Heroes over Europe
Review
Not exactly flying high
by Chris Davis
reviewed on X360
Combat
Combat in Heroes over Europe is 80% dog fighting with a mix of exploration and investigation built into it. Several of the more pleasant missions involve torpedo runs in a biplane against German warships as well as the defense of American infantry positions in the Ardennes forest. In one particularly interesting mission you have to escort a squadron of B-17 flying fortresses across the English Channel, only to discover one of the bombers is commanded by German spies who try to take out the other planes in the formation. The only way to find out which one it is, is to carefully fly close to them until you locate which ones are firing their weapons. Realistic, no but quite entertaining.
Another element of the combat system Heroes over Europe is the Ace Kill ability which allows players to instantly kill an enemy fighter. In order to activate the ability players must get in close behind an enemy combatant and charge a meter. Once activated the camera zooms in on the targeted plane and highlights weak points on the body of the aircraft. If executed correctly Ace Kills can be strung along and allow you to wipe out entire squadrons of enemies in just a handful of seconds as opposed to doing traditional dog fighting. Enemy fire will quickly reduce your meter so the optimal approach is to keep bucking and weaving between enemies instead of focusing on one particular one. Boss battles against enemy aces are made indefinitely easy by this ability, provided the ace doesn’t shoot you down while you are trying to charge the kill meter.
The only real gameplay problem players will run into is the fact that the enemy AI is incredibly biased against you. As if a decree from Adolf Hitler himself was made that you are the most wanted man in all of Europe it seems that German fighters will spend the majority of their time focusing on you rather than any other combatant on the field. More often than not you will find half a dozen German fighters on your tail gunning you down while attempting to get an Ace Kill. When playing on the ace difficulty it is almost impossible to complete a level without dying two dozen times, an experience that is distressing considering the fact that the game’s checkpoint system is based on objective completion rather than player saves.
A Hail of Gunfire
The game’s presentation is a mixed bag of great plane models and slightly disappointing textures and models on everything else. The aircrafts in the game have a great amount of detail on them with real-time damage modeling, though damage seems to have almost no effect on the handling of an aircraft. The on-screen vehicle count is very impressive at times, especially in the later missions. The sense of speed is greatly translated on screen by blurring and heightened focus upon a target and watching smoke contrails follow a fleeing fighter is a thing of beauty. However, once you turn your eyes to the environment things start to get a little ugly. Ground textures are usually nice to look at but buildings are blocky, lack detail and are repeatedly used with not much variety in models. Also, I’m not too certain but I don’t believe that many streets in Germany are wide enough to allow heavy bombers to fly down them. The weather isn’t very well done as stormy conditions are anything but a hazard in the game and not as visually worrying as they should be. Cloud formations are fine at a distance but don’t feel exactly realistic upon close inspection.
Each mission in the game is cinematically presented not with gameplay footage or character models but rather by artist illustrations and animations. These sequences are monologues of the characters usually talking about how they feel about the war or letters sent home to loved ones. Done to death by every single war movie/game in existence they don’t make the characters interesting. The only interesting cinematics come in the form of black and white newsreels with a overly charming and enthusiastic voiceover typical of the propaganda films of the era that precede several levels. Players will find themselves skipping through them rather than watching as they just aren’t worth watching. Since the title of the game implies that we get to see a romanticized version of the war it is a shame that the overall story (if you could call it that) doesn’t present itself in a manner that warrants attention. In the end all you will want to do is skip through the cinemas and get right to the meat of the gameplay.
The Road to Victory
Heroes over Europe is an interesting if flawed title for players looking for something a little different to play without venturing outside the realm of Nazi-killing. The single player campaign doesn’t warrant a second play through unless you are achievement/trophy hunting and the multiplayer experience is nowhere to be found given that everyone else right now is off playing Halo 3: ODST. Looking beyond the AI, the cinematic blandness you find a pretty decent game that easily deserves a rent but is definitely a questionable buy. Sorry Transmission Games, but better luck next time.
7.0
fun score
Pros
Fun arcade-oriented gameplay
Cons
Nonexistent multiplayer community, convoluted singleplayer experience
