Easily the worst Call of Duty game ever produced, and one of the worst games I've ever played.
+Music is awesome
+Sound effects are pretty good
+Storyline is surprisingly good for COD
The Bad:
-Frustrating A.I.
-Terrible art direction
-Doesn't feel like Call of Duty at all
-Gameplay is uninspired and difficult
-Weapon mechanics feel broken
-Default level of difficulty is way too high
-Offers some of the blandest online play on the PS2
Oh my god. As a spinoff of the first installment in the ever popular Call of Duty series, Finest Hour, developed by Spark Unlimited (whom, by the way, is easily the worst game developer since Titus), is a disgrace to Call of Duty, WWII shooters, and shooters in general. It had potential, don't get me wrong, but the final product is weakly executed, unfairly difficult, and more importantly, just isn't very much fun to play. It has a couple good points, but none of them are able to save this awful WWII shooter.
One good point is the storyline. Unlike the other Call of Duty games, the story follows the lives of certain soldiers, and tells detail about each one of them from a narrative point of view. In fact, the story was the only reason why I kept this game longer than a day. The sound effects are great, as is the music. The score is well-conducted, and the guns sound realistic. However, these are the only good elements of the game. Everything else is a complete mess.
The graphics for Finest Hour are decent, but certainly nothing to write home about. The effects are pretty weak as well, making an average looking game look slightly worse. This isn't the worst part about the game, though. I could go on all day, but I'll just start with the first major bugs about the game; the gameplay and art direction.
The objectives in Finest Hour are basic, as are most FPS games, but the problem is that the feel and art design of the game is so bad, that these little objectives are not fun at all. While the game looks decent technically (as stated earlier), it looks awful artistically. The game doesn't feel, look, or play like a Call of Duty game. The level design is dismally dark, and there is an obvious lack of color and lighting in pretty much all of them. So, the atmosphere is no good, either, making the game an absolute drag to play through. The character models are extremely muddy as well. The art wouldn't be much of a problem, as I am not a huge graphics whore (I wouldn't even play on PS2 if I was), but the rest of the game is so bad, it makes me see the low quality of the feel and look. So, overall, gameplay too basic for words is made boring as hell by terrible art direction.
The difficulty level is so high, that first time players will die at least 10 times within the first half of the first level. Enemy A.I. is frustrating as heck; it takes just a few shots to kill you, and even with up to 4 health packs that can be used anytime, this still is a pain in the ass. There are a good amount of weapons in the game as well, but the aiming feels terrible and almost broken at times. At least, that's my opinion.
Last, but not least, the online play for the game is about as mediocre as they come. Awful maps, lack of people today, lackluster modes; and they call this Call of Duty??? What else is there to say?
BOTTOM LINE: Finest Hour can hardly be called a Call of Duty game. Its art, style of play, and broken controls are absolutely disgraceful to Call of Duty. Seriously, I'd rather play Black Ops than play this. Yeah, it's that bad. While it isn't the worst game out there, or even close, I don't recommend this game. If you want to add a WWII game to your shooter library on PS2, get Call of Duty 2: Big Red One or Call of Duty 3. Do NOT get this one. There are much better later-gen shooters for PS2.