Heroes of the Pacific

Read the forum code of contact

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

I'd never heard of this game until this morning, when the Daily Star commented that it supposedly carries a health warning as the air and sea animation is supposedly so realistic that it can induce motion sickness!!

However, a bit of Googling has me wanting to race out the door at 4pm this afternoon and get it!

From the Game website:

Fight to the death in incredible aerial battles from WWII's Pacific Theatre.
Over 35 playable aircraft, including Fighters, Dive Bombers, Torpedo Bombers, and Bombers, with more to unlock.
Up to 150 planes in the sky at one time, each with full AI and physics.
26 compelling and dramatic missions taken from real events of the Pacific campaign.
Incredibly detailed plane and ship models, with complex lighting and environment effects.
Player controllable wingmen, through a fast and innovative menu system.
Two-player split screen multiplayer.
Online play for up to eight players.
Realistic environments, including dynamic 3D water.

Sweet zombie Jesus, this looks like it'll kick some ass! :D

(PS - looks like some of the included planes will be a Seafire, Bearcat (complete with racing scheme!), Tempest and P-61 Black Widow!!)

Attachments
Original post

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

Well, I bought this on the way home yesterday, and I must say this: HOLY ****!!!

Starting off at Hickham Field, Hawaii, the scenery looks like it could have been taken from Tora! Tora! Tora! or Pearl Harbor - it looks that real! The P-40 that I've been flying so far is beautifully rendered, and everything looks spot on.

My only gripes are that you have an infinite supply of ammunition, and that it is very hard to recover the aircraft from a stall - you lose a huge amount of height before regaining control: it took me three attempts to get it right!

It has a similar feel, if not content, to Secret Weapons Over Normandy - the controls do virtually all the same things, only some are assigned to different buttons (on the PS2) like secondary weapons and the zoom-in/out and target tracking view.

Interestingly, there is an option to use "Warspeed", which is basically the same as going "through the gate" in a real fighter. This lasts for a short time, but the effect is amazing!

Well, don't just sit there reading my crap - go out and get it!! Available on PS2, XBox and PC.

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

Well, I managed to complete the final sortie last night, the whole thing done in less than two weeks. The game culminates in a battle over Iwo Jima between you (in a Bearcat) and a Japanese ace flying a Kyushu J7W1 Shinden.

While the game itself is immense fun to play, and the action relentless, I was a bit disappointed at the ending - it seemed too damn easy! Unlike Secret Weapons over Normandy, which had a massive battle scenario over the Normandy beachhead, HotP was a bit of a let down, and the Japanese ace was a bit of a walkover.

I'd still give the game 9.5 out of 10 - and would love to see a similar game done over the European Theatre of Operations! :)

Member for

19 years 5 months

Posts: 664

Wow, looks and sounds great!! :)
Thanks for the updates, an interesting read. I gotta add Heroes of the Pacific to my 'I must have' list ;) A European theatre version would be amazing.

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

I tapped in the cheat last night and managed to unlock the three Seafire variants, the Tempest, FW190 and a couple of others! :D

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

Not sure, to be honest. Perhaps, being a computer game, the designers weren't too bothered about "proper" historical accuracy, so long as they got the planes they wanted in an authentic or representative scheme??

If you looked at the extras for Secret Weapons.. you'd see that he designers went to The Air Museum Planes of Fame to get a lot of background info on the planes used in the game.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 7,989

Actually I think that this game is better than SWON. I like the storyline, and the graphics are just amazing (and I only own the PS2 version....Xbox and PC versions will look better for sure).

The selection of planes is simply awesome. The P-40 was enough to get me to buy the game because its my favorite, but there are many others that are less well known that I think it's cool they included them such as the D4Y Judy and H8K Emily and various others.

I love how you don't fly just fighters, but bombers, torpedo planes, and dive bombers.

There are a ton of missions plus five historial missions based on real events (i.e. the shooting down of Yamamoto by P-38's).

The multiplayer is okay, and there's an online multiplayer capability too.

All in all a great game!

I can't unlock the Tempest for some reason, but hopefully I'll get there.

I didn't think any of the Japanese aces were walkovers by the way....

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

Actually I think that this game is better than SWON. I like the storyline, and the graphics are just amazing (and I only own the PS2 version....Xbox and PC versions will look better for sure).

The selection of planes is simply awesome. The P-40 was enough to get me to buy the game because its my favorite, but there are many others that are less well known that I think it's cool they included them such as the D4Y Judy and H8K Emily and various others.

I love how you don't fly just fighters, but bombers, torpedo planes, and dive bombers.

There are a ton of missions plus five historial missions based on real events (i.e. the shooting down of Yamamoto by P-38's).

The multiplayer is okay, and there's an online multiplayer capability too.

All in all a great game!

I can't unlock the Tempest for some reason, but hopefully I'll get there.

I didn't think any of the Japanese aces were walkovers by the way....

Yes, I found I couldn't unlock all the planes - unless I cheated! :D

Depends what setting you had it on - I had it on "rookie" first time around, to get a proper feel of it. What did you have it on?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 7,989

I had it on Ace the second time I went through (pilot the first time), and I'm still one plane........the Tempest....short.

I'm going back through on Ace to see what will happen. I tried getting it in the mission mode on Ace, but that doesn't seem to work so I'm trying the campaign.

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

I'm sort of progressing through the ranks at the minute - Pilot this time around. I imagine the higher rank you are, the more planes are unlocked?