A solid combat flight simulator for aircraft enthusiasts, however it feels like something is missing..
The game is heavily based on simulation, and is therefor no where near the arcadish flying game released for the Xbox 360 earlier this year, Blazing Engels.
To start of in the simple, which will be the first thing you'll probably see, is the menu system.
It's actually set up quite nicely, as a newspaper. However, it's not like you're looking around on the newspaper to find the different menus, they're basicly right above each other on the left side of the newspaper, just under the word 'Contents'.
You're a new pilot, Gargoyle. It's a weird name, and I sometimes wonder why the developers would give the main character such a name, and also wonder how he'd look like.
You're basicly just taking different missions along the way, starting out in North America, going to the Far East and even to the Barents Sea.
The sad thing is though, that there hardly is any story in the game. Of course, it does feature cut-scenes, but these mostly only let you see the general as a drawn figure, explaining the mission to you, and that's about it.
The first mission you'll get to play, is basicly just a tutorial, to get the feel of the controls. You'll have to take off on a carrier, which is rather easy if you know how to increase the throttle, and intercept and destroy a few planes, which hardly does you any harm. A somewhat good thing with the Scenario mode is, that your missiles automatically restocks after a few seconds. Sometimes you'll have to fly a long while, and it would take quite some time if you'd have to make it back to the base, every time you're low on ammunition.
When you start getting into the later missions, multiple enemies will usually have you targeted, and you'll most likely have to evade a missiles every now and then.
However, this is not at all as easy as it sounds. Evading missiles in this game takes a lot of practice, and you really need to focus, as well as performing some very nice moves if you wish to get rid of the missile that's just behind you.
Once you've got the hang of it, then there's a greater chance that you can evade a missile, yet it will still seem very hard to do so.
The mission length really is a lot different. Sometimes, you'll play a mission where there is up to three cut-scenes, if not more, and sometimes, you'll simply have to take down two enemies, which takes less then a minute.
There are three different sorts of missions though. The normal ones, which mostly is about destroying different things, from land vehicles, ships, and other aircrafts.
The two others are the Tactical Missions, and the Strategic Missions, where there are a bit more 'Story' in them, and more depth to them then simply shooting down enemies.
Every time you complete a mission, a green text saying 'Mission completed' will appear, and you're done with that one, moving on to the next mission. This means, that you sadly won't be landing the aircraft after every mission, even if you've set the game settings to 'real', this won't really make a difference.
The graphics in the game is sort of a mixed experience. The planes looks very nice, and is rich on details, and I must admit that I love looking at the afterburner. However, the environments isn't really candy for the eyes. They seem quite plain, and nothing special about them, and they can become a bit tiring to look at, after hours of flying around.
The water seems to have a somewhat good detail, but nothing extraordinary, though it is nice to look at the sea when the sun is going down.
Explosions seems a bit dull as well. There's a big fire when the missile hits, if it destroys the aircraft, and then it turns to a black cloud of dust and such, and disappears after a few seconds, leaving nothing of the aircraft left to fall to the ground. Leaving no tracks is a good thing, eh?
There are a few different views, and there probably is one for every person out there, however I do think one is missing: One where you can see your aircraft from a long distance.
These few is in the game.
- Cockpit. (With lots of information.)
- Cockpit. (With low amount of information.)
- A follow cam, where you see your aircraft just behind it. (Oh the lovely looks of afterburner in the morning..)
- A first person view, without cockpit with lots of information.
Sure, the graphics are fine, and really shouldn't keep you from giving this game a try, as it is rather fun.
However, you must be prepared for a rather slow sort of gameplay, as even though you're going with well over one thousand kilometers per hour, the plane still seems to be going somewhat slow, compared to the arcade flying games, and this is of course because it's a flying simulator.
The speed of the game is somewhat near comparable to Microsoft's Flight Simulator, if you've tried that, and liked the speed that everything was going, then you'd love this one without a doubt.
