Simulator is you in a cockpit, looking around and flying as best you can. Realistic is for those of you who don’t want to be held by the hand but still enjoy things like external cockpit views. Simplistic is for the gamer who desires an Arcade experience. Just like all of the Gaijin console games I’ve mentioned already, this game can be played in three styles. While Dover’s famous White cliffs are no longer lending their imposing presence to the game, flying over Malta can also be pretty sweet. Launching from an Aircraft Carrier at sunrise, watching the deckhands scurry away from your plane as you roar down the flight deck, is pretty sweet. The game doesn’t have the same impact that Birds of Prey did, but it does have its moments. I admire the desire to be authentic, but it does get wearisome after a while. Coming out of the sun is a valid tactic, and storm fronts will make it difficult to see if you’re flying in a bright area. Lighting is more realistic than I would like, however. Planes take battle damage, smoking planes will cover your windshield with oil if you are flying too close, and the terrain is very good. This is, of course, really only a problem in Simplistic and Realistic modes, as on Simulator, there is no targeting, just you and your Mark 1 Eyeball. Flying lower than your target so that they are silhouetted against the sky winds up as the best option for seeing enemies, which is directly opposite what the game tells you to do. They had corrected this in Apache by allowing you to chose the colors displayed on the HUD yourself, but here they seem to have regressed.
Here’s a hint: red blends into dark colors. Specifically, when you include a targeting system that is decades ahead of what is possible in the planes of the time, don’t then try to be realistic and make those targets impossible to see when camouflaged against the ground or trees, by making the targeting system show targets as red all of the time. There were some design choices I didn’t like, however, and I’m sad to say they’ve returned. Still better than someone putting on an insulting Japanese accent, though.īirds of Prey was an amazing looking game. During the Japanese portion he sounds OK. During the American portion of the game he sounds great.
The engine specifically would lose its drone from time to time.įinally, during the Historical Campaign, there is a little bit of voice over that describes the situation. The same was true of the background noise. Specifically, the machine guns would stop making noise even though they were clearly firing. The sound effects would occasionally cut out on me. Your copilots, when they speak, are the same as before, and just like before, they demand to know what you’re waiting for when you’re in position, or at least close to the right position, to shoot at an enemy. Thankfully it’s not in a constant loop this time around. The music, while new at times, also includes much of what could be heard during the first game. The audio is another example of just how closely related to Birds of Prey this game really is. Also included are Single mission stages from all over the different theaters, and a mission editor which allows you to choose the weather and forces opposing you. Locations included in these Dynamic Campaigns include Malta, Wake Island, the Ruhr and Midway Island.
You can also access the Dynamic Campaign mode, which allows you to fight a series of air battles against different targets in a “what if” situation, like what if Pearl Harbor wasn’t just attacked, but actually invaded? In truth, this mode merely gives you different backgrounds to fight the enemy over, as there is no storyline nor any cinematic. You have the historical campaigns that you can play through, this time focusing on the war in the Pacific during World War 2. It may have a new publisher and new theaters of battle, but the game is exactly the same as its ancestor in many ways. I should have known they were planning to shock me with a new game, and here it is: Birds of Steel.īirds of Steel is very much a sequel to Birds of Prey. They followed THAT up with the amazing Apache Air Assault.
They developed the PC flight sim to end all flight sims with IL-2 Sturmovik, then decided to port that to the 360 and PS3 with IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey. Gaijin are quickly developing a reputation for releasing games out of nowhere… for flying under the radar, as it were.