Call of Duty: Finest Hour

"Very nice console adaptation of the stellar PC game"

First off, I want to say that I played the PC CoD games a lot. If you are used to the PC versions, this game will feel different (I find it a little clumsy using the controller)

Intro: Basically, this game takes place in WWII, the war that "changed the world." You play in U.S., British, and Russian soldiers taking part in several battles.

Gameplay: When you start the game, you can go into options and set the difficulty, (I chose Easy because the PC versions were relatively tough and I wasn't in the mood for extreme challenges yet). Easy mode is, well, easy. Like in PC mode, you can get shot multiple times and you won't die. A few annoying things start becoming apparent as soon as you start. One, the kneel/prone button is different then the stand up button, why use 2 buttons for something one button could do? Another thing is that the running and turning is fairly sluggish but you get used to it (you can also make turning speed faster in the Options menu). A neat thing I like is that when you hit a German, the reticule has red arrows going off the side so yo know you hit him. The fusion of tanks/foot is balanced in my opinion but there are still a bunch of "protect area x while waiting for y to get here to back you up. Controlling the tank is a little difficult but once you get the hang of it, it'll be easy. The AI is pretty good, I found my teammates getting in the way or getting slaughtered a lot and the Germans seemed to enjoy being shot at sometimes, but overall the AI is about what I'd expect from a FPS of this time. The game is fun to play, but I didn't get the same feeling I got when playing the PC games. -8/10-

Story: Well, the story is you're in WWII. That's pretty much it. You do a bunch of mini-campaigns (about 2 levels per character) that all connect to each other in some way (mostly). I personally like the whole idea of being an "ordinary soldier".-9/10-

Graphics: Graphics are very good. Occasionally, there will be a glitch in animation (such as in some cutscenes) but it is nothing to really to bring down the game.-9/10-

Sound: A very strong area of this game is sound. The voices are great, the scoring is brilliant, and all of the gunfire/walking sounds etc. are very good.
-10/10-

Play time: On easy mode, this game'll take bout 5-7 hours, give an hour or a few for harder modes maybe. This is a little short but the game is pretty good so that you don't mind the shortness as much.-8/10-

Replayability: A downfall of CoD is replayability. No multiplayer in the GCn version equals virtually no replay aside from the occasional replay of your favorite level or beating the game on each difficulty if that's your style.-7/10-

So, if you loved the PC CoD games and FPS, this is worth the $50. If you aren't so sure, rent it first. Oh, this game only takes up 5 memory card blocks too, if you're low on memory and don't wanna buy another card yet.

Overall: 8.5 (rounded down to an 8)

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/04