My Favorite Games, Vol. 1.5 - Secret Weapons Over Normandy (11/25/09)

"The greater issues were beyond us. We sat in a tiny cockpit, throttle lever in one hand, stick in the other. At the end of our right thumb was the firing button, and in each wing were four guns. We aimed through an optical gunsight, a red bead in the middle of a red ring. Our one concern was to boot out the enemy."  -Capt. Peter Townswend, British Royal Air Force

Odd that I start this with a quote, but I thought it much more appropriate in this case than anything I could write.  I don't play many games that are heavily based on historic events, but Secret Weapons Over Normandy was one of those few that I came across and enjoyed (the other also being a game based on the pilots of WWII, but the 1940 shmup series doesn't really try for some form of historical accuracy very often).

Secret Weapons follows the tale of an American Air Force (AAF) pilot, James Chase (who you never really see save when he runs to his plane), who has teamed up with the British Royal Air Force (RAF), during the German's Blitzkrieg.  However, while the story was very accurate, it's really not all that important for the course of this game.

No, it's the handling of Secret Weapons that makes it extremely enjoyable.  I played it on the Xbox, so you'll have to excuse me if the game is horrid on the PS2, but this game plays better than both Crimson Skies (Xbox) and any game in the Star Fox series.  It even plays better than other games by the company, including Rogue Squadron.  This game is just pure fun.  It's hard to explain how good these controls are, but take everything you ever liked about a flight combat simulator, and this is the game that does them all right.

That being said, this was an attempt at rebooting the WWII air combat simulator from the late 80's and early 90's.  These games were the basis for the eventual Tie Fighter and X-Wing games.  It is rather interesting that this and that series went full circle in influencing one another, as this was built upon the engine of X-Wing Alliance, where as the original X-Wing was built on the engine of Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe.  I find that interelationship between the two series to be evidence that though game series may end, their influence on gaming never does.

However, that's a tad off topic.  This game looks and sounds amazing (for the time).  The digital reproductions look very much like the planes themselves.  On the other hand, cutscenes leave much to be desired.  They're historic pictures of actual pilots (which gets them points in my opinion, but don't justify it in the long run) with voice overs.  While the in-game images are gorgeous, those cutscenes hurt it in it's overall production value.  Oh well though, it still plays amazing.

An in-game shot

I never got the chance to experience online multiplayer for the game, but it was one of the first games I remember having Xbox Live connectivity.  Split Screen though was amazing, and wish I'd had the chance to play it online, however, I think that the potential for lag could have probably killed it.

If I had to compare this to a more recent game, I'd go with Blazing Angels, however, this was a much better game than that by far.  The controls were better, the dogfights were better, and it had a better looking planes.  The fact that when you beat the game you unlocked the usage of a Tie Fighter and an X-Wing didn't hurt it either.

An X-Wing destroy's a Tie Fighter over the Rhine

So, let me know if you've played it and what you thought about.  If you've got any questions feel free to ask.  Next up, Goldeneye 64.

-Sara