Status Chovus Oct 23, 2022
Beat on Normal difficulty. I started with the demo mission, which was a lot of fun blowing stuff up in the helicopter, tank and harrier. The game was exactly like the SNES Strike games, only you could strafe with L and R. That made it much easier to fly around and dodge enemies, though I found that guns could not …
Beat on Normal difficulty. I started with the demo mission, which was a lot of fun blowing stuff up in the helicopter, tank and harrier. The game was exactly like the SNES Strike games, only you could strafe with L and R. That made it much easier to fly around and dodge enemies, though I found that guns could not be dodged. Most enemies could be flanked to make them waste time turning before they could shoot. I found the gun great for sniping from just outside enemy aggro range, and for defeating dumb fire rocket launchers. It was also the most efficient way to kill. I made sure to turn on targeting mode, which made it much easier to use unguided weapons, though I failed to see why this was a button instead of an always on feature. Rockets were a fairly lousy weapon. They could kinda snipe like the gun after using the gun to see where the shots would go. They were best fired in a barrage against stationary targets while flying past, but I often had to use them on vehicles due to lack of missiles. Missiles were awesome; the best way to kill dangerous enemies but limited in number. Wing missiles were even more powerful. I did not try out the alternate wing options; fuel pods and chafe. I only changed my load out after the end of the game to see how it changed. All missiles replaced rockets with another compliment of missiles, which I think was the best option. All rockets would make the game even more difficult, while only guns would function like a hard mode. I usually only fired 1 weapon at a time because of ammo conservation and the awkwardness of pressing multiple face buttons. I fired all 3 at once to burn down the final boss in seconds. I imagine advanced play could combine rockets with gun or a missile to more quickly defeat enemies.
This was a very challenging game due to enemies easily chewing you apart, and all the stupid bullshit fail conditions. Level 1 was very good. There were a couple escort missions but they were easy. I opted not to use the hovercraft but I should have. It had great weapons but could only drive over flat terrain. It was tough keeping the huey alive for the latter missions because it was far more cumbersome to fly. I really should have killed as much as possible using the hovercraft and Apache before being forced into the huey.
I failed level 2 because I ran out of ammo while attacking the junk fleet and 1 got away. Such bullshit, I could have easily caught up to it outside the map after replenishing ammo. The next time I made sure to be full on ammo before triggering the mission. I had a similar close call with the destroyers, as 1 was seconds away from the edge of the map with me down to only gun. The rest of the missions were good and I really liked the variety of naval enemies in this level. I did not use the harrier. I did use the naval mines but wasted the nitro. I had to look up a guide to see how to drop stuff (up on analog stick). The optimal way to play this level would be to clear out as much as possible first thing, especially the northern town island, the south base with tons of supplies, and the naval base. Maybe get the harrier immediately to help with the initial clearing, or wait until after dropping the naval mines because it would help a lot against the destroyers.
Level 3 was the worst because it had multiple escort missions that could easily fail. I failed at every one. I am not sure how you were expected to win here without having foreknowledge of what to do. I had no idea I could only use tear gas during the first mission until I read the walkthrough after failing the later missions. I still managed to get by with enemy armor shooting at me, and there were plenty of people to rescue to restore my armor. I think I failed the next mission because the piece of crap news chopper could not defeat the APCs and I let 1 get away. I did like how the game taught you creative ways to defeat enemies. I settled on blowing up gas stations for each. Then was the stupid escort the school bus mission. The main problem was by the time they mentioned roadblocks to destroy I did not have enough time to figure out where. They were weak looking barricades that the bus should have been able to smash through. Instead she took a different route that went to a bunch of tanks. It was not difficult once I knew what to do. Getting the cobra was not difficult but it made no sense how the enemies let me land and switch choppers. Nevermind shooting, all that had to do was drive into the choppers. Then I failed at the next escort mission because they were god damn lemmings that ran straight into danger without waiting for me. I could not even clear the enemies out before starting the mission because they all spawned after. Next time I need to blow up the gate instead of the wall before starting, since I barely scraped by with 3 civilians dying. Good thing there was a checkpoint after the nuke went off because I failed both missions. Escorting the train failed near the end when it was rammed by a cross train. No one even mentioned it and it was not on ths map so how would you know what to do? It was hard enough to take out the tanks in time. I did clear the tracks before starting the mission but again these enemies all spawned from no where at scripted times. Next time I got killed by enemy choppers because only missiles were effective against them. This was the only point in the game where I considered changing my load out to all missiles, but I managed to win by being more careful and grabbing more ammo. I destroyed the bridges before escorting the train and missed a couple of the command vehicles. I did not use the hidden harrier. I think the best way would be to clear important spots using the chopper and use the harrier for the missions.
