yea its just ok.
It's REALLY good
This review contains spoilers
This game falls short of what it's predesessor has done.
The Story is that you follow a number of different soldiers as they fight through battles during World War 2. Same concept as the first game, but with moments of other protagonists sometimes appearing to another one, and this game didn't need to do any different than what it did.
The Characters are better than the last game, perticularly in the protagonists. They give you their backstory before the first level that you play as them for, and it's good to see different types of personalities fighting the same war. The downside is that most of the characters you don't play as are as bland as the first game. The only exceptions for me was the soldier that you follow in the very first mission of the game, he was good for what little time he had, but nothing great.
The Graphics are worse than the first game. It's slightly more pixelated, and less slightly less detailed, especially the character models. Also why do some soldiers give tasks to ones with a higher rank than them?
The Gameplay has you first person shooting, across World War 2 battles. This is the same type of great gameplay from the first game, with some changes, and some ingame cutscenes to try and give more to the characters despite what little there is. But nearly all of the changes added to this game are for the worse. Like there is no timer now on the bombs. Destroyed vehicles disappear from the scene. The Checkpoints suck. Your allies don't show up on your compass. The Friendly AI isn't as good as the first game's. The Enemy AI is awful in some moments. The props on the screen "including the red X that tells you when you hit an enemy" all feel to cartoony for a serious toned war game. Although I like the idea of using medic kits on fellow soldiers, it's pointless when the soldiers you care about the most will live regardless, leaving only the ones that have no lines to be helped. Even the final minute of the campaign where the last enemies are above a ladder that you can't get to without being shot up, having to fight off stukas without warning, and not being warned which direction the they are coming from doesn't work gameplay wise when they could come from any direction this time. The Multiplayer is mostly the same as the first game's, but with the same problems as the campaign gameplay, and I don't like why the text saying who killed and has been killed is now near the middle of the screen instead of off to the side.
The Music is the best thing in the game. It's not as awesome as the first game's, but it is still of similar quality. Michael Giacchino really puts his effort into even side adventures that a lot of people wouldn't even see. But the sound effects of some of the guns don't have the same shocking impact of the first game.
Call of Duty: Finest Hour is not a Finest Hour to it's predesessor.
The Story is that you follow a number of different soldiers as they fight through battles during World War 2. Same concept as the first game, but with moments of other protagonists sometimes appearing to another one, and this game didn't need to do any different than what it did.
The Characters are better than the last game, perticularly in the protagonists. They give you their backstory before the first level that you play as them for, and it's good to see different types of personalities fighting the same war. The downside is that most of the characters you don't play as are as bland as the first game. The only exceptions for me was the soldier that you follow in the very first mission of the game, he was good for what little time he had, but nothing great.
The Graphics are worse than the first game. It's slightly more pixelated, and less slightly less detailed, especially the character models. Also why do some soldiers give tasks to ones with a higher rank than them?
The Gameplay has you first person shooting, across World War 2 battles. This is the same type of great gameplay from the first game, with some changes, and some ingame cutscenes to try and give more to the characters despite what little there is. But nearly all of the changes added to this game are for the worse. Like there is no timer now on the bombs. Destroyed vehicles disappear from the scene. The Checkpoints suck. Your allies don't show up on your compass. The Friendly AI isn't as good as the first game's. The Enemy AI is awful in some moments. The props on the screen "including the red X that tells you when you hit an enemy" all feel to cartoony for a serious toned war game. Although I like the idea of using medic kits on fellow soldiers, it's pointless when the soldiers you care about the most will live regardless, leaving only the ones that have no lines to be helped. Even the final minute of the campaign where the last enemies are above a ladder that you can't get to without being shot up, having to fight off stukas without warning, and not being warned which direction the they are coming from doesn't work gameplay wise when they could come from any direction this time. The Multiplayer is mostly the same as the first game's, but with the same problems as the campaign gameplay, and I don't like why the text saying who killed and has been killed is now near the middle of the screen instead of off to the side.
The Music is the best thing in the game. It's not as awesome as the first game's, but it is still of similar quality. Michael Giacchino really puts his effort into even side adventures that a lot of people wouldn't even see. But the sound effects of some of the guns don't have the same shocking impact of the first game.
