Making it the Finest Hour!
How should I put this…..the boys over at Spark Unlimited for their first ever developed game honestly didn’t do too bad. The game is challenging, to say the least, even on the medium difficulty of which I played it on. This Playstation 2 title (played on a Playstation 3) delivers good graphics, good sound and some nice tight gun control that reminds me of trying to steer a vehicle with no power steering. The game does a good job to keep from dragging everything down and keeping it a snooze fest. You get to play as the Russians, British and then finishing it off with the Americans leaving you no time to honestly get invested in a character. It throws in some nice tank missions and even some escort missions during the end. Ugh escort missions something that they couldn’t even get right with this game.
Please keep in mind that this game did drop back in 2004. By those standards the graphics are exceptionally well produced. The opening cinematic does a great job getting you into the game and ready to play. Between campaigns you are greeted with some nice historical footage that a true history buff would enjoy. I will have to say that the death animations though could use more work but it can be overlooked and sometimes out right hilarious. There were few glitches of bodies being thrown up and getting stuck on building walls…..or the most annoying one of getting smacked in the head by a German soldier through a wall. OUCH! Only notice once that the game got a bit herky jerky trying to maintain that frame rate during the British missions. It wasn’t until later, on the American missions, that the lack of difference between a death animation and wounded animation started to show its ugly head.
The sound is ok to say the least. Had a good musical score but to be honest your too busy playing to notice the music in the game. The explosions sound fairly authentic keeping you nervous as each one explodes, especially when it slows you down. The guns could have used a bit more differentiation but that isn’t any reason to turn completely away from this game. The one sound that was annoying was the sound of grenades. Without an indicator you had no clue where it landed or where you needed to run. As soon as I heard the grenade hit, I would curse and scream and usually run right into it. Dammit!
During the story you play as multiple characters. Probably the only one I felt a connection to is the sniper chick. Yea yea don’t go giving me that look I know it’s probably only because it is a girl. Maybe. At the outset of the game you are playing as the Russians and your character his handed a single clip. If you expect this game to be filled with tons of drama based on that, don’t. The game begins to focus more on the gameplay and the gritty gunplay. Though with this gunplay you have your choices; leave the movement speed as if you’re driving a John Deere tractor, or throwing your best friend in a tire down the side of K2. At least when it comes to the tanks that feels a little bit better and not so forceful on the controls.
The game over all is a fun experience. You get a chance to live multiple lives during this game seeing a different perspective of the allies as you play through it. My only major complaint is the infinite spawns and the god awful panzerschreks during the American missions. I mean really who in their right mind would face you off against the entire German panzerschrek machine at the end that do more damage in 2 shots then a nuclear missile can do to an entire city with one bomb. I mean are you freaking kidding me!? With that said the game is challenging, especially near the end, but not worth missing. If only it had local multiplayer. With its few misgivings some are hard to overlook I'll rate this game a 7.5 out of 10.