Heroes of the Pacific

"Good Arcade Flight Sim, But If You Are Expecting Ace Combat, Look Elseware"

I stopped in at my local Wal-Mart for a new game, and it was either this or Shadow Of Colossus. Although somewhat disappointed in this, I did pick up a solid game, with a fair amount of action.

Game play: If you are expecting Ace Combat, don't even bother renting or buying this. Although the controls are not as responsive as Secret Weapons Over Normandy, the game feels somewhat the same. The controls are well laid out and you have a fair selection of plane views, from far out, to cockpit. I have only experienced a few slowdowns and the fact you can have up to 150 planes on the screen is nice, although there are few missions where this feature is actually used. Although it is nice to have a main character that actually speaks in the mission and not just in journal entries, I find the voices over the radio can get somewhat annoying very quickly. There is a fair amount of planes to pick from, although you can not use all of them in the campaign, it is nice to be able to fly a bomber.

Graphics: The graphics in this game, even for the PS2 version are sweet. The buildings are not just pasted on the ground and every ground item; from units to buildings all have a 3-D model. Another cool feature is the smoke affects, buildings and mechanical units will burn when destroyed and then the fires will burn themselves out. This can make it very hard to see other ground targets which is very realistic. When you destroy a sea target the target will slowly sink and leave an oil slick that will burn itself out.

When it comes to the sea targets such as transport ships, you can actually see the troops, which have been individually modeled. The aircraft carrier's anti-aircraft guns move and will follow their target, the same goes with the large naval guns on the huge battle ships. When it comes to the planes, as you upgrade them, they each have a new pain job, some of them better than others of course, but it is a cool feature none the less.

Sound: Overall the sound effects are great. You can hear your engine strain, the machine guns overheat and the explosions and splashes of the planes as the slam into the ocean. There are some sound glitches however, like for instance, if you fire your machine guns for too long, the sound will stay on. Another sweet thing is as you bomb a battle ship, you can hear the alarms sound. When the boats sink you can hear them fall beneath the waves and succumb to the bombs you have just pummeled them with.

The music in the game is utterly annoying. It seems thrown together, and some of it is the same song, just done different ways. I think I might just be partial to the Ace Combat and Secret Weapons Over Normandy soundtracks, but even other family members find it annoying. I find it strange that the soundtrack would be this bad, considering other Ubisoft tiles like Beyond Good and Evil and XIII have killer music. Oh well, I guess the music composer in this one fell asleep at the keyboard.

Replay Value: I am currently running through the game a second time on Pilot mode as I played through Rookie the first time. I tend to replay flight simulator games until the disc dies or my PS2 burst into flames. They are one of my favorite genres and I can usually find something good about them all. Also, as with any game I play, once I unlock everything I will delete my game save and start fresh. I would say most people will play this game more than once. Not as much as maybe Metal Gear Solid, but at least twice.

Overall: Even on Rookie I did find this game very difficult. If you plane stalls you might as well kiss your arse goodbye. Although I bought this game hoping for something as stellar as Secret Weapons Over Normandy and was surprised it wasn't, I was equally as surprised that I did thoroughly enjoy the title. I would recommend a rental first, and I have found to get your hands on a copy can be extremely hard. If you are a World War 2 buff, history buff, or just looking for a challenge I would pick it up, but a word of advice, if you are a smoker make sure you have plenty of smokes, cause if you don't, you may find your PS2 on you front lawn in the morning and it is rather expensive to replace.

Overall I agree with most of the major game reviews, this is a bout an 8 on a 10 scale. Again, if you are and Ace Combat buff and are looking for something similar steer clear and wait for the next flight sim. It is nice to see a WWII game that follows the air campaign. I am sick of playing FPS WWII games and a flight sim is always a welcome addition to my somewhat large game collection.

8/10
Game Rating: T for Teen

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/05