December 7th,
1941 and the blow that lead to the expanded theatre of war for the United
States. The Japanese, in a bold strategic move, attempted to wipe out the U.S.
Pacific Fleet and caught a lot of ships unprepared during the surprise attack in
Japan’s opening salvo of the war. Unfortunately, Japan’s act of “infamy” failed
to catch the big fish, the U.S. aircraft carriers. Had they been moored at Pearl
Harbor, the war might have had a different outcome.
That is the
historical element and the setup for Attack on Pearl Harbor, a PC game from
Legendo and CDV. Once you understand that setup, forget everything else. The
game itself uses the attack as a backdrop but the rest is pure fiction.
With Attack,
the story is told through comic book panels – with action seen from the
third-person perspective – and both work out well. The game is set up in an
arcade style with limited numbers of aircraft at your disposal. The game also
has campaign and dogfight modes. In the campaign you fly as Douglas Knox for the
U.S. and Zenji Yamada for the Japanese. There are five American fighters
available: the F4U Corsair, the SBD Dauntless, TBM Avenger, Seafire F-MK-4S, and
P-40 Warhawk. On the Japanese side, there are the A6M1 Zero, BSN1 Kate, D3A1 Val
and J1N1 Gekko. There are five mission types: Air Battle, Bombing, Escort,
Search and Destroy and Torpedo Mission. There are seven battle areas – Pearl
Harbor, Wake Island, Coral Sea, Guadalcanal, the Philippine Sea, Saipan and
Peliliu.
The game has
a reward system and you start off as a fresh-faced pilot and then, after
accruing 500 points, you are promoted to Lieutenant JG (Junior Grade). You can
also earn medals and unlock other aircraft to fly.
The graphics
are terrific and the effects do a good job of keeping the action lively. There
is a moment of satisfaction when you dive bomb a convoy and see the boiler on
the ship explode, sending the ship down to a watery grave. The cut scenes are
told via comic panels, which do little to prepare the player for the great look
of the game itself, but do a solid job in trying to give the game a story feel.
The planes show damage, and you will see tracers lighting up the sky like deadly
beams of light. Should the stream hit you, you will hear the plinking of bullets
either bouncing off or penetrating your plane. The environments are also very
well done.
As for the
controls … well, there is easy to use and then there is this title. No tricky
take-offs or landings. Hit the space bar to take off and the end of the mission
is all you need to get to; you don’t have to circle back around and land. A
radar display will help you head in the right direction and arrows on the sides
of the screens shows you where the targets are. You have a targeting reticule.
When it turns red, you will hit your target. Dropping bombs is simple. The left
mouse button takes care of the plane’s machine guns; the right mouse button
drops your bombs. Hold down the right mouse button and you can watch them hit.
The game
does support both solo gaming and online multiplayer dogfights. Unfortunately
during the play times used for this review, few people were found online. But
really, the meat and potatoes of this game are the campaign modes. This is not a
flight sim; taking off is simple and once the mission objective has been
accomplished there is no need to worry about returning to base and landing the
plane. The focus here is solidly on the action. To that end, ammunition is never
a problem. The game also does not seem to worry about collision paths with the
plane models. The dogfights can take on a frenetic pace but the gameplay is
not handicapped in terms of trying to evade attacks. Roll overs, loops, you can
almost do whatever it takes to shake off enemies trying to make you look like
Swiss cheese.
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Gameplay: 7.2
The control
elements are strictly arcade and the whole idea is to get players into the game
and allow them the opportunity to succeed or fail on their own merits, not
because they are struggling with a control scheme that eludes them.
Graphics: 8.0
Kudos for the
strong graphics. There are a few minor glitches and the lack of a collision path
immediately removes any immersion. The environments viewed from a distance can
seem soft, but the plane models and crisp and the effects are solid.
Sound: 7.2
Nothing
unexpected is presented here, but this is a nice adjunct to the graphics and
brings home the action.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Concept: 7.4
Let’s face it –
WWII fighters tread very familiar territory and even a couple have tackled the
attack on Pearl. This title uses that attack as a setup for a solid arcade
experience and supports it with strong graphical elements.
Multiplayer: N/A
The game does
support multiplayer but no matches were found at the time of the review.
Overall: 7.2
The game is not
going to make inroads in terms of gameplay, or graphics, or sound. It is an
arcade-style action game that moves at a strong pace and is enjoyable for its
action. Don’t expect the game to have much to do with a true re-enactment of the
Pearl Harbor attack and accept the fantasy that this game brings to the
foreground. What it does, it does well.
