Inevitability has reared its ugly head and all Navy fighter pilot William Crowe
could do was watch as the USS Arizona sank to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, taking
his brother with it.
As if the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, was not enough to cause anger,
you can add vengeance to the mix. This provides the backdrop for the PC
air-combat title, Heroes of the Pacific by Ubisoft. The game features 26
missions covering the Pacific theatre of operations, boasts 36 WWII aircraft and
can have as many as 150 on-screen planes.
First off,
let’s get to the heart of air combat games, at least from this limited
perspective. Jet fighters are great, with rockets and such, but targeting planes
that are a mile away and just releasing a missile is not much fun. Going to
guns, worrying about stalling, steep dives out of the sun, a quick burst, then
roll away as another plane tries to target you can be a blast.
Time to
break out the joystick for this one, because mouse and keyboard does not really
cut it.
The game
begins with some tutorial training at Hickem Field. Players will learn the
basics of flight, targeting, waypoints and landing. You will also learn how to
issue orders to your wingmen.
The game has
four types of planes – fighters, bombers, dive bombers and torpedo bombers, and
each of these is covered in the tutorial as well.
But the game
is not without flaws. First there is the pseudo-emotional angle. The game begins
by telling the backstory of the Crowe brothers and how they both would end up in
Hawaii in the Navy when the Japanese attack occurred. William, the flyer, writes
home to tell his parents about the loss of his brother. He writes about how they
could hear the sailors calling for help as the ship sank, but they were unable
to reach them. Problem there, folks. That is cheap sensationalism at best. At
the time the Arizona went down, William was in a P-40 Warhawk above Pearl,
engaged with fighters and trying to keep bombers from destroying fuel supplies
and the like. Heard the screams of the sailors on the Arizona? Hardly.
From there
the game progresses to Wake Island. Japanese recon has overflown the base, and
fighters are scrambled to catch the planes before they can report the position
back. That is the general tenure of the game – each of the missions in the
campaign has specific goals that must be accomplished to advance. Advance and
you can unlock new planes as well as upgrade your existing plane. Of course,
each mission is graded out and if you do well enough, you can not only upgrade
your existing ride, but get the ‘latest’ plane. The first stop after the P-40 is
a F4F-3 Wildcat.
The game
begins with only the instant action, multiplayer and campaign (in addition to
the tutorial) available, but after you complete a couple of missions in the
campaign, the single-mission option opens up. The game tracks some of the
biggest air battles in the Pacific and the objectives and challenges change with
the difficulty setting. Set it on rookie and you breathe on the enemy and they
tumble from the sky. Go up to Ace and you had better know what you are doing or
you will be blown into little tiny pieces falling into the blue waters of the
Pacific.
The game’s
control scheme comes in two forms – arcade and pro. There are subtle differences
between the two, but both are designed to allow players to get right into the
action, rather than learn how to fly a plane from the beginning flight
instruction 101 manual. The keys can be remapped, but if you really want to fly
the planes in this game, break out the flight joystick, and have at it. The
mouse-keyboard combo is Ok, but just does not provide the thrill that the
joystick does.
As for the
sound, there is music, and narrative, and both are serviceable. The script is a
little over-dramatized, but tries to pull the player in. Given the backdrop of
the story, beginning with Pearl Harbor, there is little need – that is
compelling enough reason to get up in the air and exact some revenge.
Graphically
this game is very good. From the airstreams off the wings, to the clouds and the
stretches of blue ocean, Heroes does a fine job.
Heroes of
the Pacific feels somewhat short when you get into the missions, coupled with
long load times between. This is not so good, but once you do get into a
mission, and find your rhythm, it can feel like you are just getting warmed up
when you have completed both the primary and secondary tasks. Gameplay is also
interrupted with cutscenes, which – while brief – cut into the game’s flow.
Still, this
is a very entertaining aerial combat vehicle that pulls you in and is somewhat
addictive. The replay value is suspect because only the difficulty ramps up the
challenge (Ok, sure, you can try for a higher kill count and better accuracy
percentage), and the scenarios are essentially unchanged. However, flight fans
are sure to find this enjoyable, and those looking for a decent WWII air combat
title will likely be entertained by this entry.
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Gameplay:
7.2
Rife with load
times, the missions themselves are fast-paced and seem relatively short. The
control options come in two forms – arcade and pro, and though there are minor
differences between the two, the pro setting is not designed to hamper the
combat experience.
Graphics:
8.5
This game looks
very good. The action is great; the environments are very well done. There are a
few failings (like the time the plane stalled, smacked down onto the ground and
bounced like a basketball back up into the air and the flight continued), but
these are minor.
Sound:
7.7
The voice acting
is not bad; it’s the script that has a few minor issues with over-dramatizing
the story. The music is solid and the combat sounds are well done. Hearing
bullets ricochet off your plane will have you instinctually pulling some rolls.
That is an example of good sound effects affecting in-game reactions.
Difficulty: Medium
There are four
settings, ranging from rookie through to ace.
Concept:
8.0
The game looks
great and covers the major conflicts of the time and place. It is very
accessible. The manual, though, has some faulty information in terms of
controls. For example, it states that to hit warspeed (a short burst of speed
that can overheat your engine) you hit and hold down the space bar. Not so. That
is the keyboard equivalent of guns. The “<” is what triggers Warspeed, at least
in the default settings. The key mapping can be customized.
Multiplayer: 8.0
Dogfights with
real players – what’s not to enjoy?
Overall:
8.0
The missions,
even with secondary objectives, feel short but there is no denying that this is
a fine-looking game that is accessible and a quite a bit of fun to play.
