Attack on Pearl Harbour

Multiplayer, etc

The online game is very similar to the dogfight option in single player. There are two modes that you can play, dogfight or team play.

Online play is quite a challenge in comparison to the simplistic AI in the singleplayer game and it left me feeling rather wound up at how shockingly bad I was in comparison to other players in dogfight mode.

I think the real enjoyment in multiplayer would be from a LAN game between friends. I can imagine nothing better than selecting a single friend and perpetually harassing him every time he spawns into the dogfight, attaining increasing amounts of glee as I watch his face redden when, once again, he has to wait for his plane to respawn.

The short sharp nature of this game would make it ideal for a couple of games at a small LAN between friends.

There isn’t much else to say about the graphics other than they are horrible and give the aesthetics of the game a very dated feel. I felt that this was where the game really did fall flat on its face. Even on the highest settings with all the bells and whistles turned on, the game still looked blocky and depressing.


The planes themselves are much better than the environment, but are still nothing to rave about and the lighting effects from the various times of day do provide some atmosphere to the game. I can’t help but feel that these are futile attempts to trying and act as a smokescreen to the scenery below.

The physics of the game are also pretty horrendous and at certain occasions I would fly right through an enemy plane, while at others I would awkwardly bounce off, receiving a large amount of damage.

Conclusion

All in all, Attack on Pearl Harbour provided a brand new and rather innovative experience to a genre that I have never really enjoyed before.

In the first hour of playing, I was thoroughly absorbed and found myself squirming in my seat as I manoeuvred my plane to obliterate the enemy. However, after that first hour, things did become a little repetitive and for each minute extra I could feel more of my enjoyment being sapped away.


The campaign mode offers a little more depth to the dogfights of the custom and multiplayer games but you would be foolish to expect anything more than a few bomb dropping or ship annihilation missions to break things up.

The graphics are the major downfall of this game with the scenery looking as if it were done on Microsoft Paint.

Attack on Pearl Harbour lacks a lot of depth and you really just have to take things in it at face value. It’s a short sharp burst of fun and unless you desire to re-enact some of those famous battles then I would recommend that your money would probably be better spent elsewhere.