B-17 Fortress In The Sky
I've just discovered this game, and I'm absolutely loving it. You take a B-17 Flying Fortress on bombing missions over Nazi-controlled France.
Each mission starts with a briefing where you are shown the target. Then you fly the mission, where you alternately shoot at fighters from the various gunner positions and guide the bomber through clouds of flak, then do the bomb run. You go through another phase of gunning and avoiding flak on the way home. This all lasts a few short minutes.
Shooting at planes is very much fun. You hear warnings like 'Fighters at 1 o'clock low', which prompts you to click on the appropriate gunning position on the touch screen. The top screen is a 3D first-person view from the selected gunner's position, where you press up/down/left/right and fire to fend off the fighters.
Dodging flak is less fun. You see a top-down view of the plane, with small black explosions randomly appearing ahead of you. You have to press left and right to guide the plane through the gaps between the explosions. It's not annoying, and it does offer a nice break from the shooting, but for me it's not an attraction in itself.
The bomb run is way cool. The bottom screen shows a side view of the plane and a line showing you how high you should be flying. The top screen is a view through the bombing scope. You press up/down to control the altitude, and fire to drop bombs. The bomb-whistle and explosion noises are quite satisfying, and there are plenty of secondary targets to keep you busy until the main one arrives.
A really nice touch is the plane's damage being represented by how many of your engines' propellers are still rotating. As you take damage, one engine slows. More damage makes it stop completely, and next time the second will slow.
Overall, it's a really nice, bite-size mission which manages to achieve real atmosphere. I'm playing it on easy atm, and after seven or eight missions I'm still excited to play it. The real test will be when it starts to become challenging - I have a tendency to get very frustrated at that point. :/
Each mission starts with a briefing where you are shown the target. Then you fly the mission, where you alternately shoot at fighters from the various gunner positions and guide the bomber through clouds of flak, then do the bomb run. You go through another phase of gunning and avoiding flak on the way home. This all lasts a few short minutes.
Shooting at planes is very much fun. You hear warnings like 'Fighters at 1 o'clock low', which prompts you to click on the appropriate gunning position on the touch screen. The top screen is a 3D first-person view from the selected gunner's position, where you press up/down/left/right and fire to fend off the fighters.
Dodging flak is less fun. You see a top-down view of the plane, with small black explosions randomly appearing ahead of you. You have to press left and right to guide the plane through the gaps between the explosions. It's not annoying, and it does offer a nice break from the shooting, but for me it's not an attraction in itself.
The bomb run is way cool. The bottom screen shows a side view of the plane and a line showing you how high you should be flying. The top screen is a view through the bombing scope. You press up/down to control the altitude, and fire to drop bombs. The bomb-whistle and explosion noises are quite satisfying, and there are plenty of secondary targets to keep you busy until the main one arrives.
A really nice touch is the plane's damage being represented by how many of your engines' propellers are still rotating. As you take damage, one engine slows. More damage makes it stop completely, and next time the second will slow.
Overall, it's a really nice, bite-size mission which manages to achieve real atmosphere. I'm playing it on easy atm, and after seven or eight missions I'm still excited to play it. The real test will be when it starts to become challenging - I have a tendency to get very frustrated at that point. :/
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