It seems that every game coming out today is trying to be as realistic as possible. What ever happened to the days when Arcade style games flooded the market and were all about having fun? Well, those days are mostly gone. However every now and again we get a game that offers just that. Air Conflicts is one of those games that offer the best of both worlds from Arcade style to Simulation type gameplay.
The story revolves around the pilot Dorothy or DeeDee as she is known throughout most of the game. She is a merchant pilot who smuggles liquor but winds up getting into a war she never intended of fighting. She is joined by several colleagues who help out in some missions but not all of them. Most battles take place over Europe in dog fights but you will also get the chance to bombard several ground enemies.
There are a total of 16 planes to choose from. Each plane has their own individual stats such as speed, handling, resistance and weapons. Most planes are stock with machine guns but some planes carry more inventory than others such as bombs and missiles. Ammo is unlimited so your trigger finger won’t feel bad when the ammo is depleted, although it does take several seconds for the weapons to respawn and your machine gun will get hot if used too much. You can also increase your own stats as you complete mission requirements throughout campaign mode.
Gameplay takes a little getting used to when you first boot up the game. First loading times take too much time and even then, the game doesn’t proceed automatically. So if you are doodling, chances are your game has been ready for the last couple of minutes. You then have to pick the way the camera will control the plane. There are 4 types of controller configuration but it all boils down to whether you want it in Sim or Arcade Mode.
You then have to figure out how the whole GUI works as not much is explained. For example radar doesn’t really guide you where you need to go until it plays a game of hide and seek with you. All your radar does when you need to go somewhere is flash. If you’re going in the right direction it will flash faster and if you go in the wrong direction it will flash slower until it disappears for not going the right direction. Radar will tell you where the enemy is and if you’re doing a stealth mission, there’s a circle around the enemy. Basically you have to stay out of that circle in order to stay out of the enemy’s sight but what it doesn’t tell you; is that if you fly low the circle decreases in radius allowing you to slip by undetected.
Of course some missions are all about stealth and these missions can be completed by heading to point A to point B while being undetected. When this happened I got into an air battle as it made things more interesting than just flying low from point A to point B. Most missions are also a couple of minutes long but the good thing is that there are over 49 missions so the game should last you a few hours before completing. You can also take up to the sky and battle online but you have better chances of finding oil in your backyard than finding opponents to play with.
Graphically the game isn’t breaking any records but that’s not a bad thing. The arcade type gameplay works with the graphics. The ground soldier animation is choppy though and the environments could also use a little more detail. The airplane is also 5x bigger than the trees for some reason so the view distance isn’t at its best. Cutscenes are just a single picture with different exit animations, which at times it can be hilarious to look at.
Voice over isn’t also the best and at times it sounds like you’re reading an audio book with actors. You can easily tell this was a budget game based on the sound effects also as they sound like they came from cartoons. Music isn’t as bad though as it does match the conflict going on but it can get very repetitive.
For all the negatives though gameplay is fun and fast. Getting into dog fights is the highlight of the game and there are plenty of enemies to go around. The AI isn’t always the smartest as they don’t maneuver very well. However trying to shoot them down is always fun for those who like air plane games. The fast pace of the dog fights it’s what won me over and most of the time I had a great time playing it.
Closing Comments:
Air Conflicts: Secret wars lacks’ many things but makes up for it with its arcade style gameplay. The gameplay is faster than any other airplane game and that is a plus on my book. However it is hard for me to recommend this as a Buy because there is no replay ability besides going back to previous missions and playing it with different aircrafts and online multiplayer is almost nonexistent. At $39.99 I will rate this game as a Rent though because of its fast yet gameplay style that isn’t found on other games of its genre.
Gameplay: 8.5/10
Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 5/10
Story: 7/10
Life Span: 6/10
Total Score: 65/100
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