Level 4 was the most fun and reminded me of Toy Soldiers Cold War, minus the towers. It was pretty much a tower defense level. I failed twice by dropping the girl to close a tunnel and her getting killed. The first time I flew away to do something else because I did not know what exactly she was doing. The second time there were way too many enemies and she died before I could even spot her. The third time I said screw the tunnels, and still won. I used my artillery to hit their fuel depot. I didn't know it was there, it just looked like a juicy location. The Abrams kicked ass; I put 1 group on the road just west of my artillery and the other at the crossroads in the NW. I did not know to power up my infantry unit but they held the center road. I put 1 APC unit at the far west road but it was killed by special forces while I was going after the center SCUD. I moved the fuel trucks out into the field on my first time so losing the depot was not a big deal. The other APC unit I put on the NE corner but they did not do anything; that was a bad spot, probably should have left them in base. It annoyed me that I could not make the units move again. I think I should have killed all the special forces. Then I used the A10 to wreck the enemies until it ran out of fuel. I focused on protecting my artillery while killing all that I could. The weakest point was the A10 base, as several enemies slipped through over there, but I did not fail from that.
Playing the mission again I did a circuit to power up the infantry and position the units. Hitting the sign by my artillery made the enemies go west towards the Abrams, so I think they could handle the entire east flank. I put the east APCs east of their base and they eventually died, but did a good job. I watched them die to see how well they were doing, so I think it would be enough just to kill enemy tanks for them while they hold off lighter vehicles. There was enough time to order the artillery strike, then kill all special forces, then go behind enemy lines to take out the SCUDs before they launched. Could also squeeze in rescuing the guy in the NE corner, getting the cannon upgrade, and taking out their ammo base. Then go for the A10 until it runs out of fuel, then use the shell pickup to destroy the tunnel by the airbase. That should allow a win with no enemies getting through.
I failed the final level many times because of the first mission to save the dumbass girl and mercenary. Bah, who cares if they die, surely the other commandos could fill in. But then again they lost to SAMs WHILE I was there helping. Some commandos. How the hell does infantry with APCs lose to SAMs? I thought the smart thing to do was skirt around the enemy defenses, but that caused me to fail. The better way was to go in a straight line and not worry about taking damage. Then I used up that chopper to take out some bases on the way to rescue the hacker. I did use an armor to be safe. Then I switched to the havoc chopper and failed at the dumbass escort mission where she drove around on a motorcycle in the enemy base. Of course she died. Next time I found the targets myself. If her death can cause me to fail then she is staying in the crib at the back of my chopper. The rest of the level was easy and I did not need to try the comanche. It was hilarious how incompetent the enemies were, lined up single file for easy pickings. And it was fun how I could shoot the turrets off the T 90s so they drove around like chickens with their heads cut off. I played it safe but still lost a life to the giant on rails guns; I did not want to risk going off for armor while the guy was out of the chopper.
Despite some of the missions being annoying, the core gameplay of flying around and blowing stuff up was amazing. I would have preferred more emphasis on taking out enemies at my own pace rather than worrying about keeping npcs alive or preventing enemies from escaping. I also wish there was far more to the game; higher difficulty levels, more maps, and even an editor for players to make maps. The live action cut scenes were cool, just like Command and Conquer. In fact this series feels like playing a C&C map as a single pilot. Though maybe the budget spent on those scenes and acting could have been better spent on more maps. The few times I got to order troops around was a cool innovation for the genre, and I would like to see more of that. And the variety of vehicles to drive, especially given they act like free lives. I am not sure how this game compares to the SNES games as I have to replay them again. My feeling is that it is on par with Urban Strike, the best in the trilogy.
9.2/10
