Heroes Over Europe PC & PS3
Heroes Over Europe tries to continue the great World War II arcade style flying combat series in the skies of Europe and England as you fly and fight your way to victory.
Ratings:
Graphics & Audio: 18/25,
Gameplay: 13/25,
Creativity 15/25,
Fun 18/25
Total: 64/100
Heroes Over Europe continues the Heroes series moving the fight over to the European theatre with plenty of dog fighting action in a wide variety of war birds. Transmission Games and Ubisoft bring the action to England, France and Germany with a decent variety of planes you get to fly but the action is a bit of a let down.
Heroes Over Europe was a game I was very much anticipating and I do feel a bit let down by the lack of variety and better single player missions. I enjoy a good arcade style combat flight game and enjoy the variety and fun involved with not getting too picky about flight physics.
Heroes of the Pacific included some well planned missions with realistic targets and quite realistic action sequences that are all but missing in Heroes Over Europe. Heroes Over Europe is more of a lather, rinse, repeat affair that gets a bit boring at times usually with wave after wave of enemies or targets.
You start your single player or multiplayer fun in a cartoon looking set of menus that works well for gaming and for single player simply trudge through only a few menus. Once into the available mission you are treated to a decent story line that is common but not too boring or even linear.
The mission may not be one after the other in time or battle fields but that does not help the action and appeal of the game much. You jump from one battle and area to another with a decent enough variety to the areas but the action is a bit too familiar after awhile.
Action usually follows protecting targets from attacks by enemies or destroying targets while defeating other flying heroes. Missions include some variety with the use of bombing ground targets and protecting your own waves of bombers but things don’t get mixed up enough to keep your attention throughout the campaign.
They tried to keep things fun and varied like one mission has you buzzing historic landmarks over Germany instead of bombing or strafing them but things just get too repetitive. Missions include English, France and German country and city environments that look good enough without being over the top or even above average.
Missions run the gambit from defending ships, airfields and groups of bombers to destroying the same of your enemies’ resources while being attacked by aircraft all the time. Much of the time you’ll have to deal with fighters even if they are not your target objectives during many of the missions.
The single player campaign is 14 missions long using a good variety of aircraft including the Mustang, Spitfire and Mosquito but the variety opens a bit as you unlock more through bonus objectives. The campaign unlocks the next mission when you complete the current one and during missions side objectives that are successfully accomplished you unlock new aircraft.
Using these aircraft becomes a bit of a disappointment as they all fly pretty much the same with speed and armament when it comes to actual dog fighting. Actually most of the game is about the same with only a few various differences that really don’t make the game stand out from other arcade flight games.
The graphics are passable but nothing to brag about and the missions are designed as a defend or attack through several targets and continue until the end of the mission, usually about a half hour each. Nothing really stands out even during the multiplayer gaming and the fact that there are very few if any players on servers should give an idea to the fun.
While I enjoyed the previous Heroes game this one left me feeling wanting for some varied action and fun flying without having to worry too much about flight physics and trimming out my plane. Heroes Over Europe just left me with a feeling of having too much work at trying to have fun even though it is fun and there are standout moments.
I did receive both the PlayStation 3 and the PC version but both were almost identical with controls and using your various available flight sticks from either system being the only differences I could tell. Heroes Over Europe is a game better left for a rental but is fun enough to at least try out once for some new arcade flight combat fun.