on
the market that took first person shooters into the realistic
world of World War II that boasted amazing graphics, an intensive
storyline and some of the best gameplay to hit the PC in a long
time.
As with the original
PC version, the PlayStation 2 version contains 3 different
campaigns that include the Russians, British and Americans and although the storyline does jump around in the game, it does
help give the gamer an excellent perspective of each sides representation
of the war.
The Russian campaign
starts at the crossing of the Volga River where the Russian army
attempted to force the Germans out of Stalingrad. This first
mission is extremely reminiscent of the excellent war movie called
Enemy of the Gates which Activision does an impressive job at
recreating. The British campaign begins in the deserts of North
Africa that set the British against the Nazi's in one of the
deadliest arenas of World War II. Finally, the American campaign
begins in the city of Aachen that has the Americans trying to
recapture this town from the Germans. All these stories have
been accurately taken from actual events in WWII which really
give this game a true historical experience.
The gameplay of Call
of Duty: Finest Hour features all the standard first person
shooter controls that allows the player to access a variety of
weapons and even different vehicles such as tanks and jeeps to
help break the monotony of just running and walking around. To
keep the game realistic, the player meets a variety of different
AI characters that not only push the storyline forth but also
assist you in completing your objects and as we all know, the
war wasn't just won by one solo man. With that said, it should
take the average gamer around 20 hours to complete with
professional gamers taking a little less... however!
The most noticeable problem with Finest
Hour is the save system or lack of... which is confounded by the
lack of checkpoints that really makes this title a frustrating
experience, especially when you are trying to complete a level
or find a checkpoint without being shot dead by a mystery
sniper. I must also admit that this really affected the gaming
experience of the title and I don't believe that a save system
would of hindered the programmers or enjoyability of this title.
The difficulty of the game goes up and down with the Russian
campaign being the most difficult campaign, closely followed by
the British.
Graphically, Finest Hour seems a little
dated on the PlayStation 2 with some great modelling that is
unfortunately backed up by some poor texture detail and when the
battles become too fierce, the game really starts to chug and
slowdown. Fortunately the developers have really managed to
capture the true feel of WWII with huge Hollywood style
explosions and special effects that are littered throughout the
game and even though the game doesn't look as good as Killzone,
it does come leaps and bounds over that buggy game. |
