Heroes of the Pacific

Inevitability has reared its ugly head and all Navy fighter pilot William Crowe could do was watch as the USS Arizona sank to the bottom of Pearl Harbor, taking his brother with it.

As if the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, was not enough to cause anger, you can add vengeance to the mix. This provides the backdrop for the PC air-combat title, Heroes of the Pacific by Ubisoft. The game features 26 missions covering the Pacific theatre of operations, boasts 36 WWII aircraft and can have as many as 150 on-screen planes.

First off, let’s get to the heart of air combat games, at least from this limited perspective. Jet fighters are great, with rockets and such, but targeting planes that are a mile away and just releasing a missile is not much fun. Going to guns, worrying about stalling, steep dives out of the sun, a quick burst, then roll away as another plane tries to target you can be a blast.

Time to break out the joystick for this one, because mouse and keyboard does not really cut it.

The game begins with some tutorial training at Hickem Field. Players will learn the basics of flight, targeting, waypoints and landing. You will also learn how to issue orders to your wingmen.

The game has four types of planes – fighters, bombers, dive bombers and torpedo bombers, and each of these is covered in the tutorial as well.

But the game is not without flaws. First there is the pseudo-emotional angle. The game begins by telling the backstory of the Crowe brothers and how they both would end up in Hawaii in the Navy when the Japanese attack occurred. William, the flyer, writes home to tell his parents about the loss of his brother. He writes about how they could hear the sailors calling for help as the ship sank, but they were unable to reach them. Problem there, folks. That is cheap sensationalism at best. At the time the Arizona went down, William was in a P-40 Warhawk above Pearl, engaged with fighters and trying to keep bombers from destroying fuel supplies and the like. Heard the screams of the sailors on the Arizona? Hardly.

From there the game progresses to Wake Island. Japanese recon has overflown the base, and fighters are scrambled to catch the planes before they can report the position back. That is the general tenure of the game – each of the missions in the campaign has specific goals that must be accomplished to advance. Advance and you can unlock new planes as well as upgrade your existing plane. Of course, each mission is graded out and if you do well enough, you can not only upgrade your existing ride, but get the ‘latest’ plane. The first stop after the P-40 is a F4F-3 Wildcat.

The game begins with only the instant action, multiplayer and campaign (in addition to the tutorial) available, but after you complete a couple of missions in the campaign, the single-mission option opens up. The game tracks some of the biggest air battles in the Pacific and the objectives and challenges change with the difficulty setting. Set it on rookie and you breathe on the enemy and they tumble from the sky. Go up to Ace and you had better know what you are doing or you will be blown into little tiny pieces falling into the blue waters of the Pacific.

The game’s control scheme comes in two forms – arcade and pro. There are subtle differences between the two, but both are designed to allow players to get right into the action, rather than learn how to fly a plane from the beginning flight instruction 101 manual. The keys can be remapped, but if you really want to fly the planes in this game, break out the flight joystick, and have at it. The mouse-keyboard combo is Ok, but just does not provide the thrill that the joystick does.

As for the sound, there is music, and narrative, and both are serviceable. The script is a little over-dramatized, but tries to pull the player in. Given the backdrop of the story, beginning with Pearl Harbor, there is little need – that is compelling enough reason to get up in the air and exact some revenge.

Graphically this game is very good. From the airstreams off the wings, to the clouds and the stretches of blue ocean, Heroes does a fine job.

Heroes of the Pacific feels somewhat short when you get into the missions, coupled with long load times between. This is not so good, but once you do get into a mission, and find your rhythm, it can feel like you are just getting warmed up when you have completed both the primary and secondary tasks. Gameplay is also interrupted with cutscenes, which – while brief – cut into the game’s flow.

Still, this is a very entertaining aerial combat vehicle that pulls you in and is somewhat addictive. The replay value is suspect because only the difficulty ramps up the challenge (Ok, sure, you can try for a higher kill count and better accuracy percentage), and the scenarios are essentially unchanged. However, flight fans are sure to find this enjoyable, and those looking for a decent WWII air combat title will likely be entertained by this entry.

Gameplay: 7.2
Rife with load times, the missions themselves are fast-paced and seem relatively short. The control options come in two forms – arcade and pro, and though there are minor differences between the two, the pro setting is not designed to hamper the combat experience.

Graphics: 8.5
This game looks very good. The action is great; the environments are very well done. There are a few failings (like the time the plane stalled, smacked down onto the ground and bounced like a basketball back up into the air and the flight continued), but these are minor. 

Sound: 7.7
The voice acting is not bad; it’s the script that has a few minor issues with over-dramatizing the story. The music is solid and the combat sounds are well done. Hearing bullets ricochet off your plane will have you instinctually pulling some rolls. That is an example of good sound effects affecting in-game reactions.

Difficulty: Medium
There are four settings, ranging from rookie through to ace.

Concept: 8.0
The game looks great and covers the major conflicts of the time and place. It is very accessible. The manual, though, has some faulty information in terms of controls. For example, it states that to hit warspeed (a short burst of speed that can overheat your engine) you hit and hold down the space bar. Not so. That is the keyboard equivalent of guns. The “<” is what triggers Warspeed, at least in the default settings. The key mapping can be customized. 

Multiplayer: 8.0
Dogfights with real players – what’s not to enjoy?

Overall: 8.0
The missions, even with secondary objectives, feel short but there is no denying that this is a fine-looking game that is accessible and a quite a bit of fun to play.