Shooters are one of my favorite genres, and so, by extension, I also tend to like "flight shooters". I really don't know what else to call them... Flight simulators that aren't boring? I dunno. I've been playing these types of games since the days of the original Red Baron, when I didn't know about things like "frame rate" and "3D acceleration".
So, when our own Martez got us hooked up with a copy of the latest Sammy production, Lethal Skies II, of course I was going to jump all over that. Alkaiser returns to the skies! However, returning to the skies on a console is an entirely different bag. I generally don't play flight sims on consoles for the same reason I don't play FPS games on consoles; the controls, and hence the game, have to be dumbed down in order for it to work with the crippled controller.
However, Ace Combat 4 managed to make a very enjoyable game out of it; could Asmik Ace follow suit? I was eager to find out, especially since getting it for free meant I didn't have to import Sidewinder V, which is what I was about to do. So, a big thanks to the guys over at Sammy. Doesn't mean I'll be any less harsh on your product, though. =)
Story
If you see something that's red on your radar, blow it up. That's the Cliff's Notes version of the plot. I don't know if it ties into the plot of the first Lethal Skies, seeing as how I've never played it.
The in-game plot sequences will tell you that it's the year 20XX (pronounced, "Two thousand X"), where mankind has obliterated half of the numbers from the Arabic numeral system and is waging war on the other half. They take a break from that long enough to form a World Alliance, and some of the members of the World Alliance take a break from that to form the AGL, an organization bent on destroying the World Alliance.
Obviously, it's useless to try and reason with them at this point, I mean, they ALREADY have an acronym picked out. That kind of advance planning is the earmark of someone who is hell bent on seeing to the death of your kids, the killing of your parakeet, and the punting of your small, puntable dog for fun and profit. So, having exhausted all possible diplomatic avenues, you're left with the “shooting the crap out of them” avenue, which you seem to be pretty good at.
Controls
This is the biggie area for me. "If the controls ain't tight...good night!", is what Johnnie Cochran would probably say. R1 and L1 increase and decrease your throttle. Triangle switches your weapon hardpoint, Square cycles targets, X fires your default machinegun, and O fires your weapon of choice.
At any speed, in any craft, the controls feel solid, just as solid as they feel in Ace Combat 4. I really didn't have any problems with any of the aircraft, save for the VTOL missions.
Gameplay
When the mission designers aren't busy recreating the most annoying mission types ever, the game is really fun. Dogfighting in all the aircraft, while not realistic in the least (if you were in a real dogfight with these aircraft, you'd have forward radar, and you'd just be launching missiles from miles and miles out) is fun, fast-paced, and engaging. Thanks mostly to the crisp control schemes, taking out ground targets and shooting down enemy aircraft is satisfying and enjoyable. In Normal mode, the enemies themselves don't offer up too much resistance individually, but that's counteracted by bad mission design, which I'll address later.
The game's got a total of nineteen different aircraft that you'll unlock during the course of the game depending upon your performance in the missions, and you're able to toy with these planes in training missions, the story mode, and multiplayer dogfights. As missions progress you'll earn yourself more wingmen, and you're also able to deck out their planes with loadouts to complement the mission role you envision yourself taking. If you're one of the sad people who actually have an iLink cable, 2 PS2s, and 2 TVs hooked up side to side, you'll be glad to see that you now have another game to add to your library of iLink enabled games.
This game seems to care more about you taking off and landing, as it includes those sequences, whereas Ace Combat 4 largely just threw you in the air and had you go about your business. When you do go about your business, you'll find yourself piloting anything from an A-10 to the standard F-16 on night bombing raids, air defense, and shooting down ICBMs that are headed for your base.
I have to say, though, aside from Ace Combat 4, this is the most enjoyable air combat experience I've had on the Playstation 2.
Graphics
The graphics are, and I know I keep saying this in my reviews, a mixed bag. On one hand, they are really nice, taking into account lots of details like jet wash, having the plane actually reflect how many warheads it has on board, and protruding landing gear. In addition, I found the slick presentation of the menus to be pretty cool, although just a tad bit over the top.
Then, on the other hand, there are woeful looking explosion textures, some really weak and repetitive buildings, and CG that goes from sweet to sour in the same sequences. I have to say that overall it looks better than average, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit disappointed in some of it.
Audio
The Tekken guy returns! Not only that, but there is some really, really bad localization in this game. I will never understand this, and since I can't I will always point it out when I see it in a game. I've played a lot of games recently, and I haven't found too many that actually get this down pat. What strikes me as odd, though, is some of the stuff is just so absurd that the designers should honestly know better than to put it in a commercial product that has their company's name on it.
The voiceovers are littered with grammatical errors, and are delivered in completely the wrong intonation. Sorry guys; this ain't gonna fly.
Also, I'm pretty disappointed by the music. I liked one track out of the twenty or so that I remember, and that's not going to cut it either.
The effects from the plane's gunfire and missiles are passable, and explosions sound like explosions. However the weak voiceovers and background music are what your audio experience is going to consist mainly of, and they bring down the score considerably.
Gripes
Seriously, why is it that every modern flight combat game has to do their take on the Death Star trench run? You're always either going to have to:
A: Fly low to avoid being detected. Conveniently enough, there's a canyon that passes right near where you need to go.
B: Fly through some insanely small opening to destroy something on the other side.
This is retarded. Gamers don't want a mandatory mission where you have to do this. It's frustrating, doesn't offer much in the way of gameplay (restarting the mission a whole lot just to fly through the canyon again is not nearly as fun as shooting down five planes, and then getting shot down and having to restart) and it's been done six ways to Sunday already. If you really, really must do the stupid canyon mission...make it optional! Gamers want to wear a badge of pride when completing something like this, something that says, "I didn't have to do this, but I did just because I'm badass." Not something that says, "I beat this mission, just like EVERYBODY ELSE who beat the game."
If you want to do something that gives the player the rush of being in an enclosed space, have them dogfight in the city or something. But enough with the canyons and trenches. They're pointless, boring, and trite.
Aside from that, the way VTOL was implemented leaves a lot to be desired. Once again, this wouldn't be so bad if it was optional, but there's a mission that requires you to use it. Once you do a full stop with the plane, it'll start hovering, and you can control ascent and descent along with small adjustments in left-right, forward-backward movement. Well, in the mission, if you get over the area you're supposed to hover in and kill your engines, it'll kick VTOL mode in. However, if you mess up and want to try and do another pass...you can't. You can't just kick back out of VTOL mode, you have to get far enough away that it'll let you fly by again. However, it's nearly impossible to do so with the minute adjustments in direction that the little side thrusters give you. Even if you did make it out, it'd be pointless because you're being timed on this mission.
So, aside from bad mission design, I really don't have too much to gripe about in this section here.
Overall
Lethal Skies II is a solid effort from Asmik Ace, and thanks to Sammy for bringing it over. I sincerely hope that wasn't their doing with the localization, otherwise, they just paid a lot of money to give people a reason to make fun of their product. That being said, if you like air combat (not flight simulation...air combat) games and you've been hankering for one on your PS2, this is worth your going out and picking up. It is a little light on the value side, and you're going to have to put up with a couple of doozies in the way of missions, but it's either that, or wait until Ace Combat V or Secret Weapons over Normandy.
