AirForce Delta Strike
Written by Ara Ajizian on 3/10/2004 for
PS2
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AirForce Delta Strike
It seems like whenever a genre begins to get too saturated with titles, every new one that comes out has to have something different to make it marketable. I mean, how many combat fighter games does one need? The latest in Konami’s Airforce Delta series tries to be different by adding an intricate, futuristic storyline throughout the game. I found that all this served to do was clutter up the gameplay and bore me to tears.
The story takes place in the future, where a world war is being fought between the Orbital Citizen’s Committee and the Earth Defense Alliance Force. In an effort to bolster its forces, the EDAF decided to allow almost anyone to fight that was willing, sort of like in Police Academy: Citizens on Patrol. The Delta Squadron is composed of such a group of scallywags, each pilot having his or her own dark history and attitude to match.
As the game progresses, the player gets to pick from different pilots for missions. Each pilot has his or her own attributes and personality, which is reflected during the in-flight banter. Which leads to one of Airforce Delta Strike’s biggest problems.
The dialogue between the pilots is hokey at best, sounding like it might have been written by a seventh-grader—“Buttwipe? You calling me a buttwipe?” mutters one character. During missions, all of the characters on both sides talk at once, to the point where it’s impossible to tell who’s talking to whom. Their faces are put on the screen when they talk, but who wants to pay attention when you’re trying to fly a timed mission? So basically, the chatter all becomes useless and annoying.
In between missions, you find yourself at the Airbase, where the boredom continues. There is a hangar where you can repair or modify your crashed/damaged planes, and a shop where you can buy and sell aircraft as well. The mods range from bullet-resistant coatings to various weapons, depending on the aircraft.
One of the most impressive features of AFDS is the selection of planes. With over 130 to choose from (once you’ve gained enough points to buy them), they range from WWII prop planes to jets of all kinds. Every plane has its own weapon, strength, stealth, and performance attributes. There are some cool experimental planes and other unusual ones as well. It’s nice to have a selection, but 130 is a bit excessive, especially for a game that falls short in other areas.
The action sequences of AFDS flow pretty smoothly, except for the aforementioned radio chatter. The game allows you three different control settings, depending on your skill level, and is also compatible with Logitech’s Flight Force stick. The planes respond well, and it’s easy to target and track enemies.
The graphics are fine, though a little boring as far as the ground environments go. Some missions are flown in space, which makes for an interesting change, but for the most part there’s nothing too exciting graphically, except for the planes themselves. The HUD is fairly detailed, and targets, objectives, and friendlies are color coded on the radar. This is especially helpful, since the missions are timed. There are often many targets, but only a few objectives, so knowing exactly what you need to blow up makes things a lot easier.
Konami’s Airforce Delta Strike isn’t a terrible game. For someone that’s into straight up fighter action, though, this one just isn’t going to move fast enough. There’s too much time spent developing a storyline that in the end is just plain boring. I found myself skipping over the dialogue after a while just to get to the missions. For a storyline to work in a game, it really needs to tie in better to the action sequences, and this just doesn’t happen with AFDS.
The game’s strengths are its vast selection of aircraft, and responsive flight sequences. I enjoyed the game a lot during missions, but wanted the fast pace to continue. Instead, I then found myself back at the base for another plot development that I didn’t really care about anyway. Then the game makes you jump through hoops just to get to the next mission. Just tell me what I need to blow up, and I’ll take it from there, ya know? If Konami wanted to create a game on a par with Namco’s Ace Combat series, they should have concentrated more on the action, and less on the cheesy anime.
The story takes place in the future, where a world war is being fought between the Orbital Citizen’s Committee and the Earth Defense Alliance Force. In an effort to bolster its forces, the EDAF decided to allow almost anyone to fight that was willing, sort of like in Police Academy: Citizens on Patrol. The Delta Squadron is composed of such a group of scallywags, each pilot having his or her own dark history and attitude to match.
As the game progresses, the player gets to pick from different pilots for missions. Each pilot has his or her own attributes and personality, which is reflected during the in-flight banter. Which leads to one of Airforce Delta Strike’s biggest problems.
The dialogue between the pilots is hokey at best, sounding like it might have been written by a seventh-grader—“Buttwipe? You calling me a buttwipe?” mutters one character. During missions, all of the characters on both sides talk at once, to the point where it’s impossible to tell who’s talking to whom. Their faces are put on the screen when they talk, but who wants to pay attention when you’re trying to fly a timed mission? So basically, the chatter all becomes useless and annoying.
In between missions, you find yourself at the Airbase, where the boredom continues. There is a hangar where you can repair or modify your crashed/damaged planes, and a shop where you can buy and sell aircraft as well. The mods range from bullet-resistant coatings to various weapons, depending on the aircraft.
One of the most impressive features of AFDS is the selection of planes. With over 130 to choose from (once you’ve gained enough points to buy them), they range from WWII prop planes to jets of all kinds. Every plane has its own weapon, strength, stealth, and performance attributes. There are some cool experimental planes and other unusual ones as well. It’s nice to have a selection, but 130 is a bit excessive, especially for a game that falls short in other areas.
The action sequences of AFDS flow pretty smoothly, except for the aforementioned radio chatter. The game allows you three different control settings, depending on your skill level, and is also compatible with Logitech’s Flight Force stick. The planes respond well, and it’s easy to target and track enemies.
The graphics are fine, though a little boring as far as the ground environments go. Some missions are flown in space, which makes for an interesting change, but for the most part there’s nothing too exciting graphically, except for the planes themselves. The HUD is fairly detailed, and targets, objectives, and friendlies are color coded on the radar. This is especially helpful, since the missions are timed. There are often many targets, but only a few objectives, so knowing exactly what you need to blow up makes things a lot easier.
Konami’s Airforce Delta Strike isn’t a terrible game. For someone that’s into straight up fighter action, though, this one just isn’t going to move fast enough. There’s too much time spent developing a storyline that in the end is just plain boring. I found myself skipping over the dialogue after a while just to get to the missions. For a storyline to work in a game, it really needs to tie in better to the action sequences, and this just doesn’t happen with AFDS.
The game’s strengths are its vast selection of aircraft, and responsive flight sequences. I enjoyed the game a lot during missions, but wanted the fast pace to continue. Instead, I then found myself back at the base for another plot development that I didn’t really care about anyway. Then the game makes you jump through hoops just to get to the next mission. Just tell me what I need to blow up, and I’ll take it from there, ya know? If Konami wanted to create a game on a par with Namco’s Ace Combat series, they should have concentrated more on the action, and less on the cheesy anime.
The flight action is fun, but the storyline in between missions borders on painful. Konami’s attempt to weave a plot into the game slows down the action and complicates an otherwise decent combat fighter experience. Too much senseless dialogue during missions causes confusion, and the drama that unfolds between the characters is bland and predictable. Konami should have relied more on the game’s great selection of planes and mission scenarios.
Rating: 6.3 Mediocre
* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company.
