The standard issue armaments each selectable character with which is equipped are great for the turmoil of battle, but in the heat of the moment, ammo can become a precious commodity. This forces you to count ammunition before running headlong into a firefight, as you might bear down on Nazi scum only to be greeted with a “click-click” noise when the trigger is pulled. Also, just because you reload doesn’t mean your leftover ammo is magically transferred back into your supply. Once a clip is gone, it’s gone until you pick up more ammo of that type. That’s okay, though, because there are a plethora of both enemy and friendly weapons for you to procure along the way — 23 altogether, not counting tanks and anti aircraft guns. A variety of pistols, rifles, grenades, rocket launchers, turrets and shotguns are at your disposal, each with details and firing patterns consistent with their real life counterparts. Don’t like Ross’ Webly 6 shooter? Pick up a Walther P38 off a dead Nazi and keep the killfest moving. If enemy arms aren’t your cup of tea, you can also trade out weapons with friendly NPCs.

Speaking of friendlies, you’re not alone in all of your battles. Allied soldiers occasionally make an appearance to help you out, although they usually end up running blindly into oncoming fire and are gunned down before they’ve had a chance to even squeeze the trigger. War is hell, I guess, but there were a few times I was thankful to have these little distractions, even if only for a second or two.

Hour of Victory comes with a multiplayer option which features six maps and three game modes, following the standard fare we’ve come to expect from first-person shooters. Deathmatch is the essential “kill, kill, kill” mode, Capture the Flag runs like any other you’ve seen before and Devastation serves as the odd man out contest in which two teams scramble for a hidden bomb on the playing field and use it to blow up three specified targets on the map. There’s room for up to 12 players online, both ranked and player matches, and a system link option for the homebody gamer. There are also leaderboards to showcase the top player in each game mode by week, month or for all time.

Microsoft’s brilliant bragging rights, also known as Achievements, are found in Hour of Victory as well. I only mention this because HoV has one of the silliest I’ve seen so far. If you run entirely out of ammo during a ranked online match, you’re awarded the “Spray n’ Pray” achievement, worth a whopping 0g. There are others, of course, which mainly reward you for killing a certain number of soldiers, scoring headshots and completing chapters with different characters. Typical stuff, and with that out of the way, I can get down to brass tacks.