Heatseeker Review

Depending on how much you like explosions or hate stuff that isn't exploding, you might even find the Impact Cam to be a negative thing. For one you always seem to accidentally activate it when you're in the middle of some evasive manoeuvres you absolutely do not want to be dragged away from. This isn't like Max Payne's ultra-fast sniper rifle, either. Missiles take time to reach their target. So you're left, invulnerable and going in a straight line, for the entire duration of its flight.

What's most irritating is it only ever activates when your ordnance is going to hit and destroy your target, which is normally a tense and unsure thing. With the Impact Cam you just sit back and watch your shot inevitably find its mark. It also means Heatseeker in some way decides whether your shot hits before you've pulled the trigger, and it's not down to fancy AI flying or flare dropping. Annoying.

Uh. Control, this is Fox 2. Does it count as a headshot if I take out a little more than the head?

One Of Life's Simple Joys

After you strip away that key feature there really isn't much left. 18 missions are tied together by a hollow plot and the world's most awesomely generic voice acting. Regular checkpoints within levels ensure you never get too frustrated by losing progress but also mean you never really fear death. Each level has three bonus objectives that unlock new weapon loadouts, new planes or plane variants, although lots of them can only be used outside of the campaign in arcade mode. The campaign mode is really just there to act as a backdrop for the action and give the player a bit of focus. There's nothing like Ace Combat's medal collection, cutscenes or flight statistics here. But there is a half decent replication of Ace Combat's action.

Missions mostly involve being given a series of things to blow up, either static structures or enemies whose strange and mysterious tactics dictate they attack in nice, manageable waves. Obliterating lone enemies is a cakewalk but things get nice and hectic when you're in the thick of lots of them. For instance, trying to destroy a surfaced submarine while under fire from missile boats and fighter jets. And when that submarine starts firing cruise missiles that have to be taken down before they reach your airfield - well. That said, things start fairly slowly. The trickiest part of the first campaign comes when you're told to set your bird down on an aircraft carrier (which you're told you absolutely much approach from the 'rear'. Anyone know how to figure out which is the front end of a static, low-res aircraft carrier?)

Playing With The Boys

Scanning provides a short respite from blowing things up before you go blow up what you scanned. War is hell.

Making a mess of the bad guys' machines is down to locking onto a target. You're always equipped with a machine gun but it's fairly dire and the spray and pray usage required makes a mess of your accuracy percentage at the end of a level. What you want to do is get in range of something, get it as close to the centre of the screen as possible (the closer it is, the faster the lock) and then fire away when the targeting reticule changes colour. Variety's added to the mix by an arsenal of unguided and guided bombs, fuel air bombs, torpedoes (which require a cool, low and slow delivery into the water but are sadly weak) and rocket pods. The slower you go, the more chance you have to fire on slow moving targets and the more agile you are, but there's more chance of you getting locked yourself.

When you get locked things proceed a little differently to Ace Combat. Heavy dogfights in AC naturally involve you getting locked perpetually and never stopping your aerial acrobatics. Being locked in Heatseeker is much rarer and breaking free involves a QTE style moment where a button flashes up on the screen and hitting it in time results in a sideways roll or dropping flares. You might prefer the cinematic look of this system, or you might dislike watching the game take over and save your ass. It's personal taste. But fail at it enough times and you will hate it because the plume of smoke your plane leaks when it's taken heavy damage pours right into the third person camera, forcing you to swap to the in-cockpit view.