|
The aerial combat of World War II is brought to life. Ubisoft and 1C Company have teamed up to make Pacific Fighters, a game that strives to accurately portray the often-deadly aerial combat of World War II. While the game succeeds on many levels, it has a few too many faults to consider it a must have.
The game is a bit of a simulation and includes over 60 planes. These include many Allied planes like the P40s and B-25, to name but a few. There are also many Japanese planes included. There are even additional planes that are found in the campaign but cannot be controlled. Players who have purchased IL-2: Forgotten Battles and IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles – Ace can use planes from those games, aside from all of the planes already included the game.
Controlling the planes is rather accurately. The different planes handle differently but they are all pretty easy to get the hang of. You’ll notice differences in their landing and takeoff procedures, but for the most part, it is pretty easy to get into. Landing is a touch difficult at first as the game accurately portrays it and you’ll need to make sure that is goes error-free. Thankfully, take off is much easier to do, so at least you’ll be able to get to the air and have some fun. The developers did try to make the process as initiative as possible, but newcomers to the genre will still have a worthy challenge ahead of them.
Aside from the flying, the game’s combat is pretty good. The game throws a number of enemies at you, including those below. You’ll always have a number of targets to fire at, and the game does a good job of making this as easy as possible.
The AI pilots handle themselves pretty well, for the most part. They are rather intelligent and can hold their own, but sometimes do really silly things. For example, they don’t seem to understand what a mountain is and repeatedly crash right into it. At first, it is annoying but consecutive offenses will have you yelling at the computer screen.
The game’s visuals are incredibly impressive. The game’s different aircraft are meticulously modeled and textured, particularly the cockpits which are photorealistic. Combat is also impressive with excellent effects like bullets flying around and everything else. The environments are very pretty to look at and you’ll travel to places that really push the visual engine with huge mountains, excellent bodies of water and beautiful islands.
The game’s audio is decent, although nothing too impressive. The sound effects effectively aurally convey what is going on visually, and are loud and clear but fail to impress. They are merely adequate. The radio chatter is pretty good, though, and adds authenticity to the game.
All in all, Pacific Fighters is a solid if flawed game. The game’s visuals are incredibly impressive, and the action is great when something is actually going on. But the sometimes braindead AI and bits of action-less flight bring the game down a bit. -- Michael Taylor, PGNx Media
---- Nov 16, 2004
|
