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| | Title:
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
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System:
Xbox
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Genre:
Action
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Publisher:
Ubisoft
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Developer:
Ubisoft
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Release:
Q1, 2006
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
Rated Pending
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Flight simulators are far and few when it comes to Xbox titles. Ubisoft is rearranging the holidays with an exclusive World War II title, made only for the Xbox. So rejoice dear Xbox gamers, dear Live players, and all those who still have a thread of tolerance for all the World War II games that come our way.
Finest in flight
The one thing Ubisoft has made redundantly clear is the fact that while this game might be receiving comparisons as an aerial rendition of Brothers in Arms, this game is in actuality, an arcade-style flight simulator. While veterans of the computer flight-simulators might be reading these comments with detest; another set of gamers can actually rejoice for once, which are the kind of gamers who don’t want to pay $200 for a realistic style flight-joystick and an extra $1000 to upgrade their PC just to run it correctly. Not to mention the endless hours of gameplay required just to master the sometimes complicated and overwrought control scheme and physics engine. Reiterating that this game is an arcade-style flight simulator is only an insurance that Ubisoft is keeping the casual gamer with a thirst for energetic air-combat in mind.
The green high above
The game starts with the player having just been recruited as a pilot for the Military and looking to take their rookie-posterior to the skies. Yet like any rookie wanting to be a top gun, they must first work their way to the top from the ground up. Literally the player will go from being a greenhorn and over the course of twenty fully interactive missions, be able to achieve the rank of an aerial combat ace, whether in the single-player campaign, or in the world-rankings on the Xbox Live multiplayer mode.
However, starting out can be rough, that’s why Blazing Angels focuses a lot on aerial team-orientation. Much in the same way that Battlefront or Brothers in Arms had players to try and establish a serious team strategy when embarking to overthrow an enemy-infested area. Blazing Angels reaches to achieve the same element of team-reliability and (strong) cooperative alliances. Every mission is to be played with three other command-controllable wingmen or aerial allies at your side, each bringing their own personality, improvable flying characteristics and abilities to the group. Hence, honing your skills will revolve mostly around the various flying traits or attributes of your AI flying buddies as well (viz., If one of your teammates is known for always protecting your tail from enemy fighter pilots, while another is known mostly for dog-fighting away from the rest of the group; players will then have to adjust their flying style and commanding tactics accordingly.) The inclusion of the AI wingmen is not just to have them there, but to actually affect the outcome of missions and the way players will take to improving their skills along with their wingmen, thus sculpting an experience of working as a cohesive, yet vulnerable, four-man unit.
Flying is no vacation
Over the course of the twenty single-player missions; players will journey to all sorts of evocative World War II scenarios and locales. Not only that, but Ubisoft is taking it a step further by allowing gamers to actually participate in historic aerial combat zones and unbelievable dogfights. Such as the unforgettable encounter at Pearl Harbor; or the cloud-covered dogfights over London; there’s even the battle throughout Berlin or the attack at Okinawa. Players will also venture to Germany, Morocco, the Pacific, France, Midway, the Philippines, Africa and more. This allows for a wide-array of various environments and encounters that should add a bit of depth to the overall playing experience.
Hey, there’s people on the ground!
While traveling to different locations around the world, there is one thing that the Romanian development team of Ubisoft is securing as a fundamental aspect to all play modes: A visual recreation of environmental depth. People and objects appearing where they would normally be, on the ground, or near houses, or on boats, or manning turret guns trying to blow the living spit out of you and your teammates. The actual effect of their presence is key to the re-creation of some of the aerial battlefields. For instance, on the Pearl Harbor stage, there are soldiers or Naval officers diving off into the water from burning or sinking ships, while others might be seen swimming out of potential bombing areas or even ship wreckage.
A cup of combat, with a dash of realism on the side
The level of gameplay depth is measured in Ubisoft’s visual representations and aim of graphical excellence, for modeling every aspect of the game’s experience for Xbox gamers. Train yards, houses, buildings, boats and every other assortment of background (and foreground) entities have been rendered to fully utilize the Xbox hardware; including the forty various planes featured in the game that can be played in a first-person, full-featured cockpit view, or in a loose third-person chase view.
From the well-known P51-Mustang, to the B-17 Flying Fortress, there’s a host of different planes from the respective factions that participated in the war. An example of this is the Japanese Zero that was used during the Pearl Harbor attack or the Messerschmitt that scoured the fronts of the Luftwaffe. Every plane is modeled in a meticulous fashion after their real-life counterparts, right down to the paint decals on the front noses.
Frequent flyers’
Since the combat is finely tuned for movie-style flight chases and insane aerial stunts, players will be able to enjoy an AI of a different flavor. The AI focuses on hunting you down with unforgiving speed and fearless risk; something that is rarely offered in flight simulators, especially ones where destructible objects and weather-affected environments play consequential roles in visibility and hazardous conditions. In this way, players will have contending factors from both their surroundings and a comprehensive AI.
But if the single-player campaign doesn’t quite take your bite, a twenty-player on-line mode just might. Featuring the standard dogfights where players can go at it in head-to-head battles, or take up flight in cooperative missions that range from protecting conveys or bombers, to patrolling a designated front. There’s also bombing runs as well as dynamic rescue operations. So for those Xbox gamers out there who have wailed for a flight-sim without the required knowledge of aerodynamics; come 2006, your prayers just might be answered.
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