Call of Duty: Finest Hour is not a Finest Hour to it's predesessor.
its aight
Mad How big Call of Duty got starting with this gunplay? It's considerably worse than Doom Wolfenstein Quake from around the same time period. Gunplay-wise, and the slow-motion effects were plain aggravating. Additionally, the game likes to be so fucking dark that it's hard to see where to go. Did all the achievements for this on retro achievements was very easy, however this is just not a decent game in terms of gunplay or design.
Discussing Call of Duty: Finest Hour is frustrating... and bizzare. It's gunplay is a weird hybrid of old school FPS and modern FPS. It looks great and sounds even better, but suffers from some severe jank at times. It's a game that presents WW2 in a captivating fashion, but it's terrible AI and poor scripting frequently take you out of the experience.
Call of Duty: Finest Hour is the "console" version of the original CoD. It's a product of a bygone era when consoles received unique versions of PC exclusives. It's an era I miss, simply because we got to see games shape themselves to suit the unique home console experience. It's a philosophy that would be seem outdated today, but it is something I appreciate looking back on. There was more misses then hits, and a hell of a lot of "in-betweens".
Finest Hour therefore finds itself in this spot. Visually speaking, this is still a good looking game nearly 20 years later. But you have to unearth this game from it's dark default state to actually appreciate what you're seeing.
Compared to the PC original, Spark Unlimited seems to have opted for a more Hollywood approach to it's story telling. Every act is bookended with a documentary style video, and between levels we're introduced to soliders that give their lifestory before we're thrusted into action. Sometimes before that starts, you're treated to an in-game cutscene. Facial animations and voice acting here are impressive, at times. But the soundtrack is even better. Giacchino's score outshines the game, adding some much needed gravitas to the what-would-be duller moments. It features an equal mixture of harrowing and bombastic composition. The final level, in particular has a standout track. With such nice presentation, I found myself getting into the story a bit at times. But that was short lived.
People can act stupid. Very stupid at times. But if you're in a World War of all things, my wager is that you'd be sharp. In Finest Hour, you're encouraged to work with your AI buddies (or inferiors, depending on your ranking), but they are dumb. The privates you have with you swing into battle like their invincible bullet sponges and get themselves gunned down. Tough luck, because they're the only people that can shoot at the enemy and deal some damage. Meanwhile, as you're in the midst of that 10-20 enemy ambush, you can witness your Cpl. melee fighting an enemy while getting shot at by 5 of them. Or how about you wanna move up the stairs but Cpl. Forgettable is blocking the way? Get ready to melee punch him 5-10 times so he can get back to his well-assigned pathing. Sometimes he may even forget he's supposed to follow you, in which cases he conviniently despawns and spawns right behind you. The enemies can do that sometimes as well. Whomever it may be, their pathing will be certainely well-assigned, because they are only going that way. Enemies be damned.
You do the same? Well then on Hard difficulty you're gunned down in seconds. My recommendation: Play this thing on Normal. Or at the very least, play it on Hard until you realise how broken the game can be, and then play on Normal so it feels like Easy. I played it on Hard however, it was at parts challenging but a lot of time was spent figuring how to progress so I could stand back and watch the AI kill a bunch of enemies for me. If you looked at my gameplay, you'd be wondering if I was playing a homebrew of Arma on the PS2. Well, my cautioun is really due to the terrible balance in this game. Checkpoints are sparse, with only one per level (only one level has 2), so get ready for major backtracking so you can experience the terrible gunplay on display since Sgt. Dehart wanted to go Rambo and ultimately found himself killed. Again, and again.
The guns here control weird, despite feeling unqiue from one another. Not that it matters, as I was fighting the unreliable lock on and awfully slow camera to actually land my shots. That's not to mention the weird scopes. Like the sniper rifle, which could fit like 5 heads onto it's one reticle. I found myself disappointed with these tiny things, because they seem like simple things that could be improved upon. But when you top this all off unreliable hit markers too, I was just left annoyed. This lack of polish to gunplay is Finest Hour's achilles heel, and is what is holding it back from being a truly good game.
Call of Duty: Finest Hour is fine. You're gonna be done with it in 6-9 hours. I enjoyed my time with it, when it actually was working. The thing that sucks though, is that there is a lot of potential here. When I started the Soviet campaign and was greeted with what looks like the Gates of Hell, I was excited to see what I was in store for. But instead, the terrible controls and AI really made it all come crashing down. This could've been CoD's Finest Hour, if it spent a little more time in bootcamp. I give this game a very cautious reccomendation, if you can deal with the negatives.
