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For 'Real Gamers' as well as casual players

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 26 / 33
Date: September 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Even if its release date slips this game is pretty much finished now, and the new demos doing the rounds at shows and events really show the potential that this game has. Most everyone mentions the visuals in this game, so I'll talk about something else... Its great to see designers return to a good old-fashioned arcade blast!! This game is about scoring points, pure and simple. Score the points, get the golds, receive the unlocks = Sweet. Your score racks up as you play, just like on an old arcade machine, and points values zip all over the screen as you wreak havoc, all adding to the action.

It goes deeper than this though, or so it seems. Watching the gameplay, you start to see intricacies in the scoring system that hardcore gamers are crying out for: there are chances for score bonuses littered everywhere, hidden ones as well as the obvious damage, accuracy and time bonuses you get at the end of a successful mission. For example, it looks like multipliers are attached to each weapon, so you gain more for using the harder unguided weapons and your main gun, also bonuses mount up for 'skill shots' (which look to be long-distance kills), and for 'snap shots' and 'fluke shots', whatever they are! Like other games, you can also boost your scores by skimming close to the terrain as you play through the mission, and what terrain! You can really throw your plane around and through the gaps in the masses of buildings, pipework, canyons and rock outcrops that show up in the demo levels.

Hopefully (if they get it right!) this kind of gameplay will let you play missions in the style you want to, either fast and dirty Maverick style to timetrial yourself, or tight and clinical Iceman style for high accuracy.

Some things still look rough around the edges in this game, I guess thats whats still being worked on, but I'm looking forward to this one!!

OK Sim, Good Arcade Action, Waste of the Franchise

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 14 / 14
Date: August 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Being a huge fan of flight sims, I was highly anticipating the release of Top Gun: Combat Zones. Was it worth the wait? Well... yes and no. There are a few points that need to be addressed first.

First, if you're looking for extremely realistic flight sim action, look elsewhere. Top Gun looks and plays like an early-90's arcade shooter; turn-and-burn shooting, strangely being able to destroy almost anything in one shot, and the alarming ability to hit things with missiles when they're speeding by your starboard side at 900+ mph.

Second, and perhaps most importantly; Top-Gun has basically nothing to do with the cult-hit movie except for the franchise name, the default high-score name "Maverick" and the extremely sparse use of the words "Top Gun Academy" in mission briefings.

Third... the gameplay is pretty good, but there are a few minor quirks like spontaneously blowing up for "flying to close to the ground" at 200 feet, or crashing into poles/bridges/buildings/whatever even if you ordinarily wouldn't have hit the object.

That said, Top-Gun is not a bad game; on the contrary, it's a pretty good game for the first few hours. The action is nice, the graphics are pretty good (not quite as good as AC4, though) and the fair selection of planes and missions are sufficient. Unfortunately, given the lack of any real story or briefings, and the repetitiveness of the gameplay, it gets old after awhile, and there's not really anything that makes you want to play through the game a second time.

In short, only die-hard Top-Gun or arcade flight sim fans should buy this game without at least renting it first... and if you do like it, you can look forward to many hours of great arcade-style action.

If you like to waste money, don't bother reading this.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 21
Date: November 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Okay, I’ve had Top Gun: Combat Zones for over a week now and while I wanted to enjoy it (...) I feel pretty comfortable telling you all that it, in fact, BLOWS. Usually, I’m willing to stick it out through long stretches of boredom, sluggish and unrealistic physics models, awkward to nearly unplayable controls, monotonous environments and unrealistic and sparse enemies long enough to get to the point where a game begins to shine, but Top Gun has two problems. First, there is already a MUCH better game available (...). Second, I don’t really believe this “game” is going to improve anywhere if I play it any more. So, now that I’ve popped it out of the PS2 and taken a deep breath and counted to ten, I can relax enough to explain why anyone over nine years old would do well to avoid this stinkbomb (...)
As usual, eyecandy is king in the world of video zealotry, so graphics first. Top Gun’s visuals are alright--at first, until you get close to the ground, where the textures are all big stinking rectangular pixels which have no place coming from the Emotion Engine inside the PS2. You don’t really see any enemy units or planes enough to be able to make a fair critique of their models, but your plane looks pretty good--at first. Until you start wondering… why is it that in the replays, the Tomcat looks like a MIG-29 Fulcrum from the front, and a Panavia Tornado from the side? And what’s up with all the PS1-looking machine gun bullets (pointy orange rectangles which fire most unmachine gun-like in a PERFECTLY STRAIGHT LINE)? Explosions, those wonderful expanding balls of devastation with which we humans are so fascinated? Check out the Academy Mission where you take out the chemical factories and you tell me if those yellow puffs of gas that seep out when your missile hits are supposed to be “explosions”. The aircraft itself flies sluggishly, but it doesn’t matter because you’ll never get into a turning dogfight anyway (read on…). Usually a flight game gives you an obsolete model to start with, like the F-4 of AC4 . Here you start with a Tomcat (admittedly an old design but still combat-effective, (...)) but it might as well be an Me 262 for all the responsiveness in the controls.

