Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII

Also known as: Blazing Angels: Secret Missions [UK]

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Some secrets are best kept secret

Words: Alex Cooke, GamesMaster UK

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The lock-on system is still horribly clumsy, the story is still not so much tongue-in-cheek and the enemies still seem more of a messy respawning mass than individual dog-fighting aces. And despite our black and white protestations, there is still no altimeter. The problem of not having one still persists: tear into a pretty plume of volumetric smoke in pursuit of a Stuka and you'll emerge either ascending into the slate grey Normandy sky or plummeting into the slate grey North Atlantic with no idea which is which. While there's nothing in the design as lion-molestingly stupid as the original's "searching for a camp in a sand storm" there's still some dumb game design at work here to rub it in.

That said, there are some occasions where it works: the rubbish minigames and all-American crew are gone, it looks pretty enough - albeit in a slightly stuttering way - and the hundreds of aircraft should be a joy to anyone who likes their lemon drink weak and their skin swathed in polyester. So what if it's taking more liberties during the years 1939 to 1945 than the guy who wrote A Million Little Pieces? The immense array of prototypes and real planes, with their fanciful weaponry, add variety to both the visuals and the gameplay.