Generation: Gamerz Attack on Pearl Harbor - Review

{tag [PC]} {tag [Review]}

The attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was a devastating blow to US military forces and a psychological blow to the American populace.  However, as history will show, Americans fulfilled the prophecy of Japanese Pearl Harbor strike architect Isoroko Yamamoto when he feared that the attack will “awaken a sleeping giant”.  Attack on Pearl Harbor from Legendo may awaken you from your gaming slumber with an ol’ fashioned-style shoot ‘em up arcade game that has all the modern gaming amenities.

The last WWII based arcade game I played was 1943:The Battle of Midway which, as you may know, was like fighting the war on a treadmill but it provided non-stop action and lots of shooting.  APH has arcade-style action with the campaign structure we have come to expect replete with a stripped-down storyline, creatable profiles, a choice of weapons and in this case a third-person view.  There is also a multi-player option as well, but more about that later.

Graphics:  95%
I was impressed, not because Legendo tried to finitely re-create the landscape or the planes; but because the programmers focused on the little things.  For instance, the menus belie a cinematic tone in their composition and hue. In a refreshing change they have used the graphic novel style to introduce the upcoming battles, instead of an arduous extended animated sequence ala the Medal of Honor series.  The intros are 3 pages long containing 3-5 panels per page and a voice reading the dialogue bubbles to you.

Once in the game it’s like flying in a well-shot movie.  There is one mission where you attack a naval fleet at sunset and the sky is bathed in a soft-orange glow.  Throw in the explosions, tracers, billowing smoke, and weaving aircraft locked in desperate battle and you have a truly delightful tableau of the air war in the Pacific theater.

Of note is the special care the game designers took to have the tracers arcing away as you turn hard guns-a-blazing trying to shoot down a foe.  I also thoroughly enjoyed the graphical representation of a plane disintegrating in flight or exploding outright.  The explosions in this arena were spectacular and fun after firing a rocket at close range and scoring a direct hit.

Sound:  90%
The sounds of battle in the game were authentic in some respects and standard for game sounds in others.  The clanking of shells on metal and a similar sound when you bounced off another plane in a dog fight were quite realistic.  (Of course, you would likely crash in reality if you bump into another plane like I often did in this game.)

The explosions were not notable but the game does a good job with vicinity volume regarding noises close and far.  I also thought that the aircraft engine noise was amateurish.  The engine sound at idle was pretty good but when you were in a steep dive it sounded like a model airplane engine that was spinning too fast and about to come apart.  I also noticed that there was a constant low level crackling unrelated to game play that also existed while interacting with the menus.  While the crackling may be program based I experienced no lag or glitching in regards to the graphics.

The best feature in the sound scheme is that it is varying and unobtrusive.  It assists you through the mission without getting repetitious.  What I enjoyed the most is that every time you blow up a plane the program senses the coming explosion and crescendos the music to an eminently satisfying Sforzando as your prey burns into a million tiny pieces.

Gamplay:  97%
But enough about the specs, lets go flying!  Depending on your mission (establishing air superiority, attacking a naval fleet or eliminating ground forces), you have a choice of aircraft.  The game won’t let you pick an aircraft not suited for the mission however sometimes you have a choice between a pure fighter, a fighter-dive bomber, or a torpedo bomber.  Choose well because after you are done bombing you may have to go into a dog fight.

As much as we all like reality in our games it’s nice that Legendo went with an “arcade-style” and gave you an endless supply of bullets, rockets, torpedoes and bombs.  Except for the onboard guns all other weapons reload in about 3-5 seconds, signified by the sound of a racking shotgun.  The dive bombers allow you to drop up to three bombs in succession before reloading.

Aiming your weapons is pretty easy through a circular reticule.  As in real life, be sure to lead your shot when using guns or rockets.  When in a dive-bomber, a bomb sight follows you on the ground like a shadow.  You can score direct hits with the sight, but its best to use the carpet bombing method when trying to take out anti-aircraft sites wedged between buildings.

The game guides you along in the mission giving you voice instructions in the first ten seconds after you take off.  A progress meter shows how many things you need to destroy or protect to succeed.  Some authentic looking aircraft instruments are displayed in the lower corners with one being your damage meter.  As you take on more damage you begin to billow more smoke.  I found this becomes a problem when trying to bomb; it becomes more and more difficult to see the bombsight through the smoke due to the third-person game view.

Attacking the ships and the ground forces are fun but pretty standard in these types of games.  It’s easiest to destroy ground forces with bombs but if you happen to chose a fighter and ground targets are part of the mission you only have rockets or guns with which to destroy them.  It takes some fancy flying to take out the targets with rockets while keeping the fighters off your tail.

The strength of this game is the beautiful dogfights it produces.  In the air superiority missions groups of planes fly at each other and then suddenly the tight formations scatter as the desperate aerial battle begins.  From a distance you see swarms of fighters twisting and turning in scenes reminiscent of the circus-like aerial battles of WWI.  The game programs the bots to be smart enemies yet not impossible to defeat, but they are persistent.  Strategy is key in these battles. Your plane will take some damage but the missions are long enough that those who just blaze away without worrying about the hits will end up retrying the missions over and over again.

Controls/Interface:  75%
I like simple to control games and that’s what makes APH quite accessible.  The first screen is a pop-up control panel on your desktop where you can adjust the various game-play controls.  I used my keyboard and mouse first and did pretty well controlling the airplane even with the trackball.

This game is best played with a throttle-equipped joystick.  The airplane you control is 2-axis so even though I have rudder twist it didn’t help in the turns.  The aircraft are very maneuverable but don’t roll or loop.  Use the throttle to speed up and slow down to shake a bogie off your tail, “I’ll hit the brakes; he’ll fly right by!”

Hold down the bomb button when you drop and you can see the bomb go into the target.  When you do this, make sure you are in a level attitude or climbing because the game does not suspend your flight for the alternate view and sometimes you crash.

The game menus were uncluttered and easy to use, but the content of the menus was quite confusing.  Both sides of the war had two campaigns to complete.  With-in those campaigns are the missions.  Once you fly a mission but fail you have a chance to retry.  If you fail but do not retry, there is no apparent way to go back and fly that mission.  If you exit out of the game there is the option to load a previous campaign you started but you don’t start over at the failed mission, you just move on.

Also confusing is where you are in the overall mission battle order.  You have a choice of flying in any order; but after completing a mission a whole new set of missions might pop up leaving you wondering exactly what corn maze you wandered into.

A quick note about the multi-player option: while playing the game in single player mode is fun, this game is truly suited for multi-player mayhem.  I can imagine the glorious fun it would be to duel with others through this game.  However, it appears Legendo has done very little to promote multi-player as I found only one server available and it required a password.

Summary:  89%
I liked Attack on Pearl Harbor despite the fact that the game is not really about Pearl Harbor but about the air war in the Pacific theater during WWII.  As a pilot I like the simple controls so I don’t have to worry about flying the plane, I can just kill the enemy and blow things up.  The graphics make for a great thematic visual experience and the music blends nicely.

The benchmark of success is the true enigma of this game.  If you fail a mission you can just move onto another mission until the end of the war, failing all the way.  If you complete the last mission you win the war for the Allies despite being a failure.

I was surprised how many times I got promoted in rank despite failing.  The only time you are truly rewarded for being a failure is flying the very last Japanese mission where you escort Kamikaze aircraft to their target.  Once you complete that portion, your last heroic act is to plunge your aircraft into a battleship.  Now that’s living history.