Call of Duty: Finest Hour follows five soldiers across three fronts, from a Stalingrad sniper to a British SAS commando and a tank crewman of the 761st Tank Battalion. Two missions per character keep each campaign fresh, and the rotating perspectives give the whole war a sense of scale.
The 761st’s story is the emotional anchor, following a Black tank battalion that built an unstoppable team against prejudice and closing with real veterans’ testimony. The Stalingrad tractor-factory defence, a ten-minute hold-the-line shooting gallery, is the other standout.
The sniper segment rewards patience, with officers prioritised and a sapper planting a landmine under covering fire. Tank sections offer a welcome change of pace, even if their controls are awkward to handle.
The final campaign is where the game loses its footing, with unfair enemy counts, sparse healing and enemies that stop dropping health entirely. A sliver of health with no medkits turns every firefight into a slog, where the later Call of Duty games’ regenerating health is sorely missed.
The Aachen sewer is the low point, an almost pitch-black level with no brightness setting, no flashlight and a broken objective marker. Grenade spam without any indicator and escort missions compound the frustration.
Friend and foe are easy to confuse without the usual red crosshair, and shooting is impossible while climbing ladders. Dated low-resolution textures show their age, though the presentation does not undermine the core strengths.
Overall, structure, variety and the 761st’s story make two-thirds of Finest Hour enjoyable. The unfair final campaign and the sewer level are what stop it from being a stronger recommendation.