Birds of Steel
Reviewed By Tristan Tancredi
After spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to like Konamis Birds of Steel, we decided that it simply isn't an enjoyable game per se. What it is however is a well presented, educational flight simulation.
As a game, it's a flop. As a package however and we can understand why people can enjoy it. It looks fantastic, the missions are detailed to represent real time war events and the real-life footage from WWII is very engaging.
Let's put the lacklustre gameplay aside for a second and focus on the positives.
Story: Placing gamers into the fold of the greatest and most pivotal battles in the history of air combat, gamers must complete historical objectives, events such as Wake Island and Pearl Harbour to name a couple. Historical footage is provided to segway between missions and is deeply engaging and informative (Even enough for a history teacher to add this game to the school curriculum). The game is neatly presented and provides enough information to keep the gamer in the loop.
Planes: Over 100 real life planes are at the gamers disposal, ranging from Australian, German, UK, Italian, Japanese, USSR and American planes. The variety is immense, so strap yourself into a Spitfire, an F4, a Japanese A6M3 or one of the many others and prepare for a few dogfights.
Graphics: The game looks darn good. Picture this: Coasting at 20,000 feet, the rising sun slowly breaking through the clouds in the distance, glistening off the water far below. The game is not only beautiful to look at across sixteen different locations, but realistic (which is what this game is all about).
Now, unfortunately for Gaijin Entertainment, we come to Gameplay. If someone was to ask us to summarise Bird of Steel into one word, we would say "Boring". Perhaps a little harsh, but we found we couldn't play this game for longer then 30 minutes at a time before being overwhelmed with a severe sense of boredom. (Probably the reason why this review took 3 months to write).
But hell, I don't think the developers were too worried about making this the most awesome video game ever to be invented, their focus seems simple - Make a realistic Vintage Flight Simulation (regardless of how fun it is).
A combination of difficult (realistic) enemy targets and long, drawn out, repetitive missions is enough for most gamers to lock this game away before completion. Basically we came across two types of missions, air combat and air to surface combat. In laymans, shoot other planes, or shoot at things on the ground. Repeat this process throughout the twenty historical missions and hundreds of procedural missions and voila, you have Birds of Steel.
Despite the high level of difficulty at aiming at targets, the controls are relatively simple and easy to learn. A basic tutorial shows gamers the ropes at the start of the game and is invaluable to success.
With single player, four player cooperative, and extensive online multiplayer modes (which add a bit of shelf life), we strongly recommend this game only for die hard air combat gamers (or history buffs).
Rating: 65%
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Game: Birds of Steel
System: PS3
Developer/Co-Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
Publisher: Konami
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