Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII – PS3 – Review

Yeah, I know, ever since hearing
about how cool the six-axis controller was going to be, the first thing I
thought of was flight games. Moving the controller to match the flight pattern
of an aircraft. But since this is a game that is a rehash of a title that came
out almost a year ago for the PC and the 360, the folks at Ubisoft sort of
dropped the ball on the whole re-imagining thing for the PS3. But to each
their own and with that, I will take a drink from my soda and continue typing
this review.

So you may or may not know the
plot – you play an American pilot who has recently been asked to work with the
British forces (to start off). The training mode that gives you a chance to
learn the basics turns into a emergency situation in which you just "happen"
to be the only pilot in the air when some Nazi pilots come looking for
trouble. Well, one thing turns to another and the game has you gallivanting to
all corners of the globe, battling Nazis in occupied Europe, the Japanese
after they have bombed Pearl Harbor and all points in between. On paper, the
game sounds like it’s a non-stop action title with gritty dog fights as the
fate of the Allies hangs in the balance. In reality, the game has a very
forced feel to it as you are given your missions in very matter-of-fact terms.
Go blow up this legion of Panzers, now blow up a bridge, now torpedo that
warship, now do this, now do that … The point being, that when the mission
is laid out for you at the beginning of a level, then by some twist of fate,
you need to do things on the fly, it doesn’t feel all that surprising. I guess
you could call the title predictable, to say the least.

"Viva Le Resistance!"

The control of the game is kind of
a hodgepodge; first, the game lets you choose whether or not you want to play
using the six-axis controller or the control sticks on the controller. Using
the sticks allows players an almost instant feel for the game, targeting
enemies, flying in dogfights, dropping leaflets on the towns. But using the
six-axis makes the game seem more realistic, you have to get a feel for your
plane (you fly several different types), move the pitch and yaw slower and
smoothly, jerking the thing around will only make the plane not react. So
what’s neat is that the choice is up to you, and both of them do have
something positive to offer.

Now I’m down with a cool-flying
combat title as much as the next player, but the game does start to
deteriorate in the ways of visuals. Starting off, the game has some pretty
tight visuals, the rolling hills of the English countryside looks pretty
decent, the soft colored landscape, the surprisingly clear town complete with
church steeple, it looks pretty good. But then as you get deeper into the
title, the game seems to break down; there is some stuttering in the frame
rate as well as completely ignoring some graphical necessities. For a game
that has supposedly gone through an overhaul for the PS3, it still suffers
from some of the same problems that the PC version has.

The voicework in the game also
seems to be coming up a bit lame. As the game continues forward, you begin
forming your own team of wingmen – Joe, Frank and Tom all with special
abilities. Tom can repair your plan (unrealistically) as you fly around,
provided you hit the correct sequence of buttons. Frank can unleash a
temporary fury that has him decimating the other enemy aircraft while Tom can
pull enemy sorties off your back when the pressure becomes too much. You, of
course, have the ability to give the orders to these men, otherwise they will
engage in combat in sort of an "occupy some of the enemies" default
mode. These men have the strangest tone to their voices, it’s almost confusing
the way they and other important characters to the game deliver their lines.

"You know, I don’t have a clue where we
are at."

Which doesn’t necessarily mean
that the other aspects of the game sound bad. The in-game gunfire and plane
explosions sound fairly full and while the game does not say "Dolby Digital"
on the box, my receiver lit up like a Christmas Tree, indicating that it was
indeed feeding the beast that is DD. So sound effects-wise, I was quite
pleased with how they sounded, the voicework, not so much.

The other thing worth mentioning
is the multiplayer mode. The game allows for 16 player online action; problem
is, you can’t find 16 players who all want in on the same game. I found a few
rooms that had three or four players in it, and the experience playing with
them was a bit lacking. There is a two-player split screen option for
fighting, but I felt the experience was lacking, besides, split screen
multi-player is so last console anyway. I wish I could report back that the
multiplayer aspect was a good one, but looking at the rooms at various times
of the day and not seeing all that many players was telling in itself. I did
end up in a couple of dogfights with other players and teammates, but the game
does not feature any sort of verbal communication; rather it has the same
canned orders that the single-player mode has. This really takes the whole
dynamic right down the tube.

Gameplay: 8.0
I enjoyed the two distinctly
different ways to play the game, six-axis feedback, or dual thumbsticks. Repairing
your plane through a series of button combinations may not be realistic, but
it is kind of cool.

Graphics: 6.8
Next gen graphics? I don’t think
so, the game starts off pretty good but then goes downhill quickly, with
uneven graphics throughout the rest of the game.

Sound: 6.5
The game comes out loud through
all my speakers and the sound effects do a bang up job of getting things done,
but then the characters begin talking and everything goes wrong, so wrong.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
You can whip through some missions
and then get the tar slapped out of you ten times in a row afterwards, the
game has it’s own set of challenges, I just wish the missions were more
varied, after all, dropping bombs and leaflets may have a different outcome,
but it’s just two sides of the same coin.

Concept: 6.0
A World War II combat game where
you fight the Japanese and the Germans, sound familiar? It should, it’s been
done to death.

Multiplayer: 6.0
If the lack of people playing this
game online is any indication, then this is an average experience. There is
another WWII era game that’s online with the PS3 and it’s far more engaging.

Overall: 6.8
The game gets some points for the
innovative use of the controls, but otherwise it’s somewhat predictable and
sadly lacking in the "fun" department. Just an average game on what should be
an un-average system.