Call of Duty: Finest Hour follows the trend set by games such as Medal of Honour as a first-person shooter set in World War Two. Within the game you can control both Allied and Soviet forces as you attempt to bring down the Third Reich, using a set of authentic weaponry and vehicles from the time. The game promises a realistic WW2 experience, but how well does it live up to that promise?

The game starts you off as a Soviet soldier and immediately throws you into the action in a scene not unlike the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. What will first strike you about the game is how much is happening all at once. You really are thrown into the thick of things right from the off – explosions and gunfire everywhere, soldiers shouting and screaming as they are gunned down by machine gun fire. Once you get used to the somewhat awkward controls (for Xbox at least – and the controls are particularly irritating for vehicles) you work your way through the missions, completing varied objectives and gunning down Nazi soldiers. The game’s graphics are impressive with a lot of attention to detail, but they’re a little…how shall I put this…grey. Most of the environments, though a great deal of attention to detail has been paid to them, are bland and lifeless. All the details are in place, everything is there, but somehow it still feels a little…empty. And in my opinion, that statement can summarise the entire game.

All the parts are there – the visuals are detail, the sound is outstanding, the objectives are varied, but for some almost inexplicable reason it feels somewhat uninspiring to play. The game never really involves you in the action-taking place on screen. Maybe it’s because while Call of Duty has all these fancy bells and whistles, at its heart it is the same old fare we have come to expect in FPS games. Variation is there, but originality is sadly scarce. Run here, kill Nazis, man turret, kill Nazis, defend soldiers, and kill Nazis. It’s all a little tiresome. Though some of the missions are excellent – one particularly good early level sees you playing a Russian sniper defending a building from German troops – most of the time it never really draws you in and doesn’t make you want to carry on playing. The thrill factor just isn’t there – instead of feeling any adrenalin rush or thrill of excitement, any glimmer of any feelings for the game at all, you kill tens and tens of soldiers without feeling any emotion whatsoever. Maybe the developers should have let you play as a German soldier – it may be politically incorrect, but at least you’ll know how they felt when they killed all of those innocent people. But this isn’t a political debate. It’s just a shame that this game has to be so soulless, so bland. Why couldn’t we have a fantastic, involving WW2 experience? It’s a well-made game - cinematic, detailed and even educational at times – but it never feels like it’s more than an interactive film. It’s not involving enough to be a game. If we wanted to buy a film, we could have gone for the afore-mentioned Saving Private Ryan – in fact, we could have bought one for any mates who wanted to buy Call of Duty, and then you would have spent your forty pounds on a good film for both yourself and your friends instead of a soulless game like this one.

Perhaps I’m being a tad harsh on Call of Duty: Finest Hour. It really isn’t as bad a game as you might think after reading this review – it certainly has its moments, and at times can be very enjoyable – but in the end if you’re after a game that really draws you in and makes you want to keep playing, look for a different FPS, because you won’t find what you want here. A good game, but far from great.

James Hamilton