Retrospective Review: Blazing Angels – Squadrons of WWII

By BRJC13

“Going down in a blaze of glory”. That’s the phrase isn’t it? That’s the phrase always associated with over the top aviator bravado? Yes, that’s got to be it. Bon Jovi even wrote a half decent song relating to it. However, in the development of Blazing Angels, Ubisoft Romania seems to have misinterpreted that phrase. They seem to have based their game on a very similar phrase, that being “Going down in a blaze of boring”. No wait, scratch that, and replace with “Going down in blaze of boring. And frustration. And laziness”. Yeah, I think that’s it.

You could probably tell by now that I’m not really a fan of the first of the Blazing Angels series. That assumption would be thoroughly correct. Also, if anyone had the idea that the Retrospective Reviews were about showcasing the previous best of the Xbox and Xbox 360, well, this review ought to change your thoughts. However, if you were right, then Ryan, I am so, so sorry.

Now, where to start with Blazing Angels? From the outset, as soon as I started playing, this was a terrible game. In short, shockingly bad physics, laughable dialogue, and so much more is wrong with this game. I’ll start with the visuals. Now, however bad the rest of the game is, it really does one thing right. Speed. The thrill of speeding over war zones in your fighter plane is really something that this game masters. Blurring light and roaring propeller sounds put you on the edge of your seat. This creates an atmosphere that other facets of the game fail to capitalize on. The moment of brilliance of speeding just off the ground quickly disappears when the effect of poor gameplay and dialogue kick in.

If you’re anyone who remotely knows anything flight physics, or even if you don’t, you’ll find the physics in Blazing Angels simply laughable. Yes, I know its an arcade game, but its like it doesn’t even have standards for itself. If I was this games flight model, I’d be ashamed to show my face! The planes don’t even have correct stability. What I mean by this, is that after you perform a maneuver in the air, the planes immediately return to their position. Trust me, this is not what fighter planes are meant to do.

This is not the only mistake that really does destroy the immersion. According to the game, Spitfires, the premier dogfighter of WWII, can carry rockets. However, to the games credit, it does provide a fairly decent roster of allied and axis aircraft. Any possible historical accuracy ends here. When you ride into battle, you’ll hear heavily accented German pilots scream at you “Ze Fuhrer will be displeased!”, and “You cannot defeat ze Luftwaffe” among many other cringe worthy comments. As Ben ‘Yahtzee” Croshaw said in his MoH: Airborne review (www.escapistmagazine.com), the Nazis really do feel like Saturday morning cartoon villains.

Your allies aren’t much better. You represent the anonymous leader of the little squadron, and you have three faithful companions, all stereotyped to within an inch of their lives. There’s the good old country boy Joe, who is touted as a mechanical wizard and gives you quick time sequences to fix your aircraft in battle. Then there’s Tom, “the Shield, and Frank, “The Hunter”. All of these characters just feel so forced, and really will make you cringe.

I feel I should make it known that I didn’t finish this game, simply out of pure frustration and anger. I couldn’t take it anymore. Level design in Blazing Angels is horrible, and really shows how much opportunity there was to make a decent game here. Your standard level will have you simply taking off, fighting off waves upon waves of enemies, and then landing. However, the developers decided to mix things up a bit by removing all weapons from your aircraft, replacing it with a camera, and then telling you to go and photograph three secret German bases in North Africa. Whilst in a sandstorm. However, this mixture of frustrating game play and level design apparently wasn’t enough. The end of this mission is steeped further in shit as you are made to perform an aircraft carrier landing more frustrating than anything in Flight Simulator X: Acceleration.

While there is an online multiplayer mode, I really have nothing to say about it, as there was no-one else online in the Blazing Angels servers. I’ll let that speak for itself. The game does provide you with extra challenges to go through the levels on harder difficulties, but going on what I’ve previously said, I wouldn’t recommend it.

So, the main thing that Blazing Angels provides the consumer with is thoughts of what this game really could have been. Through the terrible level design, stereotypical characters, and nonsensical gameplay and flight controls, there was a tiny glimpse of hope. However, there is really no resemblance to a good game here, and if you’re looking for flight combat games on the Xbox 360, this really is the bottom of the barrel.

Graphics – 3.0

Gameplay – 2.0

Sound – 3.5

Longevity – 3.0

Overall – 3.0