Please login to submit a screenshot

"Flying games are cool. WWII games are cool too"

Do you like WWII games? Have you been waiting for a good flying Game? Do you like blowing up every thing in site? Have you Played Blazing Angles Squadrons of WWII yet? Since Crimson skies came out for the Xbox I have been waiting for another flying game to come out. Finally the folks at UBI SOFT have put out the half flight simulator half airplane shooter game we have all been waiting for called Blazing Angles.

STORY 8/10
The story in this game was very well done. You are an American pilot who finds him self in Europe fighting with the Brits early in the Second World War. The story continues on to the pacific battles which include Pearl Harbor, and then moves back to Europe battles. The game for the most part follows the actual events of the war, and includes all the major air battles of WWII.

GAME-PLAY 9.5/10
Yeah that's right 9.5 out of 10. Blazing Angles is the perfect mix of strategy, shooter, and flight simulator. You get to fly 42 different planes in this game in locations like Pearl Harbor, Berlin, London, and Paris. The controls in blazing angles are well laid out. The flight controls are simplified, and slightly arcadish; however the planes respond in a very realistic manner. Every turn is banked and every dive gives you that feeling of real speed. Blazing Angles has also set the bar for views in a flight game. Blazing angles has 2 views. One view is the normal chase camera view where you get to see your plane and every thing in front of it. The second view is a target view. From this vantage you get to view your selected target while you still pilot your plane. This is the best feature of this game, and it is what sets the game well above all other flying games that are out for the Xbox. The only reason I did not give this game a true 10/10 for game play is because there is no cockpit view. In reality the cockpit view is a cool thing to use once in a blue moon but hinders your performance when compared to a third person view.

GRAPHICS 9/10
Visually this game is very stunning. The planes are very detailed. A P-51 mustang really looks like a P-51 mustang, a Zero looks just like a Zero, and yes a Spitfire looks just like a Spitfire. London looks like London, Paris looks like Paris, and well you get the idea. Explosions, engine fires, and shot down planes look like the real thing. This game is truly like watching a great WWII movie about air battles. Just turn your plane in to the setting sun to see what I mean.

SOUND 5/10
Sound is the only area in this game I found lacking. Don't get me wrong the sound effects were well done when it came to explosions, gun fire, plane engines revving, and music. However the voice over in this game was horrible. Apparently all pilots say the same five lines no matter what accent they have. Also the Japanese accent in this game was so bad it took me 5 days to realize that it was supposed to be a Japanese accent. I also found it very annoying that voice overs would over lap each all the time; it made me wonder if this game was tested with the televisions on mute.

REPLAY 8/10
This game has good replay value. There is a campaign mode, or story mode. Blazing Angles also has three Stand Alone modes; or solo modes. They include an arcade mode where you face waves of fighters in an intense dog fight, an ace mode where you prove your worth in each plane, and a mini campaign mode. After you have passed all aspects of this game you can still play each level and try to achieve an ace rating.

ON-LINE AND MULTI-PLAYER 7/0
On-line and multi-player gaming is good for Blazing Angles. It is easy to Dog fight with your friends for hours. You can also play co-op levels which this game is well suited for. The only down side is that is seams no one is ever on-line playing this game. I tried playing onl-ine for almost 3 days straight and only found two other players on-line. If this game is picked up by more people on-line it could easily score a 9 or 10 for on-line play.

OVER ALL 8/10
This is the first game in a long time that I found truly exciting. I would recommend this game for buying if you like flying games or WWII games. If you are looking for some thing new, different or exciting you should rent this game first, and then buy it. Like most UBI SOFT games there is a great web site for this game that includes cool wallpapers, icons and blogs. The only thing I found annoying were the lack of people playing this on-line, and the poor voice-overs; however the great game play and graphics more then made up for this.


Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/06