	Call Of Duty: Finest Hour
	Developer: Spark Unlimited Publisher: Activision Release Date: Out Now Players: 1-16 network play	Words By:
Call of Duty came out last year for the PC, offering a WWII first-person shooter with the same thrills as the Medal of Honour series, but with more realism. Now one of the PC’s best WWII shooters comes to the consoles, but will it really be its Finest hour? Instead of following the exploits of one person throughout the war, CoD shows the conflict through different characters on different fronts. This brings you from the gates of Stalingrad through North Africa to eventually the borders of Germany. Although following the war from completely different nationalities (Russian, British and American), and playing through many different environments, the game ultimately fails to immerse the player properly. In the different campaigns, especially the Russian one, you dart to and fro between so many different characters that you don’t really relate to them, which defeats the point of having more than one character in the first place. Since you don’t always play as the same character, you always have different types of missions. Most of these involve all-out Nazicide, but some involve sniper missions, or (quite a few times) the use of a tank. You get the chance to take part in some tank battles in Stalingrad and also in the American missions. These missions take some getting used to, as one control stick moves the tank, the other aims the turret, and when all hell breaks loose (which it frequently does) it can get a tad confusing. Once you’ve got the hang of it, though, it’s a bit of fun, but not really that original. The fact that your tank’s health regenerates is a bit of a cop-out though, especially since the game’s main ideas are to make things realistic. The game does manage to create a good sense of realism, however. The graphics are good for the PS2, with the main characters having some good levels of detail. Explosions and tracer bullets all look realistic, and work really well with the always top-quality Pro-Logic soundtrack to really immerse the player. The enemy AI has also moved a step on from MoH - they won’t just stand in the middle of the road shooting at you anymore. CoD’s Nazis now duck and dodge and even try and flank you, making things a little tougher. To make sure that you’re in over your head, each level is crammed with these Yankee-hating Sausage guzzlers… it’s lucky you’ve got your own unit of men to help you out then! The friendly AI soldiers are not strictly under your control, but simply follow you about, and you can occasionally get them to bust in doors. This is a shame because there are loads of opportunities to get the guys involved, but they just stand behind you instead. The difference between the CoD GIs and ones in other games is that these guys actually kill enemies. Most of the time your friendly AI is simply there to take bullets for you, but these guys really fight back, lobbing grenades and laying down covering fire for you. The only problem is that they do tend to get stuck when going through buildings, and you have to tell them to run about, or they’ll just judder about in doorways. Things like AI team mates, or looking down the sights of your gun to aim may be simple, but all the little bits add up to make something that feels good to play. When you complete CoD, and you will - it’s not that tough, you get a feeling that there should have been more. The game finishes at the bridge at Remagen, when I really could have done with a long slog into Berlin, maybe through Allied then Russian perspectives. It just feels a little too short to me – maybe that’s why you don’t seem to be able to move very fast... Online CoD plays well enough but doesn't do anything to set itself apart from the other PS2 FPS titles, and everyone I played with seemed to want to get back to Killzone. The game supports up to 16 players but games can suffer from lag and even be hard to find. You get the typical choice of modes, but whilst the maps look okay they lack size, imagination and any lasting appeal. Call of Duty: Finest Hour is a good immersive game, with loads of little innovations and quirks that make it fun to play. The campaigns are all varied, but not enough time is spent with each character, and despite it being great fun it’s let down by being too short and ending on an anticlimax - the war will definitely be over by Christmas.

Best Bits
- Fun FPS gameplay with lots of attempts at variation.
- Tidy graphics look just like the Xbox version.
- Great sound.
- Network play.

Worst Bits
- Too short.
- AI is shaky at times.
- You move really slowly.
- The storyline feels too disjointed.


by: Crazypunk