Articles
By Mr Shoosh
Published: Mar. 4, 2007 11:22 AM
Ubisoft must have been suffering from split personality disorder when they worked on this title as you find yourself bouncing from mediocre to brilliant throughout the entire campaign. It’s impossible to review this game without drawing comparisons to Heroes of the Pacific (unfortunately released too late in the Xbox’s life to reap the rewards it deserved) as both games were set in the same era; albeit HOTP focussed solely on the campaign in the Pacific. HOTP was a diverse, well balanced challenging game that was rewarding to play and impressed the gamer with stunning numbers of on screen planes – all factors lacking in Blazing Angels. If I’m sounding too critical it’s fair to state I’m very passionate about this genre and expect Ubisoft to deliver.
The ”Blazing Angels” are a four man squad who take you through the aerial peaks of WWII through Dunkirk, London, North Africa, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Normandy, Paris and finally Berlin. The game, developed by Ubisoft’s Romanian Studio, clearly sets out to deliver a diverse adventure but fails to bind that diversity into a coherent experience. Flight controls are simple and intuitive which makes the game immediately inviting and starts things off well. The initial training covers just about all you need to know about flying and the early stages of the campaign covers squad control as well as character introductions. There is no cockpit view but you’ll find the addition of holding your left trigger to keep your sight on the target compensates for this. It adds a little extra challenge and really makes the dogfights more fun and rewarding. Most planes have a secondary weapon (rocket, bomb or torpedo) which are integrated nicely on the HUD as your remaining ammunition is illustrated effectively on your crosshair. You can select either your nearest target or cycle through targets which is also done effectively as it’s simple to implement but covers all you really need.
You start off and remain leader of the same three wingmen for the entire game and sometimes play missions alone or with just the one wingman. Ubisoft introduces an original squad control scheme that works so well, it’s sometimes a bad thing (your squad can be too effective and never die). As always, all squad commands are issued via the d-pad. “Up” cleverly cycles through your generic controls: formation, defend & attack. The three remaining directions cover the specialties of specific squad members. Frank is a “hunter” who will successfully take out whichever target you want him to – and often their wingmen too. Great idea, but the guy never dies and always kicks a little too much arse. It might not be enough to win the mission for you, but it’s enough to lessen the challenge. Tom is the human shield who’ll shake any clingon off your “6” which is on the whole great, but also a little unrealistic. Joe, apart from having an annoying voice, knows everything about a plane’s mechanics and will help you out when you’re smoking up. This is implemented brilliantly as he’ll issue a combo of buttons for you to press to get your plane back to normal. Although there is no limit to issuing these special commands, it does take a little time for them to “recharge” – as indicated nicely on your HUD.
Once the initial enjoyment of the simplicity of the controls wears off, you find the game is a little too easy and then out of nowhere you’re hit with a trickier mission objective. The lack of consistency here is frustrating as it’s neither a gradual process nor a rewarding challenge. It’s simply a scenario that most likely involves you not defending well enough or not shooting enough planes in time. I would have preferred to have seen the challenge of the game consistently escalate through more intense dogfights against quality AI as opposed to a quantity/time limit approach. The game bounces between too easy and too frustrating too often.
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