Did the game designers really think that replacing time-tested HUD concepts with video-gamey (...)would preserve the “arcade” feel and fun of this game? (...)Why did they replace the bombsight lollipop, already so well known to anyone who’s ever dropped a video bomb from any flight simulator aircraft, with this stupid third-person overhead and cartoon crosshair? This makes you crash the plane as you slowly descend from an out-of body-experience perspective. And WHY OH WHY was the targeting carat taken out in favor of this big stupid orange on the side of the screen, which you have to use in conjunction with a line graph on the bottom of the screen AND the non-scalable radar to determine whether red air is above or below you? This unmanageable arrangement makes no sense whatsoever, as it makes ACM with enemy aircraft nearly impossible. (...)It is ridiculously hard to line up on the six of even a MIG-17 Fresco in this game due to the targeting system. During one “A2A” (jeez that’s SO clever) mission the only airborne targets I could FIND were Mi-24 helicopters, and that was only because they DON’T MOVE, they just sit there like levitated tanks (which they may as well be, since they both apparently carry the exact same weapon system), waiting to get shot down. The rest of the planes were lazily circling overhead, acting like there wasn’t a US Navy fighter below hunting desperately for them while it took out all the friendly choppers. Oh, I see… the jokes on me? Could it be that the AI is actually super-intelligent, as the enemy fighters know that they don’t have to waste fuel trying to kill me because I WON’T BE ABLE TO FIND THEM?

(...) EVERY ENEMY UNIT FIRES THE SAME EXACT 60MM ORANGE-RECTANGLE CHAIN GUN AT YOU! Why bother carving out a clear approach corridor from AA fire before you take out a T-72 tank? (...)In short, it’s every bit as good as the movie it’s named after, and I hope that means there won’t be a Top Gun 2 the Game either.
(...)

Just for balance

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 36
Date: May 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I put this reveiw in for balance. Like the other reviewers, I have not seen this game. Therefore, I would give it no stars (if I could) and don't recommend it, yet. If it is good, I will recommend it. I just hate to see these 5 star reviews from people who haven't seen the game. It is one thing for the experts to give GT3 a top review based on demos and preliminary releases. It is quite another for reviews to be solely based on wishful thinking. Give me a break. Don't submit reviews based on guesswork alone.

ehhhhhhhhh

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

not bad, but I was a little dissapointed, it wasnt all that much fun, it seems like you are flying a Neuport 17. All the missions are SEAD battles (strike againts anti-air) which stunk, And the AAA tear you up like nothing ive ever seen, The plane detail may be ok for Hornet and Tomcat but once you get to newer jets like the Raptor the design stinks, why does it change to 3rd person view when you bomb how do you expect to hit anything

Rent this because it is fun for a little while

Dont buy because youll be bored in two days.

Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: November 08, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a very addictive game. Great graphics and all that. What I like most about it, is the fact that it is no overcomplicated to fly the plane, like in many PC games. I dont want to learn to fly, I want to blow things up. This is a great game.

I am also a big fan of madden 2002 and Grand Turismo. Top Gun is as good as either of those.

Top Gun is not Top Gun!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: November 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Ok I bought this game 1 hour ago and I'm already thinking of excusses to take it back! This game has nice graphics, but it feels like I'm flying in an air ballon!! Do all the planes blow up with one hit?! I prefere they fly around alittle more with some smoke and then die?! I'm playing it tonight for a couple of hours but in the morning I'm going back to (the store)! (...)

Top Gun: Combat Zones

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game was good, but the only thing that was bad about it was the controling. If you are not good with the anolog this is not a game for you. The stearing in the game is like a real jet. In most other jet fighting games when you push the anolog button hard left < or right > you turn really fast but with the top gun controls you do a barrel roll, when you want to turn you have to push down left/right. Itis confusing but it is easy to get the hang of. If your up for a challenge take this game to the limit!

If you want a flying sim get Acecombat4!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: January 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

When I got my ps2 for Christmas I askd for Acecombat4 and topgun. I played Ace first and it i by far the best in the series. I decded to pay topun for a bit. Topgun ... compared to Acecombat4. The graphics for togun are good, but the game laks a storyline. The controls for the game ar way to slow to do anything. If you are going to get flying sim get ACECOMBAT$ SHATERED KYES!

Top Gun hits rock bottom

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: December 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Well first the good, since this wont take long. The graphics are decent, I' not too picky but I found the graphics adequate to that I expected.
Now the bad. first of all, I dont know why they have the top gun liscense because other than the logo on the box and a quote "Do you feel the need?" are the only things I foind that have to do with the movie itself. Speaking of need for speed.... you wont have an answer to that craving in this game. The jets, especially the F-14 that you start with fly like a propellor powered tri-plane, and handle like one too.
In the mandatory academy missions that you must fly to get to each new stage of the game there is little though put into either the variety or the weaponry you are assigned. In a bombing mission you aren't given enough bombs to finish the job, in a mission where you have to use dumb-fire rockets, you actually have some guided missles as well. All the objectives are more or less the same, kill al the aircraft, kill all the tanks, or kill all the helocopters.
Now that I've brought up the 3 types of enemies you encounter though the game, let's take a look at the AI. The helocopters simply hover over the ground and rotate slowly in attempt to come around and fire on you. Tanks move around a little, and are on the ground, other than that they are helocopters. The planes usually just fly around minding their business at 8,000 feet, happy to ignore you until you come close, and they wont bother to chase you if you choose to run away. Finding the enemy planes is perhaps the biggest hassle. You can see on the map that theres a little red dot right in front of you, but its an arduous task to try to find them. This is party due to the fact that your view is limited. You look straigt ahead, or by using an analog stick you can look 90 degress leftor right, nowhere inbetween, and you cant look above you either.
Next is the storyline. ..... Now that I've covered the storyline, I'll put in my final thought. The game is a sad but common tale of a promising idea that was poorly executed. There's not a whole lot to keep you coming back in terms of replay or even to finish the game save that you're so mad at it you want to beat it because you're so angry at it. My advice, seek out one of the better games in this genre.

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