Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII

"Write Your Glory Across the Skies"

Soaring like an avenging angel over the streets of wartime London, you suddenly notice your wing fabric is being shredded by white hot bullets shot by a Messerschmidt 109 that has just dropped onto your tail out of nowhere. You pull back on the stick, sending the low clouds tumbling through your field of vision, twisting all the time to try to turn the tables on the Luftwaffe fiend who is taunting you over the radio. Finally, after swooping too low over the clustered roofs of the East End, you manage to get him in your sights. You let rip with a volley of lead, and see your foe explode into flames and plummet to the ground. You've sent another Nazi straight to hell. Welcome to Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII.

In this game you will be expected to play a pivotal role in many of the key theatres of the second world war: Dunkirk, North Africa, Pearl Harbour, Midway, the liberation of Paris, D-Day and Berlin itself. You will fly a variety of fighters and bombers, all with their peculiar quirks and strengths. You will sink ships, you will engage in crazily dangerous dog fights with flocks of enemy fighters, you will drop hundreds of bombs over precisely identified military and industrial targets, but most of all you will fly on the edge of human endurance and skill.

To the practicalities. The game's central theme is a series of missions spanning WWII. Each is progressively more difficult, each tests your skill a little more intensely. By the time you're on your third mission, you'll be instinctively comfortable with the controls, and looking for something to challenge your skills. Believe me, you'll get that challenge, and then some. Some of the missions require very precise and skillful flying: through cavernous fjords, along urban rivers bristling with anti-aircraft emplacements, and across deserts during sandstorms. This can become frustrating: many of the missions are timed, and you'll find yourself wondering how the hell you're meant to bust through seemingly impossible odds in what seems like a ridiculously tight time.

But have courage. All the missions are possible, especially with the help of your wingmen. You have three of them, all with their own skills and personalities. With these three comrades, you'll fight your way through most of the war. It's a nice touch: personally, I felt a real esprit de corps with my AI buddies towards the end.

The missions are nicely diverse. You'll attack ground targets with rockets and bombs in a variety of scenarios. But the heart of the matter is the dogfight. The main threat is always other fighters, whether they be Luftwaffe or Japanese Zeros, and they present the toughest challenge in the game. Most of the time, you'll be screaming through the skies desperately trying to (i) shake that persistent enemy fighter off your butt and (ii) manoeuvre into a firing position behind, below or above him. All the time, you'll hear your enemy's taunts over the intercom (“You fly worse than my mechanic!”), as well as encouragement and warnings (“He's on your six!”) from your buddies. You'll get to fly all the classic WWII planes (Spitfire, Mustang, and about 40 others). In some modes, you can fly ‘enemy' planes including the notorious Zeros, as well as experimental jets.

Gaming experience often comes down to atmosphere, and this game's got buckets of it. If you want an impressionistic feeling of what is involved, Google image search Paul Nash's “Battle of Britain” painting. There's a real thrill in soaring, swooping and diving over the sleepy population below; you feel special being involved in ‘to the death' dogfights with elite enemy pilots against the canvas of beautifully rendered skyscapes.

The graphics are fine, if not really special. Nothing spectacular in 360 terms, but they do the job, and you really ain't judging graphics when a ME 109 is trying to kill you. Likewise, the sound is fine: engine and gun noises are sufficiently distinct and the voice acting is okay. The music is suitably rousing.

More practicalities: aside from the campaign, there are arcade, co-op and online modes. All are fine, if that's your thing, although you may find other players thin on the ground (or sky) on Live. The real thrill is in the campaign mode.

Flaws? Yes, there are some. Some of the missions are very hard, though there are easily and immediately accessible cheat modes which make things much easier. One mission – a desert reconnaissance – is frankly tedious. Sometimes the constant banter can become a little irritating. But all in all, these gripes don't outweigh the overall joy of the Gameplay in Blazing Angels.

There's also definite replayability here. You get various ratings for each mission, from Novice to Ace. If you get Ace, you get a medal. I spent many hours trying to get each campaign medal, and am still trying to get a couple. For me, it hasn't yet got old, after many hours of play.

But the real selling point of this game is the flying. How often have you played through a flying vehicle stage in a standard FPS, say, and thought how cool it would be if you could do more of it? Well, this game gives you all the flying you could want, with more than a little panache.

Take to the skies then, and experience the joy of out-flying a Nazi Ace over Berlin. Believe me, it's a kick.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/02/06, Updated 10/03/06