Short introduction

The game starts with a training mission without giving too many details of the story. You play as an American pilot helping especially the English Air Force in fighting the Germans in WWII. From the second mission you will be not alone anymore. Three pilots will join you in the battles. The first one is Tom and he has a defense role. In the third mission comes Joe, the mechanic who can repair your plane in the middle of the battle, and Franck who will hunt the enemy who gets near you. You and these three pilots will form a squadron called The Angels of Dunkirk. Along with your companions you will pilot all the major planes of the WWII in historical battles, from France to England, Africa, USA, Pacific, etc. The game does not give you more informations about the story than I gave you in this article. It just throws you in the middle of the battle after a short cinematic sequence at the beginning of every level. And that's a bad thing for the whole atmosphere of the game.

Stylish graphics

But the game gains in value by its stylish graphics. It's actually the first flight game that has stylish graphics, while other games are just trying to be as realistic as possible. The colors range is changing from one level to the other. This is done to increase the atmosphere of every location in which a battle takes place. In the Pacific the colors palette is concentrated on green to set off the luxuriant vegetation, while in Africa the yellow hue is prevailing to set off the sands of the Sahara desert.

But the most outstanding views can be found in London and Paris. The battles take place near important landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower of the Big Ben. You can even fly under the Eiffel Tower or over the banks of the River Thames. The scenes are very stylish, looking like an artistic painting. The black smoke which creates huge clouds over the sky, and is impenetrable by the light of the sun creates a doomed image of a city destroyed by the atrocities of the war.

The power of your squad

The game was thought to be a squad combat game, creating a tactical touch to the gameplay. In the end they realized a basic squad combat system which is not necessary to be used in order to end the game. Like I already told you, the other three comrades have a unique feature. Tom is like a decoy for the enemy. When you order him to defend you, he will attract all the planes that were attacking you. Although he is under continues fire from this moment on, physically he is taking no damage. So every time you feel yourself in danger, use Tom to attract the enemy.

Joe is the companion that brakes the balance and the realism of this game. He is a mechanic that will help you fix your plane while you are still in the battle. He works like a healer if you compare the game with rpg one. When you call him he will ask you to make a sequence of movements with your plane. If the sequence is correct your plane will be repaired instantly and good as new.

Franck is the one that always attacks. When you call him he will take down at least two enemies. Again, like the other he never dies. This "immortality attributes" along with unlimited ammunition, makes the game totally unreal. So everybody who reads this article will say that Blazing Angels is a very simple game. But this is not true. The number of opponents and their aggressiveness makes the game challenging. Not to mention that you are the main target for the enemies. You are always the one to be attacked along with the convoys (if you have to defend one).

Handling

The game is an arcade, very similar to Crimson Skies, so the handling of the plane resumes to left, right, nose up, nose down, roll left, and roll right. To make the game adjustable for keyboard and mouse control, the developers introduced the 'following camera' option very useful in dog-fighting scenes.

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So the handling is almost the same although you will play with a lot of planes. The only difference will be the speed and the turning angle. The more bigger the planes, the more harder to turn them. But still you can do all the tricks available in reality with all the planes in the game. One of the popular maneuvers in all the flight games is the landing. I remember F-15, the first flight simulator that I have ever played, and the frustration I felt every time I was destroying the plane while trying to land. Here you have to land your plane only two times, so there is no challenge in handling the plane. Being developed especially for XBOX, the best way to handle the plane is with a gamepad. But the game has problems in recognizing the correct gamepad, especially for the plug-and-play ones. Definitely you need to install the latest patches to repair these bugs. For the hardcore fans of flight-simulation games, the last official update introduces the cockpit view with the correspondent handling of the plane. In order to turn your plane right, you need to lean it on the right and then rise its nose like in reality.

