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Wings of War Review - Xbox

World War One was a war about testing new technologies. All the European countries had created all these weapons and planes and they wanted to try them out against each other - that's basically a nice way of putting it. The allies trying to out power the Germans and the Soviets in trenches, armoured vehicles, and of course the skies… which is where Wings of War comes in. This game is primarily about destruction - shoot everything that doesn't smile at you, and shoot to kill. So let's take a look at what's involved within the game.

Gameplay

Wings of War is a game based on The Great War's war in the sky over Europe. The game is set across 13 levels, but actually has 70 missions divided up through the levels. Don't hold your breath though; these missions aren't all that compelling. Shoot the bridge, escort the plane, take a photo, and locate enemy targets. That's pretty much everything that you'll do in Wings of War apart from constant dog fights in the sky. A plus about the dogfights is that there are quite a lot of planes that the developers seem to have put a lot of effort in to reconstruct the WW1 experience. Along with planes, there are also massive blimps throughout the game, used for not only escorting armour, but also as a weapon. All aircraft are gradually unlockable for Instant Action mayhem.

The main menu has 6 different options to select from - Play Campaign, Instant Action, Hangar, Credits, High Score and Options. Let's not delve into the last three, but the first three are interesting. Play Campaign takes you to the campaign screen where you select Benjamin, or 'Butch' as we like to call him, the main character. 13 levels of havoc and corrupt flying will keep you on the edge of your seat... well, kind of. Instant Action takes you straight to a screen where you can create a free-for-all or team based battle. You probably shouldn't use this game mode until you've played through a bit of the Campaign mode to unlock some more aircraft and make the game more interesting. The Hangar is an interesting feature of Wings of War. It allows you to check out all the aircraft that you will see in the game. It looks almost identical to the hangar in the Instant Action mode however, except you get to see every aircraft in it.

From the Campaign mode, you can instantly jump in to the first campaign, or you can go to flight school where an instructor will explain what your task is, much like a James Bond briefing from Q. Unfortunately, you must wait for them to explain every last detail before you can jump into the cockpit and get airborne, so usually the preferred path would be to just jump straight in ... (continued next page)