War Hero 1944

Imagine the setting: it's World War 2, you're a fighter pilot and you've just been shot down over enemy territory. What would you do?

Your hosts here at Pocket Gamer Towers would run a mile, learn colloquial German very quickly (or pretend to be mute) and find a nice little farm somewhere to settle down to a life of rural labour.

For the true soldier though, this sort of mishap is just a troublesome nuisance getting in the way of shooting as many Nazis as possible. The mission must go on, the orders are clear – medals surely await.

If you consider yourself part of the latter camp, then you may well be itching to get to the front line on first firing up War Hero 1944.

The opening introduction, with guns blazing and planes buzzing, promises intense action, blistering excitement, bold missions and maybe just a hint of a smile in the face of danger as you're given a free reign to finish off the Nazi menace single-handed.

The inspiration for other games of this ilk (Call of Duty 2 and Brothers in Arms, both of which were released subsequent to War Hero), the roaming around isometrically-viewed levels, shooting bad guys, picking up weapons and finding secret devices of fiendish design was innovative in its time.

There are two gameplay modes on offer, Arcade and Campaign, which vary the style of mission you embark upon and give the seasoned player something more expansive to sink their teeth into. All the missions are fairly straightforward, however, with the only real threat coming from the dastardly enemy troops who are intent on perforating you with their fire.

Defending yourself against this in the best way a soldier can, your target reticule locks automatically onto the stormtrooper of your choice, doing away with much of the challenge of aiming a machine gun using a mobile handset's controls. While this makes life easy for you, it also takes away some of the fun of wandering around, spraying everything and anyone with bullets.

If you get into real trouble, you've also got a ready supply of grenades. These blow away most of the screen – not exactly sportsmanlike, but it does the trick – and there's a nifty camera-shake effect to represent the concussive force of the explosion.

Still, war is a bit of an ugly business; certainly War Hero 1944 is. The in-game visuals are run-of-the-mill, more akin to a Suzuki Vitara than a Hummer in terms of style and presence. And the scrolling has a tendency to slowdown and judder on some makes and models of phone, making playing the game a bit like ten-pin bowling with a rugby ball.

On balance, though, the graphics serve their purpose. Equally, on the sound front War Hero 1944 is merely adequate, with a military tune churning itself over and over as you go about your brutal business, and the gunshots and explosion effects practical without ever being spectacular.

Overall, like the feeling you'd get when settling down to yet another serving of wartime Spam, it's hard to drum up any real enthusiasm for enlisting with War Hero 1944.

The game has its good points, such as the easy-going nature of the controls and a well-graded level of difficulty. But it's all a bit underwhelming.

It will give die-hard wargame fan what they want, with guns, missions and a plentiful supply of Nazis to kill, but anyone else may find War Hero 1944 to be little more than a case of baseless propaganda.