One of the most criminally ignored titles of the decade. Take WW2, mix with Operation Flashpoint and Hitman = bam!
Having come out a week before the release of the first Call of Duty, it is completely understandable most people have never even heard of this game. In fact, the earliest versions of this release was far from perfect from a stability point of view as a random crash wasn't uncommon. After a string of patches, however, those issues were more or less solved, but in reality, it was only a relatively superficial coat of paint on, what is quite possibly, the best WW2 FPS to date.
That is a very heavy thing to say? Maybe, but having played a lot of FPS set during that era (during a time where that was the genre all companies were focusing on), this one stands far above the competition.
How so? For one, the use of vehicles. Whereas many games of the time, vehicle sequences were basically just rail-shooters within extremely scripted events, and if you could drive anything, the controls always felt off. In H&D, however, the vast of the majority of mission that include vehicles are unlike this. The controls were tighter (but still far from perfect, but this isn't a racing game), the physics believable, combat (in general) isn't anywhere near as scripted as the other titles (leads to variation), and they felt like actual vehicles (oh, and don't flip a jeep, that results in death). There is one rail-shooting moment in the game, which take place while in a plane, but it is done better than anything any other game has attempted before or since. Seriously, the pacing, the music, the shouting of the crew (your men), make it one of the more immersive moments in FPS. Further more, all the missions, aside from one (arguably two), you can avoid using vehicles altogether, depending on your play style.
What else beyond that? You can play in a style you wish. Covert? You got it. Guns a-blazin'? Of course. Granted, the game features a covert force, compared to just playing stereo-typical grunts in other WW2 FPS, but that's part of the reason why the other games feel limited. In H&D, you have choices. Now, I'm not saying everything is perfect. Some of the guns (outside of the bolt action rifles) feel like they're kinda lacking a certain "umpfffffffffff." Their sounds and animations don't elicit the same psychological effect as some other FPS have (like the Garand from Call of Duty), but they're still passable. Though on the flip side, weapons do realistic damage, and completely avoid the stupid "bullet sponge" problem that plagues many FPSes. The ballistics are also praise worthy in how bullets don't fly at warp speed and drop over distance, which makes sniping in this game one of the best examples of this play style. Also this game offers the opportunity to use a knife, which allows for other stealthy methods of playing the game (such weapons don't exist in this game's contemporaries, where they all have a melee bash instead), and using grenades was fixed to a key allowing for easier use. So even if you find the guns to be unsatisfying, other methods can be employed. It's why I mostly just used bolt actions/knifes/grenades and left the automatics to the A.I. controlled squad members, unless the map required in-close fighting, but even then changing the load out isn't necessary.
This brings me to another thing that really stands out in the game; the maps and missions. Almost every mission takes place on a very large map. They weren't as large as, lets say Operation Flashpoint, but that would be unnecessary anyway. The maps in H&D are, in comparison to other games from it's time, had far larger maps that allowed for more freedom in accomplishing your objective. There were standard direct routes, and several ways to flank. Another great plus to the size of the maps was the enemy/character draw distances which allowed for far range sniping. More often than not, the topography was varied enough to allow for cover, be an effective position for snipers/anti-tank, and allow you to scout ahead. When talking about the missions, it is impossible to forget how varied they were. To the best of my memory: Kidnapping/rescue, infiltration via disguise or scuba diving (done extremely well), assaulting/defending bases, and a few others. Does it seem like much? Not really, but how they are paced and designed really makes the mix excellent; and don't forget that how you approach each mission is up to you in almost every instance. Compare to playing "whack a mole" (in Quake 3 engine).
Guns, Cars, and maps don't make good games if everything else is done poorly. Fortunately this game also has character. By that, it also has decent A.I. and the squad mechanics are quite good. The enemies don't run at you (other than the dogs), they actually act like they're concerned with protecting themselves as much as they want to kill you. Further more, not all enemies are the same. They're not all super-evil soldiers hell bent on killing you. Some get scared and they might even drop their weapon allowing themselves to be tied up. After doing this, you can take their uniform and play through a different stealthy-style and try out different possibilities, it isn't as honed as the Hitman games, but it is more believable at the same time. Aside from enemies, your team members are also competent.
I'm not a fan of having a squad in games, but this game pulls it off, and for better or worse, not all team mates are the same. First off, you can play one of 20ish characters, and then you fill in the rest of the squad with 3 others. Every characters has different stats to go with him, like aim (how well they'll shoot when AI controlled), stealth (how well they can remain inconspicuous when in an enemy's uniform or how well they hide), first aid (healing abilities), and strength (carry weight). There may be other stats, but I can't remember... but anyway, these stats usually designate certain characters to certain roles, but these stats improve over time (with the help of usage), so towards the end, all the characters can become quite balanced. Now how are they controlled? There is a tactical cam mode that allows you to plot out actions in an almost RTS fashion, but to be honest, I never used it. Luckily there is a simpler fashion, as pressing a certain key (whatever you assign) will allow you to immediately switch characters. This may be a little cumbersome, but it is fun (for me at least) to manually move a troop to one place, the sniper to a perch, anti-tank to a defensible position with a defender. And except for extremely rare blips, the team a.i. won't fail you. Of course, if you're a fan of the lone wolf play style, their is a game mod to allow you to do so, which increase the difficulty from awesome to really-awesome.
I mentioned carry weight earlier, and it is another strong point of this game that adds to realism and... well, common sense. In H&D, you have an inventory system. It may feel a little cumbersome at first, and it isn't exactly fire-fight friendly (though it may become simple with time, it isn't like resident evil, and is real time). With just a little time, any gripe you may have had will pass as you will hopefully prioritize what is in your immediate usage and what will go in you backpack. Seeing as you can only carry two large guns at a time, and only so much ammo and med-kits, it may bug some players, but then again it could explain why this game never took off. But anyway, all items have weight and take up space, some more than others; so with a well balanced squad, one would usually opt for giving the strong guy a machine gun to lay suppressive fire, carry mines, or be an anti-tank gunner. You get the idea.
There is more to cover, but why belabor any longer? This is an excellent game.
Now my main gripe with this game now is that it doesn't seem to work at all on Vista. :(
And I haven't heard of any patch for that.