Call of Duty: Finest Hour is the "console" version of the original CoD. It's a product of a bygone era when consoles received unique versions of PC exclusives. It's an era I miss, simply because we got to see games shape themselves to suit the unique home console experience. It's a philosophy that would be seem outdated today, but it is something I appreciate looking back on. There was more misses then hits, and a hell of a lot of "in-betweens".
Finest Hour therefore finds itself in this spot. Visually speaking, this is still a good looking game nearly 20 years later. But you have to unearth this game from it's dark default state to actually appreciate what you're seeing.
Compared to the PC original, Spark Unlimited seems to have opted for a more Hollywood approach to it's story telling. Every act is bookended with a documentary style video, and between levels we're introduced to soliders that give their lifestory before we're thrusted into action. Sometimes before that starts, you're treated to an in-game cutscene. Facial animations and voice acting here are impressive, at times. But the soundtrack is even better. Giacchino's score outshines the game, adding some much needed gravitas to the what-would-be duller moments. It features an equal mixture of harrowing and bombastic composition. The final level, in particular has a standout track. With such nice presentation, I found myself getting into the story a bit at times. But that was short lived.
People can act stupid. Very stupid at times. But if you're in a World War of all things, my wager is that you'd be sharp. In Finest Hour, you're encouraged to work with your AI buddies (or inferiors, depending on your ranking), but they are dumb. The privates you have with you swing into battle like their invincible bullet sponges and get themselves gunned down. Tough luck, because they're the only people that can shoot at the enemy and deal some damage. Meanwhile, as you're in the midst of that 10-20 enemy ambush, you can witness your Cpl. melee fighting an enemy while getting shot at by 5 of them. Or how about you wanna move up the stairs but Cpl. Forgettable is blocking the way? Get ready to melee punch him 5-10 times so he can get back to his well-assigned pathing. Sometimes he may even forget he's supposed to follow you, in which cases he conviniently despawns and spawns right behind you. The enemies can do that sometimes as well. Whomever it may be, their pathing will be certainely well-assigned, because they are only going that way. Enemies be damned.
You do the same? Well then on Hard difficulty you're gunned down in seconds. My recommendation: Play this thing on Normal. Or at the very least, play it on Hard until you realise how broken the game can be, and then play on Normal so it feels like Easy. I played it on Hard however, it was at parts challenging but a lot of time was spent figuring how to progress so I could stand back and watch the AI kill a bunch of enemies for me. If you looked at my gameplay, you'd be wondering if I was playing a homebrew of Arma on the PS2. Well, my cautioun is really due to the terrible balance in this game. Checkpoints are sparse, with only one per level (only one level has 2), so get ready for major backtracking so you can experience the terrible gunplay on display since Sgt. Dehart wanted to go Rambo and ultimately found himself killed. Again, and again.
The guns here control weird, despite feeling unqiue from one another. Not that it matters, as I was fighting the unreliable lock on and awfully slow camera to actually land my shots. That's not to mention the weird scopes. Like the sniper rifle, which could fit like 5 heads onto it's one reticle. I found myself disappointed with these tiny things, because they seem like simple things that could be improved upon. But when you top this all off unreliable hit markers too, I was just left annoyed. This lack of polish to gunplay is Finest Hour's achilles heel, and is what is holding it back from being a truly good game.
Call of Duty: Finest Hour is fine. You're gonna be done with it in 6-9 hours. I enjoyed my time with it, when it actually was working. The thing that sucks though, is that there is a lot of potential here. When I started the Soviet campaign and was greeted with what looks like the Gates of Hell, I was excited to see what I was in store for. But instead, the terrible controls and AI really made it all come crashing down. This could've been CoD's Finest Hour, if it spent a little more time in bootcamp. I give this game a very cautious reccomendation, if you can deal with the negatives.
Mano vai tomar no cu, que jogo ruim do caralho.
„Dieser Bär ist niedlich.“
Nach dem exzellenten ersten PC-Teil samt Add-on enttäuscht dieses Konsolen-Spin-off beinahe auf ganzer Linie.
