Aces of the Galaxy
Preview
Truly a blast from the past
by Howie Howard
previewed on X360
Blast From the Past
Aces of the Galaxy is truly a blast from the past but with high tech graphics from the present. How many of you miss action shooters from days gone by that featured hordes of enemies that would swarm down from the top of your screen in a vain attempt to destroy your lone ship? I’m one gamer that craves the endless stream of missiles and other explosive ordinance that I can launch and that inevitably will be fired against me in an effort to destroy me countless numbers of times. Well folks if you are a scrolling action shooter fan like I am then strap yourself in and get ready for the fight of your life. This winter publisher Sierra Online along with developer Artech Studios is going to release just such a game. It’s called Aces of the Galaxy and it’s a very good one indeed.
Gone are the pixelated blocky graphics and the beeps and bop sounds from years past. You can expect to be marvelled by top-notch cinema like graphics and sound that will literally blow you away with amazement. The explosions are there to not only blast your little ship away but to dazzle you with their realistic appearance. The battle sounds add to the gaming experience by drawing you in to the action even further. I liked the fact that I could hook the Xbox 360 console up to a big screen high definition television and enjoy the various explosions blasting out of my speaker system. It’s like you are right there in the thick of it. The game supports EDTV 480p and HDTV 1080i format so that means you can enjoy a high def experience like never before. It’s that good.
Sometimes Simple is Better
The game itself is a standard, sort of generic action shooter affair and that’s a good thing. You won’t need to worry about a sharp learning curve because it’s simple and easy to play. All you need to have are quick reflexes and a fast trigger finger. You pilot the ship with the left stick and fire the various weapons with the different face keys. Add in a few other key controls and you will be scanning for invisible enemies and then blowing them away in no time at all.
The game really doesn’t have a deep story line or plot. Just like the simplistic controls, the premise of the game is easy as well. Simply put, it’s you against a multitude of lizard people hoards. As an added bonus you can take a friend in to battle with you because the game supports two-player cooperative mode in stand-alone play. If you prefer to team up with gamers you might not know then you can do that via Xbox Live. When you play the more difficult levels of the game it’s much easier to accomplish your task with a partner.
Like many games of its ilk there are countless power-ups and other special items that you need to fly over in order to pick them up. Once you have them these items add extra options to your game. There’s a scanner that will come in hand when you find yourself trying to battle invisible foes. Most of the enemies won’t be invisible as they will be front and center and right in your face so to speak. If things start to get a little hairy and if you were lucky enough to find the special hyper-time power up then you can slow the action down to a crawl to help in your extermination of these evil hoards.
An Action Packed Galaxy
There are 24 levels of action packed excitement and all of these levels are loaded with different bosses. Don’t be surprised if a big mean boss pops up smack dab in the middle of the level. I was quite impressed with this game’s ability to branch out into new paths. Depending on how you chose to complete a level you might find yourself traveling on a totally different path or branch then the one you started out on. This option gives Aces of the Galaxy a lot of replay value. In fact you will need to play the game through multiple times in order to see everything. Then after all is said and done you can go and look at the star ranking that is presented at the end of each level. This ranking system adds to the replay value even more by making you want to go back through the game in order to improve these stats.
Well folks get ready for an action packed shooting adventure come this winter. Sierra has been a quality game producer for years, so we can rest assured that this one is going to be a good one as well. I can’t wait to continue my battle against those infernally evil lizard men. It seems like once you kill one of them two more pop up in its place. Go figure…
