Since its
successful launch, Microsoft’s white box has welcomed the World War II shooter
with open arms with titles like Call of Duty 2 and even The Outfit
and we can come to expect more in the near future. Now Midway has jumped into
the familiar WWII first-person shooter territory with Hour of Victory for
the Xbox 360, a seriously flawed and dated first-person shooter with very little
to offer. Yeah, it’s that bad.
As a loyal fan
of the first-person shooter genre, I accepted the tired World War II theme and
even loved the idea that you can pick from three very different characters that
possess their own specialty. It’s like yanking out three characters straight out
of The Dirty Dozen. The story centers on the European and African
theatres as word has it that the Germans are attempting to develop an atomic
weapon and it’s up to the Allied forces to put an end to it before Hitler’s war
machine succeeds. So answering the call are three specialists who will journey
from the Bavarian Alps to North Africa and finally Berlin.
Unlike most
World War II first-person shooters, you can pick from the three specialists at
the start of the game and switch them at every checkpoint (or after you get
killed). There’s Lieutenant William Ross of the British SAS, a true commando who
takes more damage and prefers to jump into the fray. Then there’s Major Ambrose
Taggert of the American OSS division, he’s an infiltration operative that
prefers stealth, can pick locks and moves more swiftly. Finally, there’s
Sergeant Calvin Blackbull who is a US Army Ranger sniper who specializes in long
jumps and making good use of his grappling hook.
While it may
sound cool that all three have their own specialty, these special “skills”
aren’t put to any interesting use. In fact, all you’ll really use is Taggert’s
ability to pick a lock and Blackbull’s use of his grappling hook to get to a
better sniper vantage point. Of the three, Ross is the powerful one who can take
a licking but not to the extent suggested in his profile. The truth is that none
of these skills are worth anything thanks to a number of bugs and other gameplay
glitches that are just too numerous and noticeable to ignore.
Here’s a preview
of the buggy gameplay you can come to expect from Hour of Victory:
Behind the wheel
of an Axis Tiger Tank, Taggert bulldozes his way across the line and, thanks to
some rather awkward vehicle controls, ends up in a ditch. Suddenly, the tank
begins to twitch is if it just came to life and finally the screen goes awash in
red. His sudden and confusing death just makes me scratch my head wondering what
exactly killed me.
Sergeant
Blackbull uses his grappling hook to get up on the roof of a building that will
give him the perfect view of an enemy gun emplacement. He raises his sniper
rifle, looking through the scope to get a good view of a German soldier’s head.
Squeezing off a shot I’m expecting to see my target drop dead but instead his
head tilts back as if my bullet hit him square in the temple but he shakes it
off and goes back firing rounds from his MG42 turret. Did his helmet deflect the
bullet? If that’s the case then why does the same thing happen again later in
the game with an enemy without a helmet?
Sometimes the
best strategy is to just come in with guns blazing and I take Ross out into the
open firing his submachine gun and tossing grenades. Instead of taking cover
behind, say, what is left of an old car, they take refuge behind a picket fence
… with their backs turned to you. It was like picking off German soldiers
trained by the Dumb & Dumber guys. What further proof that the enemy AI lacks a
brain? After I easily dispatched those soldiers, another group of Germans ran
out to avenge their fallen comrades only to be shot down by the last soldier too
eager to shoot at me.
I think you’re
getting the picture here and it is these things that play a huge role in Hour
of Victory’s many flaws. The controls are also a major pain and can be
unresponsive at times and that twitch I mentioned above can also apply to your
own character. You’ll die a lot in this game and many times you won’t know what
killed you. The game’s level design also gives the game its dated feel. Aside
from the fact that you get to control vehicles or man a flak gun, there’s very
little variety or objectives that haven’t been covered by other WWII shooters.
Even the online multiplayer mode feels tacked on and generic.
When it comes to
the game’s visuals, Hour of Victory isn’t even a gorgeous-looking game.
There are moments in the game when it does look good and tries to mimic those of
Call of Duty 2 but then again there are moments when the game just looks
like an excellent original Xbox game. Still, from afar, the character models
look pretty good and so do the backgrounds. The visual effects aren’t flashy but
they do the trick.
There’s also a
good soundtrack but mainly it’s a copy of what you would hear in most World War
II themed games. The music isn’t particularly moving but it plays nicely with
the action and the sounds effects do their job pretty well. There’s even some
decent voice acting and everyone sounds the way they should but there’s nothing
really special about the sound.
Unfortunately,
there are hardly any positive aspects to this fractured first-person shooter
that just isn’t able to do the action justice. If anything, Hour of Victory
feels unfinished and plagued with enough bugs to cripple the action in the
worst way. This game would have been acceptable on the original Xbox but in a
new generation that features stellar WWII games like the Call of Duty
series, Hour of Victory is an Xbox 360 game fans of the genre will want
to miss altogether.
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Gameplay: 4.9
There are
three different characters you can play and they supposedly have their own
unique attributes but somehow their skills just don’t set these worthless
characters apart. Sadly, the awful level design and controls filled with way too
many glitches make this a WWII first-person shooter that will just disappoint.
Graphics: 5.5
The graphics
don’t scream next-generation but at least there are some decent visual effects
and character models that don’t look so bad from afar. It’s when you’re looking
at somebody from a close distance that you’ll notice how bad the graphics look.
Sound: 6.5
When it comes
to the explosions and the gunfire, Hour of Victory does a decent job but
it’s not as exciting or as detailed as, say, Call of Duty 3. The voice
acting is also pretty decent and the music tries to sound pretty epic.
Difficulty:
Medium/Hard
The game is
challenging but not for all the right reasons thanks to some serious gameplay
glitches that will often find your character dying under some mysterious
circumstances like your tanks exploding for no reason after getting stuck in a
ditch. Also, why does it take half an ammo clip to take down an enemy?
Concept: 5.0
Taggert, Ross
and Blackbull have their own specialty but all three play alike either way.
There are vehicles to commandeer as well but all of this doesn’t work
whatsoever. It’s like Midway released the game before they even finished it.
There are also online multiplayer matches but they don’t add very much.
Multiplayer:
5.0
Up to 12
players can battle it out in a deathmatch and capture the flag-styled game modes
and, for the most part, it runs pretty smoothly. It’s just too bad that the bad
controls get in the way of the action, especially when it comes to the more
frantic game mode Devastation.
Overall: 4.9
There’s a game
somewhere among the bugs and glitches that make up Hour of Victory for
the Xbox 360 but you’ll never find it seeing as the entire experience feels
broken and rushed. This is actually too bad since there are some good ideas here
but they’re never implemented well and thus makes this a game you should avoid.
