Blazing Angels: Squadrons of World War II

Up up and away in these beautiful machines or crashing back down to earth?

The first flying-combat game takes off for the Xbox 360 but sadly there are not all happy landings for this title. Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII looks sleek and aerodynamic, however its gameplay fails to fully get off the ground. It does not crash in flames but nor does it soar with the eagles. Okay, I’ve used all the cute flight clichés; let’s get on with the review.

Blazing Angels is a combat flight game in which you will join a brave group of three other American flyers as they fight the great air battles of World War II. You first see action as an American volunteer serving in British squadrons during the dark days of 1940 as the Nazi war machine rolls over France. Before the game is over you’ll fight in many of the major battles of the war right through to the bitter end.

You’ll start the game training as a rookie pilot in the antiquated Gladiator biplane. In this slow but nimble aircraft you will learn the basics of controlling your plane and engaging in combat. Training is over pretty quickly when British troops need to be evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk. From this point on the game is all a series of missions flown in some of the most famous planes of the Second World War.

The squadron unit is important in Blazing Angels and your three squadron mates will be with you pretty much from the first, though there are some missions you will fly solo. Each of the three has his own strengths and uses during combat. You call on these men by pressing the directional pad in the appropriate direction. You’ll meet Joe in training. He is a mechanic who has gotten his flight rating. While on a mission he can help you repair your plane. This is accomplished by first asking him for help and then following a series of button presses he’ll send to you. (What did you expect? Pulling up to a nice cloud, getting out and letting him take a look at your plane?) Mimic the button presses and your plane miraculously heals itself. Tom is the man who acts as your shield in combat. Activate his “Taunt” command and he’ll draw off any bandits that may be after you. Frank is the aggressive one and can be instructed to mix it up with a specific target.

You can’t just issue team member orders at random though. Once an order is given there is a period of time before another order can be given. This makes the game at least a little strategic in nature, but there is no limit to the number of times you can issue orders during a mission, so it is not like the player has to conserve them for use at key moments. In addition to the individual team member orders, there are also commands that establish your entire squadron’s posture: stay in tight formation, take up defensive formation, or break and attack targets of opportunity.

What you’ll do during a given mission varies. You might be protecting a target from bombers intent on destroying it or dogfighting with enemy fighters that are after one of your buddies. You’ll bomb a target or strafe a column of enemy troops. The odd thing is that often you’ll do several of these without ever landing. Here is where you get a better flavour of what kind of game Blazing Angels is. Your fighter plane may be tasked with an interceptor role as well as a fighter-bomber role with no change in armament. You just lug the ordinance around under your wings as you dogfight with the Luftwaffe until it is time to perform your bomb or rocket attack mission.

What must be made very clear is that Blazing Angels is not a simulator. This is a much more arcade version of World War II aerial combat. When you fly out, there may be several things you’ll do before the mission is complete. Your weapons have unlimited ammunition. If you miss a target on your first run, just turn around and take another pass at it. I’m not knocking it, this style of play makes for far less frustration and more fun than a strict simulation would. Just be warned that if you want authentic WWII aerial combat, this is not it.

The problem is that the mission structure gets boring after a while. You’ll shoot and bomb over and over again with little variety in the way the missions feel. The ability to repair almost at will also takes away a lot of the tension of the game. It is eluded to that you can lose a team member to enemy action during a mission, but it never happened to me. All my guys were always there to order about and pull my bacon out of the fire. There is no real story to keep you interested in progressing either. Lastly, the gameplay just did not feel like any kind of improvement over games of the last generation. It is very much a standard air combat game.

In addition to the campaign mode there are also other single-player modes. Interestingly, the items earned in the Mini-Campaign, Arcade and Ace Duel modes will actually help the player in the main Campaign mode. It is at least worth playing through a few of them. The game also boasts a nice selection of multiplayer modes that range from an every-man-for-himself deathmatch to a game called Kamikaze that has opposing teams either defending a base or trying to destroy it by crashing their planes into it. Most multiplayer modes can be played competitively or cooperatively. Only two may play via split screen, but Live and Link modes support up to 16 players.

The control of the game is good and tight. The left stick controls the plane’s pitch and yaw while the right stick controls throttle and roll. As mentioned, the directional pad issues commands to your squadron members. The right trigger fires the main armament (machineguns and cannon) while the right stick button looses the secondary weapons like bombs, rockets and torpedoes or takes pictures with the camera during reconnaissance missions. Dogfighting is made easier with the left trigger camera button. Holding in the left trigger causes the camera to lock in the direction of the next target, allowing the player to bring his plane around and on target without ever losing sight of his prey. The only serious complaint I really had with the controls was the inability to remap functions. I would love to have reversed the function of the two control sticks.

Graphically Blazing Angeles generally looks like a next-generation game should. The detail on the planes – at least when up close – looks terrific. The environments look equally good with very dynamic lighting effects. The sole aspect that really looks crappy are ground units you’ll periodically be asked to attack. If it were not for the target designation on them, it would be nearly impossible to ascertain that the spots on the landscape were what you needed to be shooting.

Audio is very good from a sound effects and music standpoint but less satisfying in the voice acting department. There is no story so that is not the problem. The few cut scenes are simply used to set up the mission and give limited historical context. What gets really annoying is the radio chatter. Your own guys border on the grating while enemy chatter is downright obnoxious with its repetition and the crappy accents.

In the end Blazing Angels Squadrons of WWII just can’t rise above its mediocre gameplay. While it is generally a pretty package, the limited gameplay is in no way disguised. I’d definitely recommend a rental before plunking down the hard-earned cash for this. It is just barely above average.

This review comes courtesy of our friends at Gameshark.com .