Call of Duty: Finest Hour (Sony PlayStation 2, 2004)

Reviewed for Big Boss Games by: L.E.G.

As a lover and avid player of FPS (First Person Shooter) type games, I am probably one of the toughest critics and a game must satisfy all my criteria for me to give it a 5/5 rating. Without any doubts, Call of Duty Finest Hour has successfully accomplished this lofty goal.

To start with, Call of Duty Finest Hour is entirely based on events that happened during World War II. But, ActiVision took on a bigger role than just making a video game and actually tries and succeeds in teaching us a brief history lesson. Granted it's very short and concise, but it helps to setup the game and it's many diverse and challenging levels.

You start out playing as a member of the Russian Army fighting with your comrades on the Eastern Front, from the Volga to Stalingrad. The missions can be somewhat difficult to finish, but the squad leader does give you instructions (just as if you were in the army) on what you need to do or where you need to go. "Blow up that building" and "Take out those machine guns" are typical fare. And most of the time you are a member of a "squad", so don't try to be all "Rambo" and try to defeat the Germans all by yourself. You will get slaughtered!

After you complete your mission(s) as one person, you are then placed in someone else’s shoes and get to fight the war from their perspective. Which also opens you up to using different weapons and driving around in tanks. But, this is not Grand Theft Auto. You can't go around and jump in vehicles and take off. Your tour of duty on the Eastern Front with the Russians takes a total of 8 sometimes-grueling missions. At least the game is very forgiving and lets you restart the mission at the last checkpoint.

After the Eastern Front, you are whisked off to North Africa to serve with the British Army in Tunisia. All of the buildings and backgrounds used in this game are simply amazing. There is a lot of rich and articulate detail to keep your attention. You will serve a total of 4 missions with the bulldogs. More neat weapons used by the Brits and a lot of blowing stuff up in these levels. G-D Save the Queen!

And last, but not least, you go to the Western Front to fight with the American Army. As in previous levels, you get more awesome weapons to shoot and tanks to drive. Some of the toughest battles will be fought with the Americans. A total of 7 missions await your shooting skills.

Call of Duty Finest Hour by ActiVision is available for the Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube. It is rated "T" for Teen and contains a ton of blood and a whole lot of violence. Since this game is based on World War II, blood and violence is to be expected. Total missions are 19 and 23 different weapons.

This game is Single Player only, but does offer multiplayer online broadband only and 2-16 players. Online gametypes are: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag and Search & Destroy.
Overall, this game was as close to perfect as they can get with very few technical glitches. Like one time I was crawling around on the floor and trying to climb a flight of stairs and my character just fell through some empty space to his terrible death.

This game was just so well balanced between missions, story, music and action that I had to give it a 5/5.

It's really an awesome game, so go ahead and get a copy.

In my opinion, this is one of the best call of Duty games in the series, exept for the newest ones..... this item is old, so its very affordable, but it has great gameplay and onlinbe games, with four different games online including CAPTURE THE FLAG, SEARCH AND DESTROY, TEAM DEATHMATCH AND DEATHMATCH and you get to be a GERMAN, RUSSIAN, AMERICAN, OR BRITISH ONLINE! WITH EACH OF THE NATIONALITIES YOU GET TO CHOOSE FROM 4 GUNS, WITH A FEW CURVEBALLS THROWN IN THAT YOU CAN FIND ON THE MAP . You can also buy a headset to talk to others online anywhere in the world! I ALREADY HAD ONE OF THESE GAMES AND IT WAS SO MUCH FUN TO PLAY ONLINE THAT ME AND MY FRIEND DECIDED TO BUY A WHOLE NOTHER PS2, ANOTHER MICROPHONE AND ANOTHER DISC, JUST SO WE COULD PLAY AT THE SAME TIME.

THE STORY MODE IS GREAT ALSO, THE BEGGINING SPEECH IS VERY POWERFUL AND IT ALMOST SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE THERE!!!!!

FOR ITS TIME, I GIVE THIS GAME A DEFINATE ******(6) OUT OF *****(5) STARS!!!!

nice smooth game play good sound. life like dont need a lot of bullets to kill a nazi, this was my first call of duty game and its a keeper.

It was a gift for someone. I have never played it, but he likes shooter games so I got it for him. He has had other Call of Duty games that he likes and hopefully he will like this one as well. I have never played it so I do not know much about it.

I loved the game play of this game! The realism of this game is super intense. The battles feel real with every corner you turn. Also, you will not be bored easily. You will always be encountering Germans left and right. The best part about this game is that you get to experince World War II from three different points of view, The Russians, The British, and of course the Americans. This is one of the best World War II game's that I have ever played so this is why I give this game a 5/5!