Secret Weapons over Normandy

Bob McDob · Post by **Bob McDob** » 2003-11-25 07:27pm

I played a bit of Secret Weapons Over Normandy over the weekend.

Now, most everyone is too stupid to remember the early nineties - but Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe was one of the greatest video games ever made. Lucasarts managed to make a realistic game about fighting Nazi super-weapons. They gave the player a heck of a lot of options, too - you could do anything from historical missions to fighter-based campaigns (survive 25 missions in a B-17, etc.) to massive style scenarios where you ran the entire European air war (from either side). A truly amazing and completely immersive game.

This new one is not. To its credit, it is a visually stunning game. Beautiful, smooth graphics that I would never have expected to see on a console. It's also fun in an arcade sense - it's FreeLancer (or Galaga) with airplanes. You point your Hurricane at a JU-87 and it blows up. World War II with targetting recticles and radars. There's no notable difference between planes - a Hurricane flies a lot like a JU-88. It's got a lot of the technical stuff I'd have begged for as a kid - a million different airplanes, amazing graphics, huge battles, the ability to run around on the ground for no reason... but it traded in the heart and soul of the original. Remember how proud you were to shoot down a single enemy plane in Wings of Glory (Editors Note: of course you don't, no one else played Wings of Glory). Well - now you can shoot down the entire German air force in three minutes. It's just not worth bragging about.

Worse, though, is that it suffers from the awful 'Star Wars' syndrome that plauges every historical game today. Game developers, hear me now: I DO NOT WANT TO WIN WORLD WAR II BY MYSELF. I do not want another story where I'm part of the secret group that really caused everything to happen. You know what was great? The first level of that Medal of Honor game where you storm a beach on D-Day. You know what wasn't great? The other thirty-quadmillion levels where you sneak aboard a submarine and single-handedly save the world from zombies. If I'm playing a World War II game, I want to spent the whole time taking pot shots at Messerschmitts from a ball turret - not secretly infiltrating Nazi High Command in a captured Dralthi.

I played Mission 4 of SWON last night. It started off with this beautiful, stylistic panorama of a Nazi fleet - a convoy of freighters and destroyers that brought to mind a very Temple of Doom 1940s feel.

Then I single-handedly destroyed the entire fleet in my *biplane*.

I really wish this game would stop taking me out for a nice dinner before it beats the crap out of me.

[/quote]

Trogdor · Post by **Trogdor** » 2003-11-25 07:37pm

Yeah, a lot of games like that do suffer from that defect, but you can see where they come from. I mean, is it really so absurd an idea to expect that the gamer wants to feel important. If you want a good wargame, check out the command and conquer ones, though these are strategy games, not platformers. I haven't gotten around to the Red Alert games, but was very impressed with Tiberium Sun and the expansion pack, Firestorm. It's a good game, with a solid story the core of which stays mostly the same regardless of what side you're playing. I like how it's realistic; not every mission you accomplish is a glorious victory. Sometimes it was a trap and an important guy on your side got captured. Sometimes you were dealing with a distraction and an important guy on your side got popped off while you were away. A good game, and I find it very fun to play as the zealotous bad guys.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-11-25 10:43pm

Play Il-2 Forgotten Battles, you'll feel better.

Shogoki · Post by **Shogoki** » 2003-11-26 10:36am

What can you expect from a console "sim"?

All the good and realistic flight sims are on the PC. A console does not have enough buttons, i guess

SAMAS · Post by **SAMAS** » 2003-11-26 05:09pm

It's funny how the reviewer spends most of his time complaining about how SWON isn't a true flight sim.

Well, I find it funny because in every interview I've seen about the game, the developers always mention that they deliberately made it more arcade-like.

And it's funny how he calls one flaw in it, "Star Wars Syndrome"...:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/secre ... 84700.html

Bob McDob · Post by **Bob McDob** » 2003-11-26 06:50pm

SAMAS wrote:It's funny how the reviewer spends most of his time complaining about how SWON isn't a true flight sim.

I don't think it has to do much with that ... more of how every mission is blowing up 1213542312312341 evil Nazi zombie terrorist bad guys and saving the world from complete utter total annihilation.

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2003-11-26 07:00pm

Vympel wrote:Play Il-2 Forgotten Battles, you'll feel better.

Don't remindme, Traded MY Il-2 for Temple of Elemental Evil.

Usually I like RPG's but this was a bugfeast...

Shortie · Post by **Shortie** » 2003-11-27 01:03pm

Trogdor wrote:Yeah, a lot of games like that do suffer from that defect, but you can see where they come from. I mean, is it really so absurd an idea to expect that the gamer wants to feel important. If you want a good wargame, check out the command and conquer ones, though these are strategy games, not platformers. I haven't gotten around to the Red Alert games, but was very impressed with Tiberium Sun and the expansion pack, Firestorm. It's a good game, with a solid story the core of which stays mostly the same regardless of what side you're playing. I like how it's realistic; not every mission you accomplish is a glorious victory. Sometimes it was a trap and an important guy on your side got captured. Sometimes you were dealing with a distraction and an important guy on your side got popped off while you were away. A good game, and I find it very fun to play as the zealotous bad guys.

I really like missions where you're making a difference, but not doing everythign by yourself. Like in the start of HW: Cataclysm where you're fighting your own little battle, and helping out in other engagements, but all the heavy stuff is being done by other forces on your side.