Battle of Europe Review (no fat)

Game Description

Once again producers try to squeeze the everlasting lemon of WWII with another game based on this tragic historical event. It seems that this subject is the fountain of youth for many producers, the tragedy of the war can be portrayed in games from every angle possible, either by land, sea, air and even paranormal. Battle of Europe is an arcade action game that focuses on the “air” part of the war putting you in an airplane and pitting you against the enemy, the Axis

Battle of Europe Gameplay

Battle of Europe puts you in the cockpit of some of the most famous airplanes to take off in the second world war. You’ll start as a humble trainee and work your way up fighting those axis bad guys all the way to the end, over Berlin, London and other historical locations. The whole idea of the game is to see the war through the eyes of a young combat pilot going through his first war experience. You’ll get at the controls of machines suck as the Hawker Typhoon, Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane MK1 and fight your way to the top.

When you first get a grip of the flight stick everything feels like a combat sim but completing the tutorial missions changes this aspect, the game is made easier to the bone, and another thing that makes it heavy on the arcade side is the appearance of power-ups every time you make a kill.

Controls are sluggish and also resembles arcade games, there is a limit in force and feedback and the plane just doesn’t feel like it is suffering the stresses of high speed, high altitude, flight.

Another annoying feature for simulation fans is the existence of auto aiming and aiming bars, this is simply outrageous, you’ll feel like a dumb flying ace. The thrill of the chase and kill is completely absent, the guns track the target automatically and that simply kills all the enthusiasm of some experienced PC pilots.

There is one advantage to this style of play and that is the easy way it can be learned, practically everyone can play this game and not feel bogged down by any of the controls. Speaking of controls, the game only works perfect using keyboard, all other flight modes either don’t work (mouse) or work but defectively( joystick), so you’re stuck playing a flight game using buttons.

Battle of Europe Graphics

Average, that’s the best you can say about the graphics, even ‘decent’ would come with a ‘maybe’ attached. All the texturing, modeling and effects in the game are done properly but nothing really stands out. Industry standard modeling, industry standard effects and boring textures. The countryside is sometimes interrupted by small buildings and towns, a nice adition that breaks some of the monotony. Cockpit detail is moderate and you can’ play around with buttons like other sims let you do, but you must keep in mind that this was probably not intended as a sim .

Battle of Europe Sound

Here you can find the industry standard engine sounds, machine gun sounds, and exploding sounds. The additional music is made up of old “war like” songs that seem old and dusty, but nevertheless do the job. Environmental sounds are absent, you’ll expect some water sounds while you fly (very, very) close to the water, but there were none.

Battle of Europe Overall

The general impression is that of a failed simulation game, but don’t let my opinion stop you from buying the game, because viewed opposite this is a great arcade game. It is very easy to learn, easy to fly and the small control problems won’t stop novice players from enjoying a couple of hours of flight. Battle of Europe looks decent with no eye candy but that isn’t a disadvantage for an arcade game as this means it will run well on all systems.

This is not a game for aviation fanatics because it will be a great disappointing for those who expect perfect physics simulation, bullet effects and engine radiator controls. Overall a good game to play, a whole lot of fun, and somewhat addictive if you like being an auto-aiming flying ace, however, all that is for a select group of arcade lovers, realism loses out when you mention this particular timewaster.

Battle of Europe Pricing

The game currently retails for $17.99