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Fraustrating mess posing as a flying game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 8
Date: March 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This has to be one of the worst games I've ever wasted $30.00 on. Problems start right from the training missions. Did the designers even consult a pilot? They kept telling me I "left the flight path," yet never once was any flight path laid out or shown. It finally dawned on me that what they meant was that my plane was leaving the teeny tiny flight area of the teeny tiny map - not hard to do at all - as opposed a flight path, which is a specific vector - a straight line from point A to point B. So here I am, trying to learn how to fly this crummy plane, which has the worst flight physics I've ever encountered, and all the game designers give me is microscopic area to fly in - all the while I've got some corny "voice actor" screaming insults at me. Yeah, great fun. Unbelievably, the game actually goes down hill from here. Don't even waste your money renting it.

do not buy this game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: January 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

impossible to customize or adjust sensitivity and thus not playable

You'll look pretty...crashing into the ocean!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: February 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Okay, I admit I'm not a hardcore gamer. I play for fun not to be challenged. I have a day job and no longer live with my parents. So, that being said, I love the graphics and general concept behind this game but it was just too frustrating to keep at it. Let's just put it this way...it took me a week just to get through all the training missions/tutorial. Once you learn to actually fly and not crash into things, then you have to complete insanley difficult missions against enemies and all the while...manage not to crash yourself in the process. Rent it and set on "rookie" and if you do okay, may be worth plunking down the cash. It's a good balance between a purist flight sim and a bullet spewing arcade shooter style game. Regadless, too much invenstement of time/energy and not enough payout/sucess for me personally.

Frustrating and Too Difficult

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: October 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The old saying is that there is "More than one way to skin a cat." Shouldn't there then be more than one way to win or lose a battle?

I've played this game for weeks, consulted walk-throughs on the Internet, practiced until the wee hours, and I still cannot get past some of the basic early missions. There comes a point where a game is too difficult and no longer fun to play. These are supposed to be GAMES, after all.

"Heroes" has very limited, rigid, and specific ways of completing each mission. Any variation almost always results in failure, which seems kind of lame from a gaming standpoint. You won't have any close victories or marginal losses. You simply must replicate exactly what the programmers want for each phase or you lose. What fun is that?

The graphics are beautiful, the planes and historical information is interesting and fun. But like so many modern games, there is no avenue for creativity or unconventional strategies. What feels like freedom (soaring through the skies) is actually tightly scripted and extremely limited in scope. Deviate and you lose.

In the old arcade days, success was measured by high scores. They were FUN, not a chore. Modern games are all about following instructions, whereby you unlock the next level or vehicle. The experience becomes more of a slog than a game. The goal is to get to the end, not to enjoy the game itself.

Ironically, I really enjoy "Heroes" -- at least up until the point where I get sent back to the checkpoint for the thousandth time with a "Mission Failed" message.

It's a shame because this could be a really fun game to play.

Rent First

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: October 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is a WWII flight sim similar to Crimson Skies. The action is fun and well paced, taking you through missions involving dogfighting against hundreds of planes at a time. Attacks against ships and ground targets will show a fair amount of variety.

As missions are completed, new planes are unlocked. The planes can be upgraded. Each upgrade introducing better weapons, armor, and/or agility.

You plane will fly with wingmen and as part of larger attack forces. In some cases, the battle will go on around you while you complete your specific goal. The difficulty is such that you will easily become the hero of every battle and you will feel as though you are single handedly winning every battle.

The computer AI is fairly predictable. As you fly over ground targets, you will be shot at. Enemy bombers will fly straight to their target, even when you begin strafing their formation. The only time they will take evasive action is when they begin the bombing run. Enemy fighters will scatter as you approach, and will manuever for a good shot.

The game can be completed in less than 10 hours. Their are enough missions to have some replay value, but most people will play it once through.

The game does have xbox live capability and will allow up to 8 online players in a match.

I'd recommend this game for a rental first.

Fly The Unfriendly Skies In The South Pacific

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 17, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Concept: You are a fighter pilot flying in the greatest air battles in the PTO (Pacific Theater of Operations) during World War II. Your baptism of fire begins during the Pearl Harbor raid, and continues with the island hopping campaigns all the way to Japan herself. Dozens of aircraft are made available in order to accomplish different types of missions.

Graphics: I have found that just about anything made by UbiSoft looks great. Being a big WW2 history buff, especially the air wars, I was absolutely blown away by the awesome quality of the planes, islands and ocean. Explosions were awesome, as were smoke trails left by wounded fighter planes, and water and light effects. Load screens are kinda nifty, in that they look like 1940's movie, military and propaganda posters. Nice touch that adds to the ambiance and flavor of the game.

Sound: Mostly you hear the noise of your fighter's engine, sporatic radio traffic, and the blasts made by your guns and bombs. The sound gets a tad monotonous after a while, as does the inane radio chatter between pilots and ground troops.

Playability: Again, being a history buff, I was excited to play this. Controls are tricky at first, but they are not difficult. My biggest complaint is pretty much the same one I have with most fly-and-shoot games. It seems that YOU are the only pilot in the sky, and you have to perform about 5 tasks at the same time to complete the level. Example: on level 2, mission 3, you need to protect an admiral's staff car while he is being chased by enemy jeeps, while protecting an airfield from enemy dive-bombers, while engaging enemy fighters, then making sure a flying-boat doesn't get shot down, while fending off a sea-borne assault, while defending a cluster of coastal defense guns! WHEW! Where are all of the other friendly fighters doing? Come on...

Overall: You may want to rent this one first. Frankly, I was let down. I was excited by this title, but like most console-based flyers, this one was kinda lame. Another example: An American squadron of Navy F2F Wildcat fighters gets jumped by a Japanese squadron, and you are there to render assistance. The US pilots are low on fuel, and you have only a limited time to save their bacon. Sounds great, right? WRONG! Turns out the enemy fighters are Japanese bi-planes with floats! I'm sorry, but low fuel or not, Wildcats would have shredded the Japanese planes, codenamed "Pete". Again, come on... I TRIED to like this title, but it just wouldn't let me...

Simply fun

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: October 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you are looking for a hardcore flight sim, this isn't the game for you, but if you are more interested in Dogfighting, then this is the best I have seen in a long time.

The main difference is the number of enemies, some of the battles are huge, no 10 or twenty (SWON style) skirmishes, we are talking about huge dogfights with hundreds of aircraft, just like the real battles.

Lots of planes = lots to shoot at, so the action is pretty relentless.

Plus there are lots of different aircraft to play with, and try some "what if" scenerio's, all in all a great game iuf your a fan of WWII.

Good arcade flight shooter

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 19, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I like this game. It is very similar to Secret Weapons over Normandy, but with more depth and challenging missions. In fact, some missions are so difficult I had to switch to "Easy" mode to complete them. There are combined ground targets and dog fights in most missions so the action can get pretty hectic. Graphics and sound are good and the AI seems pretty solid. The enemy planes are relentless. Two minor complaints: you start out with one plane and must complete a mission before another is added. I would have liked to have seen a small selection of planes from the start. Also, the objectives that pop up during a mission are sometimes confusing. You sometimes have to fail a mission to figure out which enemies to attack first. Keep in mind, this is not a flight simulator. It is an action/arcade shooter using planes instead of ground troops.

good game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This is actually a very fun shooter-type game. I wouldn't call it a flight simulator as the physics don't feel too realistic, but nevertheless, it's very fun. In a videogame, what more could you ask for?

The missions are actually somewhat engaging - the cut scenes are nice and add some historic background to what you're doing. It would've been nice, though, to have some kind of pilot interaction between missions like you did in the Wing Commander series.

Anyways, I only have a few complaints:
1) Of all the planes you can unlock, why isn't the Me-109 an option? The 109 was the backbone of the Luftwaffe, and a very beautiful machine to look at. Some of those planes they added in the game never saw action in the war.

2) There's not much room for maneuver. Although the flying isn't as restricted as Star Wars Battlefront, you still have to turn your plane around because of the limited flying space. Also, your plane stalls before you can reach a nice altitude. If you try a split-S, you'll barely clear the ground as you pull up.

3) You should have way more options for Instant Action. In all of the flight games I've played, you could always tweak the number of opponents and what kind of plane they fly in. Here, you can only pick your plane type, the map, and the difficulty level. I wanted to setup a few sorties where I fought Yak's in my FW-190.

4) The game is a little too user-friendly for beginners. On Ace Level, the computer is still pretty darn easy. You have to fly on Professional Mode to add any sort of challenge for newbies.

5) It would've been nice to see a limit on ammunition. This would prompt gamers to be more accurate with the trigger. If there was a cap on ammunition, I never noticed it.

I thought this game was great fun, a lot of replay value.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 21, 2005
Author: Amazon User

While it's not without its faults I feel the initail reviewer has been to harsh, At heart this is an arcade game, like Rougue Squadron, and the fight sequences are intense.

It seems like hundreds of planes are in action at once, many more than in Secret Weapons and Crimson Skies, giving a sense that you are part of a much larger battle.

There is also a large number of planes to unlock, (over thirty, maybe more), and you can go back to any previouse misison with a new plane, plus you can upgrade the planes too. All this means that I have been back to some missions multiple times just for the fun of it.

By modern standards there is a lot of game here, and its pretty well done, some missions are a bit hard, and a bit samey, but you do get try torpedo bombing, dive bombing, rockets and high level bombing as well as the straight fighters. Some of teh planes are awesone and it all looks pretty good.

Plus there is XBox live, but I haven't played on that too much yet.

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