Heatseeker

Decidedly low impact dog-fighting

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We might as well get the obvious bits out of the way right at the top of this review, yes Heatseeker has a lot in common with the Ace Combat series, it involves flying fighter jets at silly speeds while blasting assorted enemies out of the sky (quoting 'Top Gun' at the same time is optional but encouraged) through numerous missions that span across the globe. Clearly originality isn't going to be the games huge draw but that's not always a bad thing, everybody loves a good high speed dogfight after all.

However, in an effort to come to market with at least one new idea to call their own Codemasters are keen to trumpet Heatseeker's 'Impact Cam'. Fire off a missile and if it's going to claim a kill the camera cuts away to follow it right to the point of impact giving you an impressive close up view of the resultant fireball. Unfortunately, if you're going to hang a game on a gimmick you need to at least make it a good one. Three huge flaws with the Impact Cam become gapingly apparent even during the opening mission. Firstly, while it's kinda cool to see your missile hit home the first few times, one plane blowing up tends to look very much the same as any other so the experience soon becomes more of an annoying interruption of the overall battle rather than the joyous climax to a hard won dogfight. Secondly, since it only kicks in if the missile in question is going to cause a fatality you loose any sense of will it or won't it hit the target which in turn makes you wonder about an AI where a kill is decided at the moment of firing rather than giving the attacked plane any chance of dodge or drop flares. The last but probably most crippling flaw with the whole idea is that for the couple of seconds you're watching the impact cam your own plane is out of your control, speeding off in a straight line in whichever direction you were pointing. Not ideal in the midst of heavy enemy bombardment and horribly jarring when the game does throw you back into the hot seat as you struggle to regain your bearings. Thankfully a quick trip to the main menu and the Impact Cam can be mercifully turned off (quite why this is the one option not available from the in-game options menu is beyond me) thus removing Heatseeker's single new idea in one fell swoop and leaving a certain amount of egg on the face of whoever in the Codemasters PR department decided to talk up such a useless feature to such a degree.

So, now devoid of any defining new features what's left is a fairly routine Ace Combat clone consisting of 18 missions spread over locations ranging from the USA and the Caribbean to Antarctica and the Far East. There's a story of sorts pinning the whole thing together involving some well armed rebels but it's never much more than an excuse for the repeated kill everything that moves style missions. While the missions themselves may not be hugely varied It's not always only air to air combat you're engaged in, land and sea based targets come in for a pounding as well with the elegantly simple system for targeting bombs as you drop them one of the bright points of a control scheme that while always functional and responsive never really gives the sense of weight to things that you feel ducking and diving a high speed jet through frantic dogfights should have.

This is all sounding very negative and that's perhaps a little unfair on Heatseeker, uninspired and unoriginal may be perfectly accurate descriptive words for its design, but once in the cockpit itself there is actually quite a thrill to be found at times when the action cranks up and you're chasing rapidly twisting enemy fighters through the sky, weaving through the cloud cover all the while trying to loose the bogie who's sat firmly on your six. Each mission is broken up into a series of checkpoints none of which are too far apart meaning progress never feels laboured and while the story, as mentioned, is wholly forgettable the enthusiasm of the voices coming over the radio as they shout out new objectives and warnings does at least instil a sense of urgency into proceedings. New planes can be unlocked as you complete missions including the F-22 Raptor, F-15 Eagle and the cutting-edge F35 Lightening II. And these can all be used to tackle any of the unlocked missions one at a time if you fancy improving your score outside of the main campaign.

The problem with Heatseeker really comes when you start to realise that's all there is to it. As much fun as each mission is on their own, when you're pulling on the flight gloves for the next and then the next and then the next it all soon starts to become very familiar. For all the fresh locations spread throughout the world each mission is still essentially you flying through the open air with either land or sea below you, shooting planes that more often than not all tend to look very much the same from the distances you view them at. It's not that any of it is bad; it's just that it all feels rather pointless after a while. With no strong narrative to hold the campaign together or to evoke any emotion it all falls apart somewhat once the initial thrill of combat has faded and the monotony of yet another similar mission set in.

Despite what may seem like a lot of moans there isn't much wrong with Heatseeker once you've turned off the 'Impact Cam' and if you fancy a slightly sub par Ace Combat clone then you'll get exactly what you're looking for. Its problems come far more from having not much else to show once you get behind the mask, no depth to engross you or rewards to entice you than through any real technical fault with the game that's actually on display. That a game about something as high octane as jet combat comes across as so routine and unremarkable in almost every way so quickly and surely tells its own story.

65%

65%

By Paul Newcombe