Act: 3D Airstrike [by Divogames]

Game: Airstrike 3D:  Operation W.A.T.
Release: January 5, 2003
Genre: Action
Developer: Divogames
System Requirements: Win 95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP, CPU 333MHz, RAM 64Mb, OpenGL 1.xx compliant 3D video card
Price: $17.95 (US)

One of my biggest frustrations with overhead shooters is the fact that real airplanes cannot move laterally.  Jets are made for high speed attacks, but they cannot move left to right as they always do on the screen of overhead shooters.  Of course they probably don't go around destroying millions of enemies by themselves, but we'll leave that for another day.  The reason helicopters are so important to the military is the fact that they are the most agile of aircraft.  They really can move laterally, making them very efficient, especially for air to land attack, and getting into tight spaces.

Divogames, seemingly out of no where has put together what will likely be one of the best games of the year in Airstrike 3D.  In this game, you control a helicopter attempting to destroy a terrorist threat.  I say a helicopter, but that isn't really true.  In fact over the course of the game, you unlock more helicopters until you have a total of 10! helicopters to choose from.  Actually one of the downsides to the game was the fact that none of the helicopters did anything different.  Each was really just a different color/style than the others.  Still, having different skinned helicopters was fun even if it really didn't add to your in-game abilities.

As with most shooters, Airstrike 3D has a large number of powerful weapons at your disposal.  There are 10 primary weapons, 5 missiles and 4 power-up weapons.  Many of the weapons are very interesting, such as the wave gun, which when it hits a target, splits and fires both left and right as well, causing damage to a large number of enemies.  Progressing through the levels, you slowly begin to have new weapons offered to you.  The timing is critical, as without the new weapons, you wouldn't stand a chance against the more difficult foes you will be confronting.  Unfortunately, the last few weapons are all but useless as they are too limited by range to do any real damage.  The laser, and flamethrower are among these.  So you'll find yourself using the Meteorite gun, a weapon that fires a spread of powerful bullets, on the last stages.

Always more fun than primary weapons are those scarce missile and power-up weapons.  The heat seeking missiles are a wonderful tool, and you'll be firing them like mad on the later stages, watching as they circle around the screen looking for a target to devastate.  Among the power-ups, even the basic cluster bomb I found entertaining.  It hits the ground, and then splits into many smaller bombs, doing damage over a wide area.  If it isn't powerful enough for you, wait until you get the Lightening bomb, which floats above the ground as a blue ball that then attacks objects on the ground with lightening strikes.

Through the 20 levels in Airstrike 3D, I was struck by the beauty of the graphics.  Obviously a lot of time and care has gone into this game to make sure it looked great.  However I felt that there were some problems with the game play.  Moving from left to right across the bottom of the screen, your helicopter moved in more or less of a U...instead of moving strictly left to right.  When you put that together with the helicopter always aiming toward the middile top of the screen it created some difficult to control circumstances.  For example, if you move all the way to the left side of the screen, you will not hit anything in the top left-hand corner of the screen.  Instead your bullets will fire towards the center of the screen.  This makes you rely more on the spread type weapons instead of the ones that are more powerful, but only fire straight forward.  Also, the movement of the helicopter and its huge size made it very hard to avoid the many bullets aimed at you.  Moving forward on the screen often made you a sitting duck, and only the thankfully large number of repair special power-ups are able to save you in many instances.

Airstrike 3D throws a seemingly endless array of ever more powerful enemies at you as any good shooter should.  Your air supremacy will be challenged by jeeps, helicopters, jets, missile turrets, and even boats.  Anyone looking for a good challenge will enjoy this game...even it if is mostly staring in awe at the graphics while their helicopter spins out of control to its destruction yet again.

Graphics: 10
3D is the name of the game, and Airstrike 3D delivers it in loads.  Everything is wonderfully crafted with large colorful explosions and great use of alpha blending.  Each helicopter is large and well-designed, making them look very real.  The ground is also well textured, which in addition to the moving water are a treat to look at.  Also the special effects, such as the snow, are well done.  The only possible knock, is that the explosions seem to be cut off at their edges at times when they hit hills on the terrain below.  But, there are few rewards better than blowing up what appear to be large oil containers as they rock the board in a huge fiery explosion. Overall, Airstrike 3D is one of the best looking shooters you'll play this year!

Sound: 9
The title music uses a militaristic theme quite well.  It is upbeat, while at the same time somewhat brooding.  The sound in game is up-beat with a blazing beat to put extra excitement into an already action packed game.  All the sound effects do a great job of conveying a better sense of what is happening on the screen, with explosions and weapon fire effects that are cool, but so loud as to be overbearing.

Game Play: 7
As mentioned before, the only real problem with the difficulty of game play.  Avoiding enemy fire is often an impossibility.  It can be difficult to control your craft, so you'll want to try and make sure everything is dead before it gets too close to your helicopter.  After playing the game for awhile, I'm sure you'll find that your are able to move well enough to get through all the levels, but I don't believe it is possible to pas the game on the higher difficulty levels.  To some degree, the different camera views make it a little more possible to move about, though it takes away some of the brilliance of the graphics.  The overhead cam will put the game in a more classic perspective, but it is still not possible to hit those top corners without a spread. 

Options: 9
The many options in the game include my ever favorite ability to post a high score to the website.  You can start the game at any mission you have previously passed, with any helicopter that you have unlocked.   Being able to set-up custom controls on the gamepad is a wonderful feature.  I found that between firing primary, secondary and special weapons...oh and switching between each of these weapons, the 6 buttons that would be used for this task need to be perfectly configured.  Otherwise you find yourself looking at your gamepad trying to remember what button to push to get that super attack out, while your helicopter is being demolished on the screen.  The only thing I didn't understand was the continue option.  It allowed you to continue the game after you die, starting you at the beginning of the level in the exact state you reached the level, minus your score.  So if you had one life at the beginning of the level, you can take another crack at it with only one life.  HOWEVER, if you just go back to the main menu, and then start the level, you start over from scratch...with all your lives!  It seems rather pointless to continue...but that is an easily avoidable problem.

Also of note is a tutorial, that leads you through how to use most of your weapons and how to switch between them.  I'm a big fan of this type of play through tutorial, as it makes the game much easier to play without the initial frustration of figuring out how to play.

Concept: 9
Obviously there have been hundreds of helicopter games from Choplifter to Tiger-Heli, to the ever enduring Twin Cobra.  This game is enjoyable and adds to the genre with innovative weapons, and graphics.  While at its basis, you may think its just another shooter, the different camera angles you can set, give this game a much better look than most of the genre.  People making overhead shooters should take note!

Fun: 9
Getting through the levels on normal or below difficulty level isn't too difficult, but you'll still get stressed sometimes as you die seemingly without anything you could do stop it.  Once you have passed the game, it is very enjoyable to go back and play it over and over again.  The fact is this is a tough game that is very difficult to master.  The ability to post your scores online will keep you busy as you try to become the best ever at this game.

Overall: 9
Just five days into 2003, Divogames raised the bar...WAY UP!  This is a wonderful game to play and enjoy.  Any true shooter fan MUST own this game.  I believe time will prove this to be one of the better shooters ever created.  Those who don't typically like shooters should try it out as well.  The perspective of the game, somewhat mixes the First Person Shooter genre into a shooter in a way that should be played to be appreciated.  It is certainly likely that Airstrike 3D will be one of the best independent games in 2003.

Reviewer's System:
AMD 1800, geForce 2 mx, 256 MB DDR RAM, Windows XP Pro.Added: March 22nd 2003
Reviewer: The Mole
Score:
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