Call of Duty Finest Hour

After being totaly immersed in Call of Duty and United Offensive on the PC I knew from Finest Hour's anouncment that I had to have it. First let me tell you that this is a completley new game. It's not a PC port but it does manage to incorporate familiar gameplay and levels into this jaw droping experience. In the first level you play as Alexander Solkovo, who is throw into the battle of Stalingrad with only a handful of ammo. Like the PC game, you eventualy get a rifle to use that ammo but in the begining of the level you have all that you can do to follow your sargent up the hill into machine gun fire. I would like to compare this to the D-Day scene in Medal of Honor Frontline, but that just wouldn't be fair. This game crushes Frontline and although I'll still play Frontline (an incredibly awesome game)This is what is owning my PS2 right now. After Stalingrad you will shift through roles, playing as a Russia female sniper, a Russian tank commander, a British PPA commando, a sargent with the Big Red 1, and a tank sargent in Belgium. The whole storyline is very cool and Finest Hour truely does capture the gritty cinimatic feel of WWII that most games don't. Some might need to remember that this game isn't trying to recreate the feel of the PC game. It's trying to recreate the feel of war and although I've never been in war, I'd say this game does a darn good job. Some people complain the controls are hard to get use to but I'm guessing thats because they are a bunch of hardcore PC gamers (nothing wrong with that) who aren't as good at adapting to a controller layout. Now like I said before, I own Frontline and many other FPS for PS2 and I caught on to these controls in no time. In fact, this game might have some of the best First Person Shooting controls I've ever used (well, next to Halo) With controls aside, lets move on to graphics. Thats always a fun part. They are simply amazing! Each character has around 1500 different animations thay can perform and trust me, they do perform. Really, graphics aren't an issue. The framerate in the game will make FPS fans happy. You can be mowing down twenty enemies and the frame rate doesn't drop at all. Which brings me to my next point. The arsenal rocks. It is smaller than the PC games but now you can run around firing MG42s and 30cal. machine guns without having to deploy them. This is truely awesome. But here is what Finest Hour is missing out on, the M1 carbine, the STG 44, a couple others and strangley, pistols aren't any where to be had. So when your two big guns run out, you must rely on melee attacks. The game, oddly enough, works well without pistols. Only after finishing the game did I realize, "Hey, I never used a pistol." but then I said "Hey, I never needed one!" Now, how about gameplay. The game has wide variety of ways to accomplish each mission (something Rising Sun promised but kind of failed with) And really, almost every time you play is different. With a mixture of funny and down right awesome cheat codes this game will keep you entertained for a long time. But do understand the replay value of this game doesn't relay on the cheats but they are great. What more can I say when it comes to performance and presentation... THIS GAME ROCKS!

Now, the not so good. What game doesn't have glitches? If some one can tell me one, their lying! So don't fear when I tell you this game has some minor glitches. Their nothing most FPS don't have (floating guns) But don't worry, more than likely you won't even notice it. The few glitches their are take place in the really big battles, so a couple of floating guns shouldn't bother you or even catch your eye. Another thing is that the British campaign seems a bit short lived but it is packed with action and the jeep chase more than compensates for a shorter campaign. Also a little more detail could have been paid to bullet holes in the walls. They aren't that good looking but like the floating guns, you probaly won't care. Also, Where is the multiplayer? Sure, you can go online with this game but what about split screen four player. Hopefully they will put it in the next game.

How about a quick recap.

Pros:

Great Graphics

Wonderful musical score

Intense gameplay that doesn't drop a frame

Lots of replay value

Cons:

A couple of tiny glitches that don't affect gameplay at all

The British Campaign is shorter than the others

No multiplayer with out online connection

So all in all Activision and Spark have done a wonderful job on Finest Hour and this in one game any FPS fan or World War II buff should not be without!

I am a big fan of MOH but when I heard about this game I had to get it. The first thing I did whene I got home was stick it in. When the game starts you are with a bunch of other Russian comarads in a boat. The two things that surprised me the most is that: You dont get a rifle untill half way through the first levle, and that you can lie on your stomach and crawl! As the game goes on you get to be a female sniper and a tank comander. In the British levles you stay the same person. Then last but not least you get to play as an american soldier named Chuck Walker and a blach tank comander named Sam Rivers for a levle. All in all it a fine game though some levles are a bit hard. I reccomend this gameand MEDAL OF HONOR to people who like war games and also for those who like strategy games.

"Call of Duty" for PS2 can be fairly described as a nicely upgraded version of Medal of Honor. My favorite "new" features are 1) the great number of battles which require you to work in tandem with your fellow squad members (often 5 or more) 2) scenes in which you have to work as a footsoldier or sniper in tandem with Allied tanks 3) scenes in which you are controlling a tank and 4) playing from the perspective of the British and Soviets as well as the USA. Overall, COD is great fun. But I wouldn't say it's qualitatively different from the MOH experience.

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