Review:
Hour of Victory

When I play a new original game, that’s exactly what I look for; something original. It must have a certain quality about it that makes you want to play that and nothing else. I hate to use the term but a game must have an X-factor that holds the gamer’s attention. This is something I did not find in the WWII FPS ‘Hour of Victory’. As a game that plunges the player into the action without any logical narrative, I thought that it would at least be an immersive and addictive experience; I was wrong. It in fact becomes an almost laughable experience when I started to pick out all of the mechanical faults. This is a game that takes cue from the first games of the Call of Duty or Medal of Honor series and makes them a lot worse. Quick review in a word: abysmal. The long review is as follows…

The first thing that I noticed was the character animation, or lack of. It’s not entirely evident that any motion capture was used in development, as the characters are constantly jerking about in cut-scenes like malfunctioning robots. Simple actions are wildly overemphasised too; for example the opening cut-scene shows one character writing on a form, but by the nature of his hand gestures it seems as if he scribbles all over it like a child. The in-game animations are also blown widely out of proportion. When simply killing an enemy with one or two shots to the body, the physics will toss them off their feet into mid-air until they land at least 3 feet away. It also makes no difference what weapon is used as to the way the enemy is downed. The only killing reaction that differs is from a melee attack.

Graphics aren’t much to look at in this game either. I would describe them as borderline shameful as they are similar to graphics seen in Xbox 360 launch titles, and in parts resemble graphics from the original Xbox. It surprises me that with so many game ideas floating around, that this is one with enough funding and support to reach store shelves. I expect more from Midway; a company involved with games such as the original Mortal Kombat ant Unreal Tournament 3.