Zugegeben, grafisch ist dieses Spiel eine Wucht für die damalige Konsolengeneration und dazu relativ vielseitig, besonders weil auch nicht einfach alles vom Vorgänger übernommen wurde. Man spielt alle paar Missionen einen anderen Protagonisten, analog zu den oben genannten Ablegern mal im Panzer, an der Flak, normal zu Fuß oder mit dem MG ballernd auf einem Jeep.
Warum also die niedrige Wertung? Das liegt an der Mischung aus brutal schwerem Gameplay, schlichtweg unfairem sowie teils verwirrendem Leveldesign und einer grausigen Controller-Steuerung. Dazu kommt die strunzdumme KI der Kameraden – wenn man gerade in Deckung verharrt, wird man sehr oft von den eigenen Leuten zur Seite weggedrängt, mitten in die Schussbahn hinein. Generell stehen sie meist im Weg herum, sodass man nicht abdrücken kann, um Friendly Fire zu vermeiden. Die Feinde schießen dabei einfach durch Personen oder gerne mal Häuserecken hindurch.
Schlimm wären diese Probleme ja nicht wirklich, wenn das Spiel denn genug Heilungsmöglichkeiten bieten würde. Leider ist man schon bei wenigen Schüssen tot und kann höchstens 4 Gesundheitspacks mitnehmen, von denen in manchen Leveln einfach mal lange Zeit gar keine zu finden sind, während man in anderen Missionen damit zugespammt wird. Apropos Spam, selbstverständlich rücken immer wieder neue gegnerische Trupps an, die anscheinend aus dem Nichts von Richtungen kommen, die man schon komplett ausgeräumt hat.
Etwa zweimal im Spiel bekommt man ein Scharfschützengewehr in die Hand, bei dem mir das Zielen trotz der viel zu ungenauen Stick-Steuerung sehr viel Spaß macht. Das war’s dann aber schon, denn alle restlichen Gegenden sind auf so perfide und sadistische Weise gestaltet, dass man auf ewig lange Entfernung MG-Schützen und haufenweise andere Gegner ohne eine solche Waffe ausschalten muss. Es ist die pure Hölle, beim Controller-Zielen Millimeterarbeit zu verrichten, während man von allen Seiten beschossen wird und Angst haben muss, von hinten ebenfalls überrascht zu werden. Diese Karten sind allesamt so gestaltet, dass man frustriert wird, denn Gegner hört man über den Kampflärm nicht auf sich zukommen und ansonsten sind sie irgendwo weit weg in Deckung und ballern kontinuierlich drauflos.
Habe ich schon erwähnt, dass man nicht speichern kann und stattdessen auf automatische Speicherpunkte angewiesen ist, von denen es nur etwa 2 oder keine pro Mission gibt? Ja, bei jedem Tod muss man fast das ganze 30- bis 60-minütige Level erneut spielen. Die Zielhilfe, die standardmäßig in den Einstellungen aktiv ist, macht übrigens absolut nichts. Ohne Savestates im Emulator wäre ich locker 10 Stunden länger an diesem Scheißspiel gesessen, aber wenigstens die Panzerlevel waren fair und spaßig.
Die GameCube-Version ist einer der anspruchsvollen Titel der Konsole, soweit ich das recherchiert habe. Das merkt man leider an Framedrops in einigen Bereichen, dazu sieht man auch kaum etwas um den Spieler herum, denn das Fiel of View ist für meinen Geschmack viel zu nah eingestellt. Dank Emulatoroptimierungen wurde aus dem Ruckelfest dann doch eine Erfahrung zwischen 30 und 50 FPS, was ich als generell spielbar bezeichnen würde.
Wer auf viel zu lange Level, Frustration, unsichtbare Wände, brutal unfaire Schwierigkeit und unterdurchschnittliche Steuerung steht, darf sich das Spiel gerne besorgen. Alle normalen Menschen sollten einen großen Bogen darum machen.
Das ist übrigens mein zweiter COD-Teil.
Gespielte Fassung: GameCube-Version mit deutscher Synchro
Nach dem exzellenten ersten PC-Teil samt Add-on enttäuscht dieses Konsolen-Spin-off beinahe auf ganzer Linie.