Of course, because it's 'Slow' also means that you can focus more when busting out some really insane moves, that can be replayed again. You can basicly perform every move possible in real life, in this game. Some of the moves requires training and skill, while others are easy to perform.
However, there's a really cool feature that kicks in when performing moves with the aircraft.
For example, if you're taking too heavy pressure, or too many G's if you will, then the screen will start turning black, depending on how quickly the amount of G pressure is increasing. However, you won't suddenly have feint, but only have a problem finding out which direction you're going, since the screen gets very black in the end. (I haven't tried having a blackout in the game yet, but I think it might be possible if you reach a very high amount of G's.)
Also, if you're trying to fly upside down, you might get too much blood to your head, which will make the screen go red, however this won't do any harm, other then that you might have a problem seeing where you're heading, due to a very red screen.
There really isn't much to say about the sound in this game. You'll be listing to the same sound from your engine most of the time, and a bipping sounds if an enemy has locked onto you.
Voice acting is fine, and especially the generals voice really fits the looks of the character. Mostly you'll only be hearing your Wingman, and perhaps the radio tower, which has a very realistic voice.
The planes however, does actually sound nice. Even if it's just the same engine noise most of the time, then it seems that they've done this in a very realistic way, and I'm telling you, it doesn't get much better when two aircraft flies very closer to each other.
That 'Wruuum!' when the other aircraft flies past, really impress me, as well as firing missiles, which sounds awesome as well.
However, those two things are about the only of the sound that impress me, the rest just seems decent.
The controls are put together very well. On the bumbers, you increase and decrease the speed, and you rudder right and left on the triggers, just below.
These are the buttons you'll use mostly, as well as the left analog stick of course, which controls the aircraft in a very basic way. Turning it left and right, and up and down.
Y, X, B and A are for the simple things such as firing your weapon, changing weapons and using flares.
The D-pad toggles landing gear, hook for the landing on carriers, changing targets and using the air brakes to slow down.
Last but not least, the right analog stick is used to look around in the cockpit, or around the aircraft, if you're flying in the 'Follow' view.
I must admit that the inside of the aircrafts are very well done, and every aircraft looks different from the inside as well, as they do in real life.
A small, but fun nonetheless little detail is that the legs moves when using the rudders.
So, I've talked about the Scenario mode, which seemed more of a thin Storymode. Well, it's not the only gamemode you'll play in this game. There's also the challenge mode which does what it sounds like, put you up for a challenge. Here you'll fly in a huge Arena where there are lots of other aircrafts for you to shoot down, as well as carriers and airfields you can land on, to restock on missles and bombs.
There's also the 'Strike' challenges, where you get to go to set up a lot of different things, such as what sort of aircrafts your enemy has, and how many there is. Also, how you'll encounter them. Will they ambush you from behind, or will you both fly straight towards each other? It's up for the player to decide, and there are numerous of things to choose here.
Of course, I shouldn't forget about the lovely wingmen. Can't live without them, can we?
They usually do their job rather well, however, be careful not to smash right into them. There's a couple of different wingmen to choose from, but overall, they seem just the same, except their voice and the things they say.
The game also has an online mode, where you can use the aircrafts you've unlocked, which there are plenty to unlock, and take them to use against other players world wide.
There are short missions, where it's all about intercepting and destroying the enemy before he destroys you, and there's a huge Arena for you to play in.
The Arena is huge, and it would take you a couple of minutes to reach one end, from the other. It's a huge battlefield, where up to four teams battle it out, trying to take less damage, and do more.
These Arena battle takes from between fifteen minutes, to an entire hour.
An hour may seem of a long time, but honestly, it isn't. Once you're in the battle, trying to find and eliminate your enemy, then time passes quickly and you'll have lots of fun with the other players.
Overall, this game is a solid title. If you like aircrafts, then you should at least consider renting this one, as it might just happen that you love the game.
And if you give this game a go, then remember to give it some time, and take to learn the game controls.