Part of what separates Call of Duty™: Finest Hour™ from the competition is its stunning attention to detail, both in the historical accuracy of the areas it brings to life and in the balance of gameplay that makes traversing those areas fun and exciting.
The diversity of the multiplayer maps also allows for the gameplay and tactics to change from map to map, so specific strategy and weapon selection on one map may not work on the next. This stifles stagnation and forces players to adapt to different circumstances, thus allowing the well-rounded player to succeed where the specialists fail.
Knowing that you're going to need to adapt is one thing, but actually doing it is something else entirely—and that's where we come in. The following is a quick look at the different types of environments and strategies you'll employ when engaging inFinest Hour's vaunted multiplayer.
We'll cover four of the eight maps to give you a good idea of what you'll find in the game … still leaving you plenty of surprises when you actually do dive in.
Spectacular presentation.
The Factory The Factory takes place in the bombed-out ruins of a factory building. It's better, though, to think of this less as the crumbling remains of a building and more as the underground section of the bombed-out factory because much of the fighting takes place beneath the surface of this decimated structure.
You'll find yourself crawling and running through tight-quartered interconnected tunnels. Options for sniping and long-distance battles are nearly nonexistent here.
Weapon of Choice: Machine Gun The machine gun's quick rapid fire is a great response for running into an enemy around a blind corner. You don't so much aim it as point in the general vicinity of your opponent.
Strategy of Choice: Grenade Ricochet Try tossing a grenade around a blind tunnel before you head in. Not only will the dust and debris caused by the explosion make you slightly harder to spot, but you may get lucky and take out an enemy in the process.
The Square It is just as it sounds: a large city square. But, instead of housing fountains and tourist shops, it's filled with reminders of a bombing run. Crumbling brick buildings and huge mountains of debris surround the mostly open central area.
Crossing the main square itself will leave you open and vulnerable, so methodically running from one cover point to another is the way to go. Beware, though: Just because you're covered from one angle doesn't mean you are from another.
Weapon of Choice: Sniper Rifle This map, perhaps more than any other, is perfect for the patient marksman. There are plenty of perfect spots, whether it's the second floor of a bombed-out building or simply lying prone high atop a pile of rubble.
Strategy of Choice: Shoot and Move Every shot from a sniper rifle leaves a tracer, so the observant can spot where the shot came from. Try to move your sniping location after every kill.
Laying waste.
The Village This map is one of the larger in the game, as it takes place in a small district within a village. There are copious amounts of running room, places to take cover in every corner, and ample options for strategy.
Wide streets lead to dark corners and alleyways, and bottlenecks at intersections abound. This is not a map for extreme measures, as it's too large for sniping and too spacious for the less accurate machine gun.
Weapon of Choice: Standard Rifle Large spacious maps tend to reward middle-of-the-road weapons. The standard rifle offers a good zoom and quick one-shot reload, which suit the needs for this map very well.
Strategy of Choice: Crouch and Shoot There's a lot of large viewing area of this map, so making the smallest possible target is important. Lying prone is too slow, though, so crouching should offer the best cover where no real cover is apparent. Also, make sure you stick to the edges of the roads and alleyways.
The Front This map is predominantly covered with a series of dirt hills and reinforced trenches. It's quite open, with few areas but the trenches to find cover. If you want a lot of chaos and confusion, this is the map for you.
The area is surrounded by crumbling buildings, but they won't really come into play here. The line of sight is great on this map, and the larger hills of debris and dirt will give you a great overview of the entire area.
Weapon of Choice: Heavy Machine Gun With such an open map, you're going to find yourself lying prone a lot if you want to survive. This works perfectly for the heavy machine gun, as lying prone enables you to take advantage of the tripod. You'll experience much less erratic recoil when firing the heavy machine gun from the prone position.
Strategy of Choice: Constant Crawl Because the map is so open, it's easy to spot a target. If you're lying prone, you'll become much less obvious, but if you're using the aforementioned heavy machine gun, you're easy enough to spot when you start firing.
Try setting up camp, waiting for enemies to pop into view. Then, lay into them with the heavy machine gun and crawl slowly to the next area. Don't get up and run, as you'll be easily seen.
The Factory, The Square, The Village, and The Front comprise only half of the available maps, but they represent enough of the differences between the environments to give you a taste of whatCall of Duty: Finest Hour represents.
