The premise of HoV is just like any other World War II title, so it was no surprise to see the same missions that have been done before
26 June 2007 | By James Pikover
World War II games have long been a genre
unto themselves, though recently developers have jumped off that
bandwagon and gone in their own directions. Midway still isn’t done
with it though, and they showed off their new IP, Hour of Victory, an
Xbox 360 exclusive. The demo, after initially being pulled less than an
hour after it had been put up on Xbox Live, was reinstated the
following day.
The premise of HoV is just like any other World War II title, so it was no surprise to see the same missions that have been done before. What is new is the choice of which character to play as. Three different soldiers are available: a commando who’s physically strong but starts with poor weaponry, a sniper that can get to certain areas, like rooftops, easily, and the covert-op who can pick locks, cut through fence, and kill silently.
Though HoV runs on the Unreal engine, it really does not take advantage of the game engine’s capabilities. Graphics aren’t poor, but they aren’t good either. Textures run rampant, and they would look wonderful if the graphics were up to par with those textures. Character animations also highlight the level of the graphics. After getting shot, enemies had a habit of jumping up in the air, straight up, and then collapsing to the ground as the rag-doll effect kicked in. It would seem as if someone believes gravity takes a second to kick in. Comical? Yes. Realistic? No.
Gameplay was different from other World War II shooters because it tended to be a bit slow. For example, most shooters have some kind of firefight where the best shot wins. To combat that, Midway made it possible to do some special actions instead of pointing and shooting, but those special abilities either influence gameplay too much or not enough.
As a commando, moving boxes or cover can be useful, but it’s a very iffy ‘can’. It makes gameplay slow and unrealistic, and it isn’t required at all. The same goes for jumping from rooftop to rooftop as a sniper or flanking firefights as a covert-op by cutting fences or sneaking through locked doors. It’s a cool option, but very slow.
On the other hand, going through the game not using any of these abilities is very possible. Playing HoV as Call of Duty would leave players with a good experience, but with those abilities being so tied into the game, anyone doing this is bound to miss out on plenty of action.
HoV is also very unforgiving, which was disappointing. Die and it’s back to the last checkpoint, which was saved 5 minutes back. Any object in the way of the player and a door will prevent going inside, regardless of what the object is. The character doesn’t go around or over, just straight through or nothing. Running back for cover only to find random stones blocking the path is tiresome.
An original twist on an overused genre, using different abilities may not appeal to many people, but it does add something to what has been a pretty stale FPS. Set for release on June 18th, Hour of Victory is not the cream of the crop, but with a lack of games coming out over the summer, this FPS may shine for a little while.
The premise of HoV is just like any other World War II title, so it was no surprise to see the same missions that have been done before. What is new is the choice of which character to play as. Three different soldiers are available: a commando who’s physically strong but starts with poor weaponry, a sniper that can get to certain areas, like rooftops, easily, and the covert-op who can pick locks, cut through fence, and kill silently.
Though HoV runs on the Unreal engine, it really does not take advantage of the game engine’s capabilities. Graphics aren’t poor, but they aren’t good either. Textures run rampant, and they would look wonderful if the graphics were up to par with those textures. Character animations also highlight the level of the graphics. After getting shot, enemies had a habit of jumping up in the air, straight up, and then collapsing to the ground as the rag-doll effect kicked in. It would seem as if someone believes gravity takes a second to kick in. Comical? Yes. Realistic? No.
Gameplay was different from other World War II shooters because it tended to be a bit slow. For example, most shooters have some kind of firefight where the best shot wins. To combat that, Midway made it possible to do some special actions instead of pointing and shooting, but those special abilities either influence gameplay too much or not enough.
As a commando, moving boxes or cover can be useful, but it’s a very iffy ‘can’. It makes gameplay slow and unrealistic, and it isn’t required at all. The same goes for jumping from rooftop to rooftop as a sniper or flanking firefights as a covert-op by cutting fences or sneaking through locked doors. It’s a cool option, but very slow.
On the other hand, going through the game not using any of these abilities is very possible. Playing HoV as Call of Duty would leave players with a good experience, but with those abilities being so tied into the game, anyone doing this is bound to miss out on plenty of action.
HoV is also very unforgiving, which was disappointing. Die and it’s back to the last checkpoint, which was saved 5 minutes back. Any object in the way of the player and a door will prevent going inside, regardless of what the object is. The character doesn’t go around or over, just straight through or nothing. Running back for cover only to find random stones blocking the path is tiresome.
An original twist on an overused genre, using different abilities may not appeal to many people, but it does add something to what has been a pretty stale FPS. Set for release on June 18th, Hour of Victory is not the cream of the crop, but with a lack of games coming out over the summer, this FPS may shine for a little while.