Hour of Victory

Overview

Hour of Victory is a World War II first-person shooter. According to the manual, the Allies have discovered that the Germans are in the process of developing an atomic weapon, which could skew the balance of the War in Germany's favor. The Allies put together a small team of elite soldiers in an attempt to ferret out information about the secret program and put a stop to it.

The game takes players to a variety of locales where players rescue a German scientist and enlist his help to destroy the nuke at the end of the game.

Characters

The player's team consists of the three following soldiers: Ambrose Taggert, William Ross, and Calvin "Bull" Blackbull. However, players can only choose to play as one of these characters.

Taggert

Taggert is the game's covert operative. The manual states that he can move silently and hide in special areas around the map.

However, his weapon load-out belies his nature, given that two of his three weapons cannot be used covertly - a Sten gun and grenades. Taggert can make stealth kills, but he must use the small quantity of throwing knives he's given at the beginning of each level - when he runs out of knives he can no longer perform stealth kills.

Taggert can also cut through wire fences located around each map, although he can always walk around the building and go in the front door instead.

According to the manual - "He speaks directly and means what he says. His voice has a distinctive determined tone that reflects his seriousness and resolution".

Ross

Ross is labeled as a Commando. He can take far more damage than the other two characters and can lift heavy objects in order to clear a path.

According to the manual - "Confident, unexcitable and a bit cynical, Lt. Ross is famous for cracking understated ironies".

Blackbull

Blackbull is a sniper who has relatively low health and slower movement than a typical soldier character. Blackbull also has the ability to scale certain walls.

According to the manual - "Sgt. Blackbull is as tough as his leathery skin".

Gameplay

Eschewing the traditional health system, the game features regenerating health, but you must remain still. The process takes roughly ten seconds, and if you nudge your stick in any direction while it's happening, regeneration stops and players must wait again for it to resume.

Stars point to the next objective in the current mission on the minimap, and enemy soldiers show up as red dots.

As well as regular on-foot missions, Hour of Victory also includes levels built around tank combat.