Reviews// Blazing Angels: Squadrons of World War II (Xbox 360)

OK chaps, settle down, bit of a history lesson here. Back in 1940, Jerry had been making a bit of trouble on the continent for a year or so. We British had been giving him a good hiding, but we were being beaten back a bit by his fiendish blitzkrieg tactics. Although the Yanks hadn't officially thrown their hat into the ring, a couple of their hot-blooded young lads had jumped the pond and joined up with the Royal Air Force. These chaps distinguished themselves in the air over Britain, France and even North Africa, fighting alongside the boys of the RAF and the commonwealth air forces. Once the Japs bombed Pearl Harbour though, these American lads skipped back home to give the Emperor one in the eye from Uncle Sam. Many of them found their way back to Europe again in time for the final push to Berlin and Victory in Europe. In Blazing Angels: Squadrons of World War II from Ubisoft, you play one of those Yankee fly-boys, starting your career in training and working your way through the war and up through the ranks.

Through the course of the game you will fly hangar-loads of aircraft in most of the theatres of war that the RAF and USAF were involved in, you'll be joined by fellow Yankee airmen and together you'll form a close-knit squad of four that can tackle anything the Germans or Japanese can throw at you. That's not just a part of the story either, your wing men will actually help you out. The AI is quite good in this regard, give them a simple order like fly in formation, attack the enemy or defend my plane and they will act on those orders in an appropriate way. You can also use individuals for specific tasks, Tom is excellent at distracting the enemy fighters and can keep your six clear of bandits, Frank is an ace pilot and can be let loose to attack on his own and finally Joe is an excellent mechanic and can help you repair your kite in the air. You'll also hear the banter passing between the lads as the mission progresses, pointing out significant events and giving hints to aid your progress.

The enemy too has a highly developed sense of who they are, fighting in pairs, defending each other or just going for their targets with ruthless determination, they all seem to behave in a realistic manner. Somehow your radio also picks up the banter from the Jerries and the Japs too, and its all translated into English so you can understand it. Most of the enemy dialogue is spoken in heavy, almost fake, accents and is pretty similar no matter who you are fighting against. In addition, you are also joined in the air and on the ground and sea by members of the allied forces who also join in the battles with great gusto and intelligence. That's not to say that you can just hang back and let your friends do all the work, you must still do the lion's share of the blowing up, shooting down and general flying around in order to get through the missions. Indeed there are some solo missions where you are the only allied aircraft and everything rests with you.

The missions are a varied bunch, ranging from the classic dogfight to more involved bombing and torpedo runs against non-flying targets. You may be attacking the enemy, defending your own side or even performing reconnaissance runs and taking photographs. Each mission is broken up into a number of objectives, these are given to you one at a time as you fly through the overall scenario. Sometimes a new objective will require you to land and change aircraft in order to have access to the weapons you require to perform the next task. The weapons are a varied bunch as well, most planes have guns that you will use against flying targets and these are always your primary weapon. Secondary weapons include rockets, bombs, torpedoes and a camera and can be used against land or sea based enemy units. Each secondary weapon has its own targeting interface to learn, with the torpedoes and camera requiring you to fly level at the right height and only use the weapon within a certain distance range to the target.