Blazing Angels II: Secret Missions

Posted: 10/05/07

It’s time to take to the skies once again in Blazing Angels II. As rogue operatives in a slightly fantastical World War II scenario, this time the what-ifs are a little more out there, and so are the planes and weapons. It’s still an arcade flight game, and it walks perilously close to crossing over into the realm of goofy.

The game is presented as a nostalgic flashback, quickly putting you into the action as a Blazing Angel, a covert air squadron getting the U.S. of A. into the action without FDR having to sign any troublesome documents. In no time you’ll be picking up more recruits, ready to fight the fight, and pull a big pay check at the same time. The dog fights spread out over Europe into Northern Africa and even the Pacific Theater, with accompanying plotlines that expand in clever cutscenes and in-game narration. Some of the dialogue is cheesy, but the delivery is so sincere, it’s like watching an old black and white classic, and smiling, not cringing, at another time in history.

It all comes out feeling very much like a comic book and not so much a graphic novel. Your wingmen all have a lot of character, spunk and spirit, but it’s all of the one-dimensional variety. It’s larky and loveable, just as fluffy as the clouds you cut through.

Game Design 8.4 – levels, upgrades, multiplayer

With 18 missions, there are a lot of places to fly through, and a lot of things to shoot down, from Cairo to the Tibetan plateaus. But thankfully, it’s not all shooting, and this is where these secret missions shine, with innovative scenarios, constantly expanding. From the get-go you’ll have to do things like shadow a train to drop off a British spy , dive bomb ships, fight huge boss zeppelins, and let enemy aircraft get on your tail so your tail-gunner can take them down. Even the occasional take off and landing is thrown in to spice things up. But between these flashes of insight are the scenarios of shooting down everything that flies. It’s an air combat game, so it’s not unexpected, but it often feels like pad, and with no mid-objective saves, a small in-air collision can cost quite a bit of time. The lack of any real emergent AI also lends to the tedium, where replaying ends up feeling like reruns.

The levels are further padded out with stunt markers. Basically, they’re hard-to-reach spots that nab some more prestige points--the currency required for completing objectives--which allows you to beef up one of your biplanes with better firepower and maneuvering abilities. This means you can replay missions with better-equipped planes and go for that Ace rating.

Multiplayer has also been seriously beefed up with a ton of lone wolf, cooperative, and team-based games, with squadron-based Kamikaze really standing out. The defenders need to shoot the attackers out of the sky before they crash into a target. It’s an interesting gameplay mechanic, cutting down self-preservation in a social setting.

So the missions and maps are colorful and well-conceived, but how is it actually soaring into the wild blue yonder, guns blazing against the Nazi menace? Actually, pretty easy. You don’t have to worry about fuel, or barometer readings--just radar, health, and ammo. The dual analog sticks work in conjunction for quick turning with air breaks, perilous loop-de-loops, and everything in between. On some planes clicking both sticks lowers the landing gear. It’s a small touch, but appreciated.

One of the big challenges of navigating a real 3D space where the Z axis is a major factor is aiming. The Secret Missions secret weapon is the lock-on. You can lock onto enemies 10,000 meters away, making it the focal point of your camera. Targets can be cycled, and even non-combative objectives can be brought to the forefront with the left bumper. This makes shooting down a rival ace much easier--especially when things get heated up and planes start circling each other like sharks.

On the flip side, it can be very disorienting, putting your plane into weird angles, sometimes not even knowing if you’re upside down or not, with the aiming reticule bouncing around the screen like a dysfunctional pong game.

The after mentioned radar helps in the cardinal decisions, but when it comes to up and down, an altimeter would have been handy, or least some warning when a geographical slab is threatening to put the final punctuation on the game session. This is the eternal struggle between sim and arcade, deep complexity versus straight-up fun. The lock-on system can almost seem like cheating, but factor in all the blind flight crashes from relying on it too much, and things start to even out, if not necessarily for the better.

Different planes offer different feels, but it’s all slight, and you end up going by their weapons and stat card more often than not. Finally, your wingmen round out the gameplay. Mapped to the D-pad, you can tell faceless drones to go aggro or defensive, while Edward “Teach” Thatcher will taunt enemies, drawing their fire, by pressing left. Hit right and Lt. James “Cowboy” Thorpe will go haywire and shoot down a bunch of enemies and probably brag about it. Both of these abilities need to be charged over time, but it’s great to have power-ups on reserve like this, and they can help relieve the tension after replaying the same long stretch of game again.

While the small glob of pixels dancing on the horizon may not look like much at first, once the planes get close, you can see a great amount of detail, which can further be customized in the hangar after they are unlocked. Environments do their locales justice, if in an overly dramatic, romantic sense. Weather and lighting show in spades, with huge spotlights even adding a stealth element to the game, while the cutscenes are fun to watch and pretty distinct.

Sound is strong, with the overstated voice acting, satisfying gunshots and explosions that get recycled too often, and the deustch sprache quips from planes, while maybe not the most factual sounds to hit an aviator’s ears, are yet another welcome touch. Accolades aside, you will spend a lot of time shooting those distant pixels, and getting a closer look can often result in a messy game of air chicken.

Ubisoft Romania has done a great job in making a sequel that one-ups its predecessor in every way, from innovative gameplay in a by-the-books-genre, to a full-bodied multiplayer experience. The lock-on system wades into a grey area, but it sure helps in plowing through the game most of the time. There’s a handful of other “ifs” with things like mission progression, but simply put, it’s an overall enjoyable experience, and has us wondering what Ubi Romania is going to do with its Tom Clancy air combat project.


Blazing Angels II: Secret Missions

Release Date:
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Flight, Action

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