Review: Hour Of Victory (360)

Less of a surprise is the fact that Hour of Victory takes place across a series of pivotal battles from World War II. Nothing new there then certainly, but you can select from three characters (each with unique abilities) before each level commences. On paper it sounds like a viable option to bring some variety to a tiresome generic offering, and attempts to be the unique selling point of the release. It’s such a shame that nFusion have not fully realised the potential and have botched the implementation.

The trio are made up from a British Commando who can take more punishment than his colleagues, an Army Ranger who specialises in using a sniper rifle and is therefore a more efficient selection from long range, or a covert operative that specialises in stealth kills. Disappointingly your selection remains exclusive for the level in question; there is no facility to change when faced with close combat or long distance gunfire.

An added difficulty is that obstacles are set out across a level and can only be cleared depending on whom you picked. For instance the commando relies on brute strength and can push certain barriers, unlocking a way forward. The ranger can utilise his rope to climb such obstacles, or the covert operative can pick locks. Quite often you are confronted by a challenge that you cannot overcome, so you have to backtrack to find the hurdle designed primarily for your character. Put that into context and your elite soldier is unable to shoot padlocks off doors, climb up a rope or push the same cart (the Nazi’s leave these on every level) out of the way.

The knock on effect is that level sizes shrink, and you have the feeling that you are missing out on something, but in reality its just another empty room leading onto the route you’re set to clear anyway. All the time you are faced with a constant stream of enemies who seem to emerge from rooms with no exit, we guess the Nazi’s had some sort of teleportation system in use during this stage of the war.

The whole dynamic of an exclusive ability is wasted, as there is no chance to experiment or approach a challenge with a unique solution. When an obstacle can be pushed the game will inform you to press the button, the same applies for picking a lock or throwing the rope. Even when the abilities are utilised it is simply with a press of a button, no room for a lock picking mini-game or precision aiming with the rope hook. Therefore those wonderful unique abilities are so watered down that they become irrelevant.

All of this could have been remedied if the combat and environments were memorable and cinematic. Instead Hour of Victory has us reminiscing about Call of Duty and the countless other World War 2 shooters we’ve endured since the genre kicked off on the PSone. Note this is something that we never thought we’d actually admit to, however this game has achieved the impossible. The only positive, or interesting aspect of the combat is the use of a dash function, which you can use to shorten distances between cover. The developer has tried to save the experience by including the standard vehicle combat sections, which fail badly to revitalise your interest and harbour many glitches.

Much has been made of the Unreal technology on show here, but Hour of Victory is not perhaps the best exponent on which to judge Epic’s engine. Level sizes vary greatly, and even then linear routes facilitate a bland experience. When large levels do occur, quite often they are difficult to overcome, as the checkpoints are badly placed, or totally absent without leave - prompting much frustration. Technically Hour of Victory is littered with glitches and moments that have you thinking about the level of testing undertaken. Becoming stuck on scenery seems a standard pitfall, but some of the death animations that have fallen foes spinning as if an extra on The Exorcist, well, that’s just weird and frankly creepy.

Online? Well yes, there is an online multiplayer mode, which seems to offer the standard matches we’ve all come to expect from first person shooters based on this era. We did manage to find a few brave souls playing Hour of Victory online, and the matches were adequate. The speed was variable and this was surprising given only a handful of players were present, plus everytime you died an annoying funeral fanfare was played. There is nothing revolutionary about what is on offer online, as this could have been a mode from an Xbox title. Ultimately it seems that many have overlooked Midway’s offering and only those in need of a barrage of achievement points should consider picking this up.

Overall, this is a hugely disappointing release from Midway who had seemed to be on an upward trend over the past few years. Hopefully Hour of Victory is the exception, as this should have been binned long before arriving exclusively on the Xbox 360. Can we suggest if you are in need of a new 360 game, then you consider Overlord instead?

Rating: 3 / 10

Words by Jason Julier