Graphics: If you can imagine a world where the Unreal 3 engine doesn’t power the graphics in HoV, then they’d be considered pretty good. Unfortunately, this is the same engine responsible for the belle of the 360 ball, Gears of War. That said, Hour of Victory will disappoint those expecting a similar visual feast. Textures pop in and out of focus, the character models are on the blah side and the environments, although detailed, have been done to death in other war shooters. I also would’ve enjoyed seeing more interactivity among the locales. Too often, I’d throw a grenade near wooden furniture, only to be disappointed by the absence of a splinter-and-metal shower. Although the animation is sufficient, I still saw a few instances of jumpy character movement and a drop in frame rate when the action got intense. The good news is that gun aficionados will be pleased with the appearance of the armaments, plus the depth of field effects are handled well, so HoV isn’t entirely devoid of beauty.

Interface: The menus are about as simplistic as you can get, allowing easy access to game modes, options and Achievements, but they’re devoid of personality and essentially naked. Sadly, there are no options for sound adjustment or button layout, except for southpaws, so you’re pretty much stuck with what they give you. The in-game HUD is unobtrusive, clearly showing, radar, ammunition and sprint energy, but an on-screen reminder of what I was doing would’ve been nice.

Gameplay: HoV is only about six hours long, but offers some much needed replay value via the different gameplay styles of the three characters. Progress generally goes from firefight to firefight, forcing you to take advantage of cover, count ammo and even account for NPCs dodging melee attacks on occasion. The tank driving sections and anti-aircraft segment should’ve added spice, but fell flat, ending up more frustrating than fun due to sludgy controls and an overall slow progression. On foot controls were more responsive, but the aiming felt draggy, making accuracy an impossible proposition. Ground cover seemed too low to be of any use, pressuring me to find a good, solid wall to regroup behind most of the time instead of the abundance of war debris. Class-specific action areas were sparse as well, offering no real reason to pick anyone other than the heavily armored commando for most missions. Finally, where’s the force feedback when I fire my gun?

Multiplayer:
Hour of Victory’s multiplayer mode offers a slim six maps and three game modes. There was little activity on the servers during the time I spent online, so out of curiosity, I asked a fellow gamer how many matches he’d been able to play. He answered that ours would be his third match — in as many weeks. Thankfully, I was able to get in a few rounds once I found an even number of players, but my prospects grew dim shortly thereafter. Maybe that was a blessing in disguise, as I was plagued with freeze-ups, latency issues and an all-out drop to dashboard with a dirty disc error. Multiplayer is generally a welcome addition, and in most cases a requirement for a next generation game, but this case is broken and abandoned.

Sound FX: The clamor of war is represented in Hour of Victory, but not in a way that hasn’t been done a dozens of times before. The guns sound like their respective real life counterparts (not that I’m an NRA member or anything), but lack an overall punch like I’d expect from military firearms. Explosions are always nice, but won’t rock your socks off in this case, landing with more of a “thud” than a “kaboom”. Voice acting is sub-par and unconvincing, illustrated in full by Ross, the commando character. Ross sounds a little like a wealthy Canadian businessman doing his best impersonation of Sean Connery, not a hardened, battle ready soldier of war. I do tip my hat to the actor in charge of Nazi death screams, though; I always find satisfaction in gunning down evil, and each gasp, grunt and holler added humor to an otherwise uneventful audio experience.

Sound FX:
Ripped straight from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” in my opinion, though it works with the setting. Soaring strings, horns and thunderous timpani drums clash orchestrally, adding drama to the situation as well as underscoring the action. My only complaint is the inability to adjust the volume of the music, as I couldn’t quite hear the dialogue in some places.

Intelligence: The enemy AI takes cover — in the same places every time. The thing is, there are tons of them, which makes up in part for their brain dead demeanor. Certain portions of the game are like someone turned on the tap at the Nazi sink. While you’d think this deluge would be challenging, oftentimes, a doorway to through which to funnel the masses or simply running past the fray worked fine.

Difficulty: If you die in Hour of Victory, you simply go back and hit the same stage repeatedly until you get the flow of the enemy AI. It’s not hard, but on almost any difficulty, you will die, be it from gunfire or an NPC bashing you in the head while your back is turned. These guys fight dirty, and if you have eight or 10 Nazis in front of you, then you won’t see the one you missed in the last room sneaking up behind you. To avoid frustration, I again recommend the commando character, as he’s capable of taking heavy damage and helped me muddle through the more unforgiving parts of the game.

Overall: Hour of Victory follows in the mud-caked jump boots of its forerunners, taking cover in familiar areas and hoping the buyer hasn’t already noticed the plentitude of like-minded titles already on the market. You’ve seen this before, and you’ve certainly done this before — and no amount of convincing should urge you to enlist in this war.