Heroes of the Pacific

"Soaring High to Victory...Almost"

A great WWII-era flight sim that flies high but has a few stalls along the way.

Every gamer worth their merit can say that they've played at least one WWII game. The "Medal of Honor" and "Call of Duty" series have shown the war from a soldier's perspective, but Heroes of the Pacific (HotP) show how the war was won from above.

Starting off right after the attack on Pearl Harbor the game follows the story of LT. Crowe. Crowe's brother was on the ill-fated ship Arizona when it sank so naturally Crowe's out for some revenge, and with the planes at your disposal, that won't be such a hard task.

Presentation:
If it's one thing this game does right it's the presentation. Done up to mimic the feel of the era, you'll see colorful menu screens with an art style that'll make you feel like you've stepped back into the 40's. The only downside to this is that there are too many load screens in the game that you'll be seeing the menu screen whether you like it or not. The load times aren't too long, but the frequency of them will start to bug you after a few sessions.
During gameplay the first thing you'll notice is how nice the game looks. The graphics in the game are simply gorgeous. Plane models are very detailed and the environment looks pretty nice. The sun will reflect off of your plane as you're flying around and smoke will pour out of it when you're about to explode. The clouds are another interesting thing too as they're very realistic.
A down point to the game comes in the form of the music. Simply put, it sucks. It does nothing to add to the game and sounds generic the whole way through.

Gameplay:
Flight mechanics are easy to pick up and play. Each plane flies differently from one another but the overall controls feel a bit too loose. Trying to lock onto an enemy air craft can be a chore as your cursor will fly everywhere except on your target. Other than that though the gameplay's pretty solid. Levels are done in a linear fashion with objectives that must be done as well as secondary objectives. The only real problem I had playing was that the HUD wasn't as well designed as I would have liked. The altimeter and air speed are packed together along with the weapons that you're equipped with as well as health. Too much emphasis is put onto the latter while the alt. and airspeed are nothing more than small numbers. That wouldn't be too much of a problem except for that the depth perception is a little off so you'll be slamming into the ground or water when you think you're well above it.

Conclusion:
While not as tight a package as LucasArt's "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" HotP still warrants a playthrough if your into WWII flight sims. If you've played SWoN to death, then pick this one up. If you haven't played either, then pick up SWoN first, either one though should keep you happy for weeks to come.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/19/06