There’s one thing
I’ve always appreciated about 3DO’s Army Men series: creativity. The toys in
this series from 3DO, which includes the first-person shooter and real time
strategy genres, aren’t to be played with. These army men are animated killing
machines, and continue to slaughter each other amidst a battlefield of teddy
bears, dog dishes, and Frisbees. In Army Men combat, bazookas are replaced by
Roman candles, grenades by cherry bombs, and bleeding corpses by puddles of
melted plastic.
This Toy Story
creativity is the most enjoyable part of the latest title in the Army Men
series, Air Combat – The Elite Missions. However, this game is about flying
helicopters and destroying the evil Tan army, not watching creativity blossom.
The story follows
Captain William Blade, a green army Helicopter pilot, as he thwarts the evil
attempts of the Tan army. The Tan army has gained a stronghold on plastic
resources, and a new enemy is dominating the skies, Baron Von Beige, a toy
version of the Red Baron. It’s up to Blade to gain control of the skies and
supply lines and push the green army to victory.
The single player
campaign pits Blade against the Tan army over 20 different missions taking place
in 10 environments. HQ barks out orders to Blade, who must complete several
objectives throughout each level while providing ample air support to the green
bases. Is it a lot to ask for one helicopter pilot? Oh yeah.
Every good pilot
needs a good co-pilot, and Army Men features four co-pilots Blade can choose
from. Each co-pilot boasts his (or her) own weapon, such as napalm or homing
rockets, and will be vital to completing each mission.
All of the five
helicopters in the game are at the mercy of real-life physics. Wind, payload,
and gravity all effect the flight of each chopper with manageable realism (it is
a game after all, not an Army chopper sim), and each chopper has its strengths
and weaknesses as well as individual weapons.
Flying the
whirlybirds is not easy. The control stick controls the forward and backward
movement of the chopper, and the left and right buttons control the lateral
movement of the chopper in a strafing style. It’s a bit counterintuitive and
takes a while to get used to, but that’s how flying a chopper is. The A button
controls simple machine gun fire, X controls the choppers special weapon (homing
rockets, lasers, bombs, depending on the helicopter), and the Y button controls
the co-pilot’s weapon. The most devastating weapon at the pilot’s disposal is
the winch, a hook that picks up items on the ground. Using the winch, the
helicopter can hurl all sorts of objects at enemies and pick up power-ups.
Speaking of
power-ups, they can be found all over every level and appear after defeating
enemies or destroying buildings. In addition to the simple armor upgrades and
machine gun power-ups, special power-ups such as speed increases and camouflage
also aid in the battle against the tan.
Army Men: Air
Combat – The Elite Missions offers a few multiplayer modes, though none of them
are worth more than a few minutes. Two pilots can tackle the single player
missions in a cooperative mode and join forces to crush the Tan army, or pilots
can square off against each other in several modes of head-to-head combat.
Among the modes are simple deathmatch, capture the flag, and bug hunt, an insect
slaughter-fest where the winner is the chopper with the most bugs splattered.
The graphics of
The Elite Missions aren’t very elite at all. Except for the great-looking
cutscenes, the look of the game isn’t much better than the old Nintendo 64
system. It’s a sharp decline from Army Men RTS, my personal favorite in the
Army Men series. Objects can morph through other objects as though they’re part
of another dimension, and the explosions in the game are a major
disappointment.
The audio in the
game is equally pathetic. Most of the sound effects aren’t that impressive at
all. The music in the game stays within the war movie genre, but is average at
best. Once again, the cutscenes prove to be the best as the voice work in them
is pretty good.
Army Men: Air
Combat – The Elite Missions looks as though it was put together pretty hastily.
Much of the gameplay is severely lacking in entertainment value and most of the
missions play like menial tasks rather than covert operations. Aside from the
creativity of the game, there really isn’t a whole lot to praise.
Army Men: Air
Combat – The Elite Missions is rated Teen for animated violence.
Gameplay: 5.6
The controls are a
bit clumsy, and the overall game just isn’t much fun. Maneuverability isn’t as
good as it should be in a helicopter, making the chopper an easy target for
enemy soldiers. Not much fun at all.
Graphics: 6.0
The graphics in
The Elite Missions are a bit disappointing. The level of detail could have been
greatly increased. A bit more polishing of the objects and this game could get
a decent score. However, as in all Army Men games, the cutscenes are excellent.
Sound: 6.0
The sounds of war
aren’t given justice in this game. The voice announcing the power-ups is
especially low quality.
Difficulty: Medium
The hardest part
of the game is trying to stay focused on playing it out.
Concept: 7.0
Again, Army Men
showcases tons of creativity, but lacks solid gameplay, graphics, and sound to
make this title battle-worthy.
Multiplayer: 6.0
The multiplayer
modes have limited playability, given the fact that they’re based around the
mediocre gameplay of the single player game. The cooperative mode can offer a
few hours of entertainment however.
Overall: 5.8
Army Men: Air
Combat seems as though it was a project that 3DO attempted to salvage. The game
seems as though it were released as an attempt to try and break even on a game
that never really had a chance. The Army Men franchise should see some success
on the Nintendo GameCube, and it’s a shame that the debut of the little green
guys on the Cube is the lackluster Air Combat – The Elite Missions.