Zugegeben, grafisch ist dieses Spiel eine Wucht für die damalige Konsolengeneration und dazu relativ vielseitig, besonders weil auch nicht einfach alles vom Vorgänger übernommen wurde. Man spielt alle paar Missionen einen anderen Protagonisten, analog zu den oben genannten Ablegern mal im Panzer, an der Flak, normal zu Fuß oder mit dem MG ballernd auf einem Jeep.
Warum also die niedrige Wertung? Das liegt an der Mischung aus brutal schwerem Gameplay, schlichtweg unfairem sowie teils verwirrendem Leveldesign und einer grausigen Controller-Steuerung. Dazu kommt die strunzdumme KI der Kameraden – wenn man gerade in Deckung verharrt, wird man sehr oft von den eigenen Leuten zur Seite weggedrängt, mitten in die Schussbahn hinein. Generell stehen sie meist im Weg herum, sodass man nicht abdrücken kann, um Friendly Fire zu vermeiden. Die Feinde schießen dabei einfach durch Personen oder gerne mal Häuserecken hindurch.
Schlimm wären diese Probleme ja nicht wirklich, wenn das Spiel denn genug Heilungsmöglichkeiten bieten würde. Leider ist man schon bei wenigen Schüssen tot und kann höchstens 4 Gesundheitspacks mitnehmen, von denen in manchen Leveln einfach mal lange Zeit gar keine zu finden sind, während man in anderen Missionen damit zugespammt wird. Apropos Spam, selbstverständlich rücken immer wieder neue gegnerische Trupps an, die anscheinend aus dem Nichts von Richtungen kommen, die man schon komplett ausgeräumt hat.
Etwa zweimal im Spiel bekommt man ein Scharfschützengewehr in die Hand, bei dem mir das Zielen trotz der viel zu ungenauen Stick-Steuerung sehr viel Spaß macht. Das war’s dann aber schon, denn alle restlichen Gegenden sind auf so perfide und sadistische Weise gestaltet, dass man auf ewig lange Entfernung MG-Schützen und haufenweise andere Gegner ohne eine solche Waffe ausschalten muss. Es ist die pure Hölle, beim Controller-Zielen Millimeterarbeit zu verrichten, während man von allen Seiten beschossen wird und Angst haben muss, von hinten ebenfalls überrascht zu werden. Diese Karten sind allesamt so gestaltet, dass man frustriert wird, denn Gegner hört man über den Kampflärm nicht auf sich zukommen und ansonsten sind sie irgendwo weit weg in Deckung und ballern kontinuierlich drauflos.
Habe ich schon erwähnt, dass man nicht speichern kann und stattdessen auf automatische Speicherpunkte angewiesen ist, von denen es nur etwa 2 oder keine pro Mission gibt? Ja, bei jedem Tod muss man fast das ganze 30- bis 60-minütige Level erneut spielen. Die Zielhilfe, die standardmäßig in den Einstellungen aktiv ist, macht übrigens absolut nichts. Ohne Savestates im Emulator wäre ich locker 10 Stunden länger an diesem Scheißspiel gesessen, aber wenigstens die Panzerlevel waren fair und spaßig.
Die GameCube-Version ist einer der anspruchsvollen Titel der Konsole, soweit ich das recherchiert habe. Das merkt man leider an Framedrops in einigen Bereichen, dazu sieht man auch kaum etwas um den Spieler herum, denn das Fiel of View ist für meinen Geschmack viel zu nah eingestellt. Dank Emulatoroptimierungen wurde aus dem Ruckelfest dann doch eine Erfahrung zwischen 30 und 50 FPS, was ich als generell spielbar bezeichnen würde.
Wer auf viel zu lange Level, Frustration, unsichtbare Wände, brutal unfaire Schwierigkeit und unterdurchschnittliche Steuerung steht, darf sich das Spiel gerne besorgen. Alle normalen Menschen sollten einen großen Bogen darum machen.
Das ist übrigens mein zweiter COD-Teil.
Gespielte Fassung: GameCube-Version mit deutscher Synchro
At first time looks like a standart port of COD 1 or 2, but Developers did a great job. This is not a standart PS2 port of COD. You can chose paths and play custom. Great work but its difficult. Developers made difficult this game so you can spend more hours and checkpoints are far beyond compared titles released in 2004. Give a try, you will like it.
Some of the cinematic scenes they stole from the PC version are reasonably ambitious for its day, but when you look at the AI, animation, movement and remember that Halo 2 came out the same year, it's harder to be so generous.
Let's get the only good parts out of the way: The Rhine crossing mission rules conceptually and mechanically, and its theme is the cherry on a generally strong score. Unlike its PC brethren, it does make an old college try at writing dialogue intent on character development. Even though the writing overall is worse than its predecessor, it does make the missions feel a little higher stakes and a little more lived in. But that's about all I can say.
The in-engine scenes just do not have the same choreography and composition of its source material. Not to mention, the original has such variety — trench warfare, espionage and infil, daring escapes, sieges. Meanwhile you spend probably 85% of Finest Hour in crumbling buildings or city streets. The North African stretch is a nice touch, but where are the fields? The villages? The snowy forests? At least we have plenty of underground tunnels!
Truly horrible character mobility. The look system has a screwy and floaty dead zone, quite unlike its contemporary console/analog stick FPS cousins, and it feels like you're walking through a swamp. Not to mention getting glued in place if you're being shredded by a buzzsaw MG42 or within 20 feet of a grenade.
The gunplay is where things get really rotten, though. Often I'd have an enemy dead in my iron sights 10 feet away and still miss. Good luck if you need to murk a sniper and you ran out of anything but MP40 ammo. I get it if you want guns to be less accurate to feel more realistic, but if you're going to design a game around that concept, you should probably not also require enemies to take 5-8 bullets to the head before they die on EASY difficulty. I truly couldn't believe how grueling the endgame was. I will say the tank movement and shooting feels relatively fine, but like almost all tank combat in gaming, it is too sluggish and imprecise to really be that exciting. And there is a LOT of tank combat here.
More than a few times, the mission trigger didn't pop and I got stuck, which meant I had to go back to the previous awfully designed checkpoint and often lose like 10-15 minutes of progress. Who designed this? CoD PC is a brutal game, but it at least acknowledges itself and gives you quicksaves and fairly frequent checkpoints.
I'm a big fan of the series and the early PC games had a cinematic quality that make them the definitive WW2 sim experience for their day. But this, this is just cash-in garbage farmed out to a team that either misconstrued or was technologically incapable to deliver what worked so well about the original.
Let's get the only good parts out of the way: The Rhine crossing mission rules conceptually and mechanically, and its theme is the cherry on a generally strong score. Unlike its PC brethren, it does make an old college try at writing dialogue intent on character development. Even though the writing overall is worse than its predecessor, it does make the missions feel a little higher stakes and a little more lived in. But that's about all I can say.
The in-engine scenes just do not have the same choreography and composition of its source material. Not to mention, the original has such variety — trench warfare, espionage and infil, daring escapes, sieges. Meanwhile you spend probably 85% of Finest Hour in crumbling buildings or city streets. The North African stretch is a nice touch, but where are the fields? The villages? The snowy forests? At least we have plenty of underground tunnels!
Truly horrible character mobility. The look system has a screwy and floaty dead zone, quite unlike its contemporary console/analog stick FPS cousins, and it feels like you're walking through a swamp. Not to mention getting glued in place if you're being shredded by a buzzsaw MG42 or within 20 feet of a grenade.
The gunplay is where things get really rotten, though. Often I'd have an enemy dead in my iron sights 10 feet away and still miss. Good luck if you need to murk a sniper and you ran out of anything but MP40 ammo. I get it if you want guns to be less accurate to feel more realistic, but if you're going to design a game around that concept, you should probably not also require enemies to take 5-8 bullets to the head before they die on EASY difficulty. I truly couldn't believe how grueling the endgame was. I will say the tank movement and shooting feels relatively fine, but like almost all tank combat in gaming, it is too sluggish and imprecise to really be that exciting. And there is a LOT of tank combat here.
More than a few times, the mission trigger didn't pop and I got stuck, which meant I had to go back to the previous awfully designed checkpoint and often lose like 10-15 minutes of progress. Who designed this? CoD PC is a brutal game, but it at least acknowledges itself and gives you quicksaves and fairly frequent checkpoints.
I'm a big fan of the series and the early PC games had a cinematic quality that make them the definitive WW2 sim experience for their day. But this, this is just cash-in garbage farmed out to a team that either misconstrued or was technologically incapable to deliver what worked so well about the original.
100% on RetroAchievements - Played on PS2 Emulator