Review: Blazing Angels (360)

UbiSoft aren't strangers to the Xbox360. Fine, they're bringing out some lovely games and supporting Microsoft's console with a turnaround second only to EA; but they really need to exercise some quality control with regards to the Marketplace. The King Kong demo came and went within a couple of days, riddled as it was with bugs and unfinished sections, despite appearing way after the game had actually hit the shelves. Misfortune also reared its ugly head with the Blazing Angels demo; not that it was flawed as such, but showing potential buyers the game's weakest levels probably wasn't the best idea.

It's safe to say that the initial time spent with Blazing Angels is, well, appalling. The tutorial level cuts its own rope by forcing you to do the most banal exercises possible for far too long a time, flying over landscapes that wouldn't look out of place on the Nintendo 64, all voiced over by the hammiest redneck you've ever heard. If you were in a shop, or indeed, trying out the downloadable Marketplace demo, you'd have already walked away, or switched off. Shame, because it only gets better from here.

Over the next 18 missions you'll take part in the Battle of Britain (London looks gorgeous), the attack on Pearl Harbour and have plenty of say in Paris' own private scraps. Despite the tutorial showing you how to do most things, it's only as the campaign moves on that you encounter wingmen that you can actually use via the D-pad which adds a nice extra level of gameplay to the proceedings. In short, you've got one wingman who's hard as nails and is best sent ahead of the pack, one who can act as a decoy and the final one, lovable old Joe, can repair your plane via a Shenmue-style sequence of button presses. You can also call the wingmen in to you, and send them ahead after specific targets - it's all a little Star Wars, and routed in fantasy (especially Frank's special lightning attack), but it's nice that the game doesn't take itself too seriously.

Given the speech, this is a good thing. It's initially irritating but, taken as tongue-in-cheek, it's slightly easier to swallow. The wingmen are typical stereotypes (thick British accent, the aforementioned Good-Ol'-Boy, etc.) but the enemies all have 'personalities' too, mocking you one minute then screaming in pain as their plane burns the pieces the next. Assuming you can hit them, of course, because aiming some old rattling guns is a tricky concept to gamers used to auto-aim and heat seeking missiles; this is raw combat and you'll need to learn to aim 'ahead' of your target so the bullets hit at the right spot. A pull of the left trigger shows you your closest cannon fodder though, swinging the camera around in a very cinematic display.

Once the main storyline is over, you'd do well to check out Blazing Angels' multiplayer modes - up to 16 players can take part in deathmatch and team modes, and up to four in Ghost Recon-style co-op modes against the 360's AI. Even if you don't have Live, you can play 16 players over LAN or against another human in split screen. Game modes include Kamikaze and Capture the Flag (Base) which requires some deft landing skills. A fine array of complimentary diversions to the single player setup, then, without any of them being spectacular. You'll probably find that most Live players are quite friendly though... at least, that's Gamestyle's experience so far.

So, back to those visuals. To say the tutorial level (and some of the main story levels) look quite 'last-gen' is quite a compliment. Geometry is basic, explosions are laughable, the frame-rate's a mess and there's screen tearing all over the place. But there are times when the visuals come close to the screenshots on the back of the box: smoke effects are lovely, and the night-time missions look really special with a cool-but-eerie glow about them. The soundtrack is stunning, though, creating an unmatched sense of atmosphere and is often quite moving, ramping up when enemies are nearby or when you're down to your last scraps of metal. The gun sounds are pretty weak, sadly, especially as they're almost constantly firing from one direction or another, but through a digital sound system the placement is crisp and clear and makes locating objectives a lot simpler.

Blazing Angels might just be something for fans of the genre alone; it's not a better game all round than Crimson Skies but offers quite a challenge for the single player, with several nicely playable multiplayer scenarios thrown in. There's simply nothing special or outstanding here and the mainly sub-Xbox graphics don't do it any favours for the casual observer. Some of the missions are frustrating, the truly memorable events few and far between, but there's more than enough here for World War II fans wanting something on the 360.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Alex Carroll