Reviewed: January 9, 2005
Reviewed by: Roger Cox
Publisher
Ubisoft
Developer
IR Gurus Interactive Ltd.
Released: October 25, 2005
Genre: Flight Action
Players: 2 / 8
ESRB: Teen
9
8
9
8
8.7
System Requirements
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
The attack on Pearl Harbor is a historic event in American history. It was where ordinary men became heroes in the air and on the ground. Some called them Heroes of the Pacific, and this game pays tribute to those heroes in an epic WWII flight combat game that begins with the attack on Pearl Harbor and follows the battles of Midway, Coral Sea, Wake Island, Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal.
Heroes of the Pacific:
- Fight the Pacific's most epic and action-packed air battles: Including Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Midway, and the Coral Sea, the campaign covers the entire course of the war in the Pacific with up to 150 planes on-screen at the same time.
- Multiplayer action with up to 8 players online: Engage in head-to-head dogfights or cooperative team play.
- Six different game modes: Including Campaign, Instant Action, Single-Mission, Historical, Training, and Multiplayer.
- Compelling and dramatic wartime storyline: Covers the entire Pacific campaign and features missions based on true events and accurate historical footage.
- Command a total of 36 authentic-looking and fun to fly WWII aircraft: Including all major U.S. and Japanese models with bonus planes from the U.K., Germany, and the USSR.
It seems as though most of the flight-sims I’ve played were too realistic for me to be able to have fun playing them. Even in some of the faster paced sims I found myself hating the tedious controls and dials I had to pay attention to. Instead of that, Heroes of the Pacific allows you to have a great time flying around shooting down plane after plane in this arcade flight sim. Dogfights are meant to be about pure blow’em up in-your-face action and the game delivers just that.
The game opens by establishing your role as the American hero who’s out to avenge his brother’s death on the USS Arizona. While you’re out for revenge, you’ll pilot nearly all 36 U.S. and Japanese aircraft that you can eventually make upgrades to. Upgrades come in the form of aircraft performance and weaponry that really help their performance in battle. You can score bigger upgrade rewards when you beat levels on a higher difficulty setting.
What makes the harder difficulty different from normal mode is that the enemy aircraft are more accurate with their shots and seem to be smarter overall. They are more difficult to kill and are always on your tail. The only aspect that makes it enjoyable is the sense of accomplishment after you beat a level or the sheer enjoyment of stressful dogfights (the rewards are a nice bonus).
The controls feel very consol-like whether you opt for a keyboard, mouse, joystick, or gamepad. Heroes of the Pacific has previously shipped on Xbox and PS2 and there is no mistaking its console roots. It’s an arcade shooter where the planes are as agile and easy to maneuver as an ultralight (aircraft). Just like people, each plane has its own unique characteristics. For instance, the Zero’s and Bearcats are really agile and can make sharp turns while the B-25 and B-26 bombers aren’t nearly as agile and feature a simplistic Norton bombsite.
The game isn’t all about blowing things up. Later on in the game as you move from Pearl Harbor to Midway and the Philippines you’ll receive orders to photograph airfield fortifications. Other objectives include stealing an experimental enemy jet and coordinating with your wingmen to bomb a Japanese aircraft carrier. In-between these missions you are given the background (story) information in newsreel clips and posters along with great narration to really bring home the history and feel of the 1940s.
One of the game’s few downsides is that there are no in-game saves. This creates a problem when primary and secondary objectives are thrown into the same mission. The missions can be extremely lengthy, and the only good news is that the game has checkpoints. Another is that the controls are so basic that they limit your control over the aircraft to an extremely simplistic level that a 4 year old could figure out. However, the game manages to remain fun and addicting despite this.
The combat looks amazingly good, so do the plane models, which have been accurately replicated in every way. They even look beautiful when they explode, break apart, and fall to the ground/water in fiery wreckage. However, the textures on the planes are weak when compared to more realistic flight sims, but are easily overlooked when flying through gorgeous cloud covered skies and over lush South Pacific scenery.
Don’t look at the scenery too long, because I’m sure one of the 300 planes on screen want to blow you up and you’d better be ready. The frame rate never falters even when there are that many planes buzzing and blowing up around you. The only slowdown you’ll find is in the online portion of the game.
The music for Heroes of the Pacific is magnificent. It captures the feeling of soaring 15,000 feet in the air all alone. The only problem is you never get to enjoy it because you’re constantly being bombarded with enemies who don’t think its appropriate music. Although it may be subtle, it’s relaxing, and helps calm the nerves even during the harshest of battles. One place the music fits like a shoe is during the mission briefings where emotional and uplifting music plays, which really gets you pumped up for the next mission.
The sound effects are everything you’d expect with realistic explosions, machine gun fire, and roaring airplane engines. If that isn’t enough to make you feel like you’re in the cockpit, then maybe some realistic radio chatter including mid-mission briefings will suck you in. I was impressed that the game’s narrative employed authentic racial remarks from that era when referring to the pilots.
The single player portion of the game will take you approximately 22-25 hours to beat. And if that weren’t enough there are plenty of bonuses and reasons to keep playing. For instance, there are five unlock able historical missions, five training missions, online support, and special bonuses. While the training missions are fun, educational, and short, the online portion of the game is where the replay lies once you’ve tired of replaying the single player missions.
You can play an LAN game, but most people will take it online using GameSpy’s software. I’ve never been a personal fan of GameSpy, but you’re forced to play multiplayer online games through their servers and it makes it easy for developers to include online features when GameSpy has to deal with managing the online aspect after the game’s release.
Anyway, you can play with up to 32 players in a several different modes: dogfight, team dogfight, capture the flag, fox and hounds, and hold the flag the longest. If competitive multiplayer isn’t for you maybe co-op mode is. Have a friend help you beat the game or be nice and help him out. This game is packed full of fun modes that give it a lot of replay value.
If you’ve been looking for a flight combat sim that truly captures the essence of blowing things up, then you’re in for a treat. Heroes of the Pacific is an extremely Arcady, historical WWII fighter with enough planes and amazing explosions than Pearl Harbor alone. If you like flying combat and extremely diverse gameplay, then become a hero to yourself and buy this game.