Air Conflicts: Secret Wars (2011)
Genres:Shooter, Arcade, Simulator
Themes:Action, Warfare
Game modes:Single player, Multiplayer
Story:Air Conflicts: Secret Wars is an arcade flight simulation set in a World War I and II scenario. During the seven campaigns the player has to fly and fight through over 48 missions. Before taking off, the player can choose between different aircrafts, each with different strengths and weaknesses.
Within the missions the player gets different objectives like patrolling, sneaking, hit & run, bombing and escorting. Objectives are presented as dialogues between different characters. After some missions the player can upgrade one of his skills in order to maneuver the airplanes easier, have more endurance or have your wingman boosted. Further, the player can choose between two control schemes. Arcade and simulation. The first one makes the game easier to control, while the second one gives more options to control the aircraft.
Beside the campaign the game also features several multiplayer modes, local and via internet for up to four players.Show more
Somehow the WW2 air combat simulator genre has always struggled a fair bit, the only well known examples being IL-2 Sturmovik, War Thunder, maybe DCS, even though it's geared a lot more towards the modern aviation. But those are simulators, and the arcade realm struggled even more, aside from Air Conflicts lineup, I can only remember Secret Weapons Over Normandy, but it has been a hot minute since then.
I did once get an anthology CD with all the Air Conflicts games, most of them were unexceptional at best, there really wasn't much to like in them. That was until I got to the Secret Wars, boy was it a stark contrast compared to the other games, here they decided to add something that was sorely missing from the other games - the plot line, and a genuinely well detailed one at that.
This is such a strange game, one the one hand, mechanics-wise, it is just as unexceptional as the rest, not much is different from other games, but then, on the other hand, you can very clearly see the roots of an exceptionally well played plot, at least for the game that it ended up being, great cast of characters, all of which have their own reasons for you to like them and tie-ins from actual historic events, all of which not just piled in there for good measure, but carefully woven to create a complete and streamlined storyline that is, for all the flaws that this game has, will actually make you want to go back to it.
If I am honest, this is the first game that I've ever seen with such a gaping disconnect between an amazing story, and a lackluster at best gameplay, or the disconnect between the development and marketing teams, the latter of which missed quite literally all of the game's strong points in their material. This is a textbook definition of a perfect game for a remaster, but seeing how unlikely it is to happen, it would at least be nice to see the original keep being available.
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