Trying to make you feel as bad as if you were there
| Platform | Presentation |
Controls |
Variety |
Audio |
Depth |
Value & Fun | OVERALL |
| GameCube | 5.00 |
5.00 |
5.50 |
7.50 |
4.00 |
4.00 | 4.91 |
| Presentation |
5.00 |
|
From a visual standpoint, Finest Hour does a decent job on character models and level design, although still a bit dull. Where it drops off from there is trying to distinguish specifics. Things that are difficult to identify include where grenades come from and are, where gunfire is coming from, what doors you can open and whether or not the enemy is dead or not. Choppy animations don't help the cause of showing whether the enemy is dead or just staggered. Another problem is that when you're not being shot or are shooting, the ammo and health part of the HUD disappears. Lastly, there is way to check the controls in-game, you have to consult the manual; and with how contrived the controls are, that's a bother.
|
| Controls |
5.00 |
|
All that really needs to be said is that you reload by pressing down on the directional pad. Also on the D-pad are health by pressing up, changing guns by pressing left, and changing grenades by pressing right. Not only do you refill health with the D-pad, but you have to do it manually; you can die while having 6 health packs on hand. And considering the untactile hits and that you can't see your health while not being shot, this does occur. There is no remapping of controls, either, so you're stuck. Another annoyance is that the B-button is the action button and that definitely takes some getting used to. Meanwhile, if you press A, you throw a grenade (which you have no control over how hard you throw it or how long you wait). The biggest part of controls in a first-person shooter is the sensitivity of the analog sticks. Granted, you can choose Slow, Normal or Fast for sensitivity, but Normal is a little slow (so Slow is useless), while Fast is absolutely useless. Points for concept that are lost on execution.
|
| Variety |
5.50 |
|
Play "real" missions in real locations. Real is used loosely, as obviously there would be definite disparities in what you actually do to get the overall mission complete. The missions basically fall under either tank or on foot. Besides that, the missions never come across all that varied. Near the end, you get to take out tanks with a rocket-launcher, which was a nice touch. However, throughout the ground missions, everything feels very redundant.
|
| Audio |
7.50 |
|
The music is fitting, although somewhat annoying, early on. The gun sounds are also appropriate but aren't that varied. Voice acting shines in the still image cut-scenes that use photos and documents with occasional war-time footage. Overall a solid job in audio, but it's often a bit too much.
|
| Depth |
4.00 |
|
The fact that the game can't decide what type of shooter it wants to be other than being set during World War II. Grenades without a strength gauge (that enemies will survive on occasion by simply ducking, even right beside it) and AI that will get in your way and stuck is just bothersome. There isn't a whole lot to try and do to make turn the tide in your favour, other than scouring cleared areas for health.
|
| Value & Fun |
4.00 |
|
Where Call of Duty: Finest Hour falters in that it wants to be a realistic war shooter. I can't emphasize this enough: There is no fun, realistic war shooter. Realistic war is not fun in a game, because, frankly, you should likely die and should die from one or two hits. In Finest Hour, you end up with walking through Germany as if you were Rambo. What's even worse is that whenever there are sections in which you are too outmatched to blast through, the controls aren't intuitive enough for the tactical parts to be any better. But what else kills it? Why the AI, of course. Not only are your helpers nearly useless and can stand in front of an enemy for upwards of thirty seconds and not kill him, but they block your way and WILL GRENADE YOU. If you try and blast through a tactics situation, in a tight corridor, you will likely be hit with a grenade from your own team. The checkpoints are also spread a bit too far apart making things seem more repetitious and frustrating than they should have.
|
| Overall |
4.91 |
|
There is simply nothing to particularly enjoy about Call of Duty: Finest Hour. Its entirely mediocre in almost every respect and offers little insight into what war would really be like. The best part of the game can be found during the credits and a clip of talking with a veteran. That and knowing that the game is over.
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Posted by Ellyoda Sat, 18 Feb 2006 00:00:00
