My main problem with the game is that it gets too tedious and there are plenty of areas where the designers could have improved upon the structure. There’s an early mission in the Russian campaign where you have to defend an engineer as he defends the tank. After he finishes the repairs you need to hop into the tank where you’re then required to maneuver through a German-filled town finally happening upon a friendly outpost which you have to defend. I didn’t mind the mission too much but it’s incredibly hard on the first couple of run-throughs and considering that there aren’t any checkpoints, it becomes frustratingly difficult. Later missions have checkpoints but I feel that they’re spaced out improperly. They should come in the various stages of a massive firefight, not afterwards when the battle is already over. There’s also a problem with the actual structure of the game as well. Players spend far too much time in the confines of a tank and not enough time on the ground. It should also be noted that the tank missions are the weakest of the bunch and generally slow down the game just as it begins to build up momentum.
You’ll have access to a wide assortment of real-world time-specific weapons including the MP40, the Springfield rifle, the M3A1 and the M1 Garand. Each weapon operates in a realistic manner and exhibits a satisfying amount of recoil upon firing. As is the case in the PC game, you can fire from the hip or from the sights. Bringing the weapon up to eye level will cause you to move slower as a tradeoff for better accuracy. I found that system works exceptionally well as it provided you with a better aiming mechanism at the expense of mobility. In addition, you’ll also have to deal with a large muzzle flash that will obscure your view from time-to-time. It might be bothersome but it actually makes sense considering that you
are bringing the sights up to your eyes. You’ll also be able to utilize the three stance system introduced in the original CoD. When upright, you’ll be most mobile but your aim will suffer the most. There’s a crouch which allows you to remain semi-mobile while retaining a good amount of accuracy. Last is the prone position where you lie down on the ground. It’s the least mobile but you’ll have the most amount of accuracy while turning yourself into a harder target. Finding when and where to use each stance plays a crucial role in your success and overall survival rate.
If you’re trying to put a number on the amount of time you’ll spend with the game, I’d say it’s around the neighborhood of 10 to 12 hours for the single-player campaign. Since the game is cordoned off into three shorter campaigns as opposed to one long one, the game essentially tricks your mind into believing that the game is much shorter than it really is. It took me about three hours to pass the first Russian campaign and I was ready to call the game short before I realized that I was less than a third of the way through the game. Keep in mind that the game has a pretty well-developed online portion and you’re looking in the neighborhood of at least 14 or 15 hours. That’s pretty long for a first person shooter, especially when most are clocking in at about seven or eight hours.
I’ve always said that the only way to play a first person shooter is with a keyboard and mouse setup. It’s quick, responsive and allows you to be as precise as your wrists will allow. Developers have had a difficult time recreating this feel for the consoles, often leading to controls that are slippery and hard to manage. Finest Hour tries to remedy this problem by instilling a slower operating system that makes it easier to aim, but is very sluggish overall. Walking and strafing just never feels natural and there’s a slight lag time between the moment that you turn the right analog stick and the actual moment that you turn. On the upside this makes it much easier to aim because the system moves much slower. It takes a bit of getting used to but I’m actually convinced that this is one of the best control schemes available for a console shooter. Other people may reference HALO 2 in this scenario but they’ll have to remember that HALO 2 has a heavy aiming assist system that essentially tracks targets that come near the crosshairs. Finest Hour doesn’t feature such a system and requires gamers to hit the actual target, not just the nearby vicinity.
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