Wings of War

"WW I comes to the Xbox"

WW 1. The Great War. The War To End All Wars. A big political trainwreck in which millions of people died is a better way to put it. Wings of War for the Xbox puts you in the pilot seat as an allied pilot fighting for the skies over the Western Front. There's really not much of a plot to speak off other than: "It's a war. Find the Germans. Kill the Germans." The heart of the game is the campaign mode which consists of 12 overall missions. There's a tutorial, but if you've ever spent some time with an arcade style flight sim, you won't need it. Each mission contains 10 or 12 objectives as well as several bonus targets. You don't have to do the bonus objectives, but they earn you upgrades like another machine gun or a faster engine.

And trust me you're gonna want all the help you can get when the Germans come swooping at you from every direction with guns blazin. You'll be up against fighters, bombers, anti-aircraft, even zeppelins. And they all would love to turn your ass into a burnt, bullet riddled corpse. To prevent that grizzly outcome, you'll have machine guns, bombs and rockets at your disposal. OK, I have to tell you an issue I have with the weapons. The rockets are extremely effective... maybe too effective. You pretty much just have to fire in the general direction of your foe and the rocket will hit em. The machine guns, on the other hand, are too weak. They have infinite ammo, but if you're left with only your guns, taking down targets is gonna be a pain. Luckily there's ammo refills, repairs for your plane, and shields stashed in some enemies and in out of the way places like under bridges.

The missions are long but there's save spots after you complete certain objectives. To me this game's biggest feature is the variety of things you'll be doing. As you progress through your objectives, you'll be in a huge dogfight, next you may be on a bombing run, then you'll get behind the trigger of a ground turret after which you'll steal a German plane. This game keeps your ass moving, but some of the transition cutscenes look goofy. Especially when you jump from one plane to another. That's too funny.

To go along with this varied gameplay, WOW has a ton of different WW1 aircraft. They don't have their proper names but only a geek like me would notice. The game looks decent overall graphically but the planes stand out. They're vibrantly colored and show real time damage so when you or your enemies get hit, pieces of the plane go flying. The controls feel good with the Xbox's controller and if you press the analog stick as you hit the white button, your plane goes into a range of evasive maneuvers to get the enemies off your back. The user friendly controls and the sensation of speed makes for some really fluid gameplay. The music and voice acting are solid as are the range of combat sound fx. Sometimes the Germans talk some smack in the middle of battle, which is awesome.

In addition to the campaign mode, there's a pretty bare bones deathmatch mode. I don't know, I'm not sure that games like this make for good multiplayer. Three difficulty levels will keep your controller smashing in check, plus you have a decent radar and map to help find your way. WOW was released as a budget title in 2004, but there's nothing that really feels "cheap" in this game. Overall it's a fun action title and I had my share of good times with it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/27/09

Game Release: Wings of War (US, 08/30/04)