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| Combat is fast and sometimes frustrating. The auto-aiming system helps this a bit. |
The cutscenes are decently animated and serve to convey the barebone story. |
The story follows an ex-Marine called Magnus Tide who now freelances his destructive capabilities to whoever wants them. The story of the game unfolds through a series of 22 missions that detail Tide’s involvement with the Proteus Corporation. The story is actually fairly interesting, and is conveyed through decently staged cutscenes. It ends up feeling unnecessary in the long run, though. The story isn’t particularly memorable, and you don’t play games like this for the story element.
Graphics in the game are thankfully improved over the original Xbox version. Overall, they look very good. You’ll be seeing water fairly often, and it looks good but unrealistic. Most models are decent, but some textures are unfortunately very low-res. Environments look good, and usually have a bunch of interesting stuff scattered around them. The graphics are kind of a mixed bag, but they won’t really disappoint you.
Audio in the game is pretty good. The obligatory sound effects sound just as they should. There are times in the game when music manifests itself, especially in times of action, in order to increase tension. It works decently enough, but the problem with this sort of music is that it’s not memorable at all. It’s pretty generic stuff. Besides music and sound effects, there’s a large amount of voice acting in the game. It’s all pretty decent, though at best what you would expect from a B movie.
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| One of the few out-of-ship sections. These aren't that engaging or fun. |
The graphics are pretty good, especially for a budget game. |
As mentioned earlier, there are a whopping 22 missions in the game. You’ll traverse plenty of different environments in your jet-plane assault vehicle. Of course, traversing isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing. Your ship is equipped with enough firepower to take down a small army, and you’ll do just that. It controls fairly well, you can switch between two modes of movement: