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Technically a decade-tardy sequel, but obviously inspired by the Medal of Honor franchise, SWON is a brilliant execution of Electronic Arts' own discarded idea.Flight combat game designed by Totally Games and Larry Holland, the creative force behind the 1991 classic Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. In the role of Chase, an American pilot serving with the RAF at the start of the Dunkirk evacuation, players jump into the cockpits of more than 20 different aircraft, including Japanese Zekes, German Messerschmidts and English Spitfires. They're all brought to life with realistic engine sounds, handling and weapon payloads. To balance the extreme realism of the airplanes, the game allows players limited freedom to select the aircraft they want for a particular mission -once they've been unlocked - upgrade different parts of the plane and select specific secondary weapons.
Xbox Previews Jul 31, 2003Over the past few years we've really seen a glut of WWII-themed titles come to the market in both PC and console gaming. While not trying to completely reinvent any genres, let alone start a new one, Larry Holland, creator of X-Wing and TIE Fighter, and his team at Totally Games have crafted a game that is very simple and very entertaining: Secret Weapons Over Normandy.
While he clearly has a wealth of experience in creating traditional flight simulators, SWON is not so simply defined.
There's something about WWII that draws the collective psyche of America. Tom Brokaw called it 'The Greatest Generation'; a group of people who fought valiantly through the hardships of war and showed strength and unity unmatched by any other generation. As a nation we not only think of them as our fathers, grandfathers, sons and daughters, but as heroes. People who were willing to give their lives for the defense and well being of our country. This feeling has translated into both books and movies and is slowly working its way into video games. In a departure from other recent WWII based games, Secret Weapons Over Normandy takes to the skies and portrays the exciting life of an Air Force Flyboy at the height of the war. Secret Weapons manages to capture the look and feel of the WWII era. Still photos and new reels help to set up the era and do an excellent job of getting you into the game. Planes look fantastic and show off some really great details, such as individual plane markings or weapon add-ons. Even some of the prototype planes, most of which are usually only seen as photographs or drawings, look like real working aircraft and fit in with the vintage stuff. Little details like fire and smoke billowing out of engines (when you take too much damage) really help to sell the feel of the game. There are a few kinks in the system that keep the game from reaching the heights of games like the Medal of Honor series. Environmental detail is low, static and boring. Things like trees and buildings are more window dressing than anything else. In fact, there are times where you can actually fly your plane through trees as it they weren't there. The biggest issue with the game is the lack of speed present in the game. Granted these aren't modern jets, but you'd be hard pressed to tell between a plane flying at full throttle and one that's not. The only real clue you get that you're flying fast is that your engine sounds like it's going fast.
Lucasarts did a good thing by bringing Michael Glacchino, the composer behind the Medal of Honor soundtracks, aboard to compose the game's score. The music is excellent and feels as epic as WWII. This soundtrack is complemented by an excellent voice cast. Although the game lacks any sort of rendered cut scenes between missions (at least those involving people walking around and conversing), the voice cast does a great job of getting you to actually care about the characters. At the risk of sounding sentimental, I really got to like the characters over the course of the game. The voice work is also taken a step further by including radio chatter during missions. Most of the time chatter is limited to complements and orders from your squadron, but there are times where other pilots will taunt you (the stuff with the Flying Tigers is classic) and enemy pilots will curse you (in both Japanese and German no less). If you listen carefully you'll even hear a few Star Wars lines thrown in. This is a Lucasarts game after all.