User Reviews (11 - 21 of 25)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

A Good Trainer, Not Great as a Game

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 2 / 4
Date: December 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Secret Weapons Over Normandy is a combination of flight simulator and historical recreation of WW2. I had high hopes for this game, but it seems a bit outdated.

You start out with some simple target practice - balloons, bombers and barrels. Soon you're moving against a variety of targets in the air, land and sea. There are 30 missions in all, plus the option for multiplayer combat.

I've always been a huge fan of flight simulators and space combat simulators. So I was all ready for this fresh release to have great graphics and gameplay. I just wasn't impressed at all in either case. Yes, I suppose if you compare the graphics against the early flight simulators, it's amazing how far we've come. The plane has the details of the flaps and wing segments, the landscape has trees and roads. The radar display sweeps around. But nothing is up to the standards of current day productions.

The same is true for the planes themselves, how they fly and how the AI flies against you. Your plane's controls are extremely simplistic. Yes, you stall if you fly straight up, as you would expect to! And yes if you plow head-first into a structure you crash. But there are many other cases where the game plays more like an arcade version set on "very easy" than a modern day WW2 combat game.

This might be a good game for someone who has never played flight simulators before and who wants a very simple entry into that area before dealing with something more complex. But any advanced gamer, or a gamer who has played any style of airplane / spacecraft flying game, will want to rent this one first to see how they personally enjoy what it offers.

Commies!?

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: November 17, 2003
Author: Amazon User

... ..

Oh yes, the game. I have played an early build and is is very well done. The graphics are satisfactory at best, but the sound, mutiplay, and control easily make up for that. A rental for most, but if you are a fan of the old Secret-Weapons games or TIE Fighter, this is a must have.

In a word - FANTASTIC! - The Mechassault of WWII sims.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I read reviews posted carefully and decided to rent the game first. I am glad I did. I quickly went out and bought it!

I should start by saying that this is the "Mechassault" version of a WWII flight simulator. Great sound effects, excellent graphics, and extremely playable - for quick games or for extended play and DOGFIGHTS! Secondly, I am a huge WWII history reader/airplane, tank, ship modeller/ and avid History channel WWII watcher. If you are a big WWII fan and you enjoy the play of Mechassault, you can't go wrong with this game.

With this said, I understand why this game is not for everyone. Provided below is a summary of the good qualities of the game (subjective - my own opinion) as well as an attempt to objectively desribe the game. I must say for anyone that criticizes the game for not being a flight simulator - is the same as criticizing Mechassault for not being Mechwarrior - they are designed differently. Its that simple - you like it or you don't. I don't mean to sound harsh - it just does not make sense to me to compare the two.

Pros: In short: Graphics, game play (playability), controls, third person view (like Mechassault), SOUND oh the wonderful SOUND!, the planes and finally - HEAD to HEAD DOGFIGHTING!

(1) The graphics are excellent if you are a hard core WWII fan. With this said, the game looks nothing like Crimson Skies - and it should not. No cartoon looking water, or sleek rocks and explosions. This game looks and feels like a color movie of a WWII dogfight may have looked. The details of the planes are spectacular (if you like the look of the game).
(2) The game is very playable - the missions are not difficult on normal settings - I have yet to go back and modify settings.
(3) I enjoy the dogfights for limited play - after a while your eyes are tired. Not the hours of 007 / Halo / Mechassault - I have yet to play online, but 10 to 20 planes online sounds like a bit of fun.
(4) The sound is spectacular - every detail of the engine and gun firing noises (as well as distinctions between the planes) was followed.
(5) The left trigger button allows you to "keep your eye on your enemy" while you turn and manuever. Nice touch.

Objective comments:

Dogfighting is fun - for a limited time - there is only so long that any two people enjoy flying by one another shooting guns. The missions are a bit simple. The movie introductions and journals were interesting to me (subjective) as a WWII fan. I can see why others may just be annoyed by them. The voices were fine as were the missions themselves - a bit of variety, etc. Again, I can see why some may be annoyed by them.

Summary:

It would have been nice to have all planes "unlocked" for dogfighting mode. However, playing the missions enables you to become proficient in your flying/shooting skills and "earning" the planes gave me something to look forward to from time to time as I played the game. Much like Mechassault, I could come home from work, play with the kids, eat, and play a quick game.

All in all, the game is a lot of fun to play. Its not Halo, or Baldur's Gate, or Crimson Skies - its Secret Weapons over Normandy and it is pretty darn good.

A heck of a lot fo fun, but is open for improvement

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: December 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The perfect flight combat game? quite possible. For those of you who want to climb in the cockpit of a historic warbird and just fly around a blow enemies up, this is the game for you. Flight is easy, and not realistic. The sounds are great, and game play is excellent. Why only 4 stars then? The game has lots of room for improvement.

Dislikes:
1: There are no instant action ground attack missions or gun turret missions.
2: You can't always choose your preferable aircraft for every mission.
3: Wingmen are reletively useless.
4: Auto targeting doesn't always pick the closest enemy to you.
5: In the menu there is a greyed out "Bonus Missions" I'm guessing you have to unlock these, but I'd like to know how. It isn't mentioned anywhere in the book.
6: There are only 15 campaign missions (yes a few are multiple mission missions, but you can't save in the middle so really they are just really long multiple objective missions.)
7: Not all secondary and bonus objectives are presented to you at the start of the mission. You have to pause in the middle of the mission to see your objective listing.

Likes:
1: You don't have to know how to fly to fly these planes.
2: The background music is perfect, reminds me of the Battle of Brtiain soundtrack.
3: The storyline is fun and the films add a lot to the game.
4: The missions progress in difficulty and variety
5: Addictive game play

Definitely worth purchasing if you like air combat games, and jsut want to blow things up. :)

An excellent game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If you like the History Channel and you love airplanes, you'll love this game! An incredible amount of fun and the aircraft in the game are amazing. Very addicting gameplay and a ton of missions. Even after you beat the game, you can go back and try to get all the bonuses for each level. Getting these bonuses will often put a new airplane in your hangar. I've beaten the game and I still have a ton of stuff to do, including unlocking 7 more airplanes. An incredible game, buy it!

Very Entertaining

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 07, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is awesome. It has footage from WW2 and explains a lot of the missions and events from WW2 in great detail. There's even films you can watch about WW2 and each plane in it. The game is really fun and you unlock planes and upgrades and put upgrades on your plane with points you earn for completing missions. As for the missions, they are pretty fun and you got to do a lot of different stuff. Sometimes you got to get in an AA gun and shoot down as many Nazis as you can, sometimes you bomb targets, and you do all kinds of different stuff. This game actually teaches you about WW2 also. Its unlike any other xbox game. This game's also got xbox-live. This game is sweet and you should all pick up a copy.

Take a history class before they write a review!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: November 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

At what point during WWII did we fight the "commies"? The answer is never. We were at war with, Germany, Italy,and Japan, none of which are "commies". We were allies with the Soviet Republic, or better known in some circles as the "commies".

By the way the game looks really cool!

Just OK could have been so much better

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: November 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Rent this game first before you buy. I purchased and played all the way through and was greatly dissapointed. Nothing like the original Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe not even close. If you play Crimson Skies then try this game you will know that this game is subpar by todays standards. I finished the game and sold as quickly as possible. The reason is i knew after playing this game it has terrible graphics and the missions are rediculously easy. This game price will drop when most find out how bad it really is, just wait and get your copy cheap but do yourself a huge favor and rent it first and only buy if you can get it cheaper than renting.

not as good as i could have been

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: November 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I got this game on friday and i beat it int 4 days. The missions in this game are nothing out of the normal. Destroy this, protect that. They had a wide variety of airplanes but in the end they all seemed the same. There wasn't any great difference between most of them. I bought this game looking for a game like Ace Combat 4 and it was nothing like it. It's sort of your twisted metal type of game but with airplanes. The graphcs aren't too shabby, but there not that great either. There was a couple of times where my airplane got stuck in the ground or it didn't respond at all. The most frustating thing is when you try to land your aircraft and it won't let you even thought your on the landing strip and you then crash. That really upset me. That happen quite often actually. As for the end of the game? it's like one of those movies that just end so they can create a sequel. But overall i would recommend playing it. It was fun all thing's considered

Buy Crimson Skies instead.....

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: December 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game does not meet usual Lucasarts standards. This game would have been great about 10 years ago, but with todays technology it is way below standard. You fly these WWII planes, but the planes do not move around, it seems as if the screen is rotating around and the planes are stationary. The graphics are sub-par, and the controls are not that great. If you want a flying game buy Crimson Skies instead. The difference between those two are like night and day.

Review Page: 1 2 3 Next 

Actions