Goals

The missions from the campaign don't have sophisticated goals. Everything resumes to shoot the enemy planes, ships, or terrestrial troops. There are some exceptions when you have to escort a group of bombardiers, or destroy strategical targets. But in the end you will get the same action to shoot everything around you. Your plane will be equipped in missions with the classical gun-machine, but several times you will also have the plane equipped with bombs, torpedoes and photo camera for a few spy missions. There are a lot of planes to win in this game depending on your campaign status or completing the standalone modes.

Game modes

The standalone modes include the Mini Campaign, Arcade and Ace Duel modes. Mini Campaign:You can choose from two kind of game modes: Dogfight and Tactical Bombing. For each mode there are six missions to complete. Completing the Dogfight mode will upgrade the machine gun while completing the Tactical Bombing mode will upgrade the bombs, torpedoes, and rockets.

Arcade: In this mode you have to fight alone against successive waves of enemies within a time limit. Killing enemies will give you health bonuses and time. Completing this mode will improve the version of the plane you are flying.

Ace Duel: Fight against another pilot who flies the same plane as yours. You can choose from a multitude of planes depending on your campaign status. Every won duel will bring you an "ace" skin for your plane. The developers didn't concentrate too much on Single Player. That's why the best aspect of the game is the multiplayer. There are three modes of multiplayer each one with distinctive types of gameplay.

Solo Mode: The mode where you play alone online. Either you play Dogfight (kind of deathmatch), Aces High (kind of 'try to catch me if you can'), or Seek and Destroy (kind of hunting the targets).

Co-op mode: The mode where you and some of your friends can play together against the enemy. Besides Dogfight (already known) and Onslaught (fight against waves of enemies), you can play also Bombing Run (your squadron must destroy AI controlled bases), Kamikaze (you have to defend the base from endless waves of kamikaze), and Historical Missions (the campaign missions can be completed in cooperative mode with your friends, much more difficult because you depend on human players, not A.I.).

Squadron mode: The most interesting multiplayer mode. You play with your friends against other human players. The already known Dogfight, Bombing Run, and Kamikaze mode are together with Capture the Base (kind of Capture the Flag mode)

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Gameplay: 79%

The campaign has almost no story, although you will take part in almost any major historical battle. Question: How on earth could the heroes travel from one side of the Earth to the other to take part on every battle as it is in the game? At that time it was almost impossible. It seems that the developers didn't bother with these story problems and they created some powerful and exciting battles to raise your adrenaline level. Remember, this is not a flight-simulation game. The handling is simple and makes no problem to the user. But if you want a good action-portion, Blazing Angels is the best choice.

Graphics: 80%

The game is eye-catchy in some levels. That's because of the colors palette used in an artistic manner on every mission. Impressive moments are when you fight over London and Paris. You can fly under some historical sites such as the Eiffel Tower or under the London Bridge. In these moments, the feeling of speed gives you real shivers. Unfortunately the textures don't look so well, the game being just a port from the XBOX version with some minimal changes. The visual damage of your plane is shown by flames, smoke and some holes made by the bullets. No debris or other kind of explosions.

Multiplayer: 82%

The best part of the gameplay. The fast and furious battles are perfect for deathmatches between human players, or cooperation modes. The game also supports a split mode and LAN besides the online mode. The game experience is much deeper in the online mode, so if you had patience in completing the Single Player Campaign you should definitely try the multiplayer.

Sound: 78%

Repetitive voices of your comrades will accompany you in the battles. Not a very successful choice. More than this you can here the enemy voices saying the same remarks all the time. The environmental sounds and effects suite well to the whole gameplay. Astonishing moments when you here the bullets flying over your head.

Hardware: 84%

Although it's just a port from XBOX, the game flows well also on middle systems. The biggest problem is the Settings Application which is separately from the game. If you want to set the controls for your gamepad or keyboard, you have to exit the game at every change. If you want to test the perfect combination of controls you have to exit and restart the game a dozen times and the frustration is increasing. Without the patches the game has problems in recognizing some gamepads. The game supports also the Z800 3DVISOR gadget. A remarkable helmet with 3D OLED microdisplays with P5 golve and cyberstik for a perfect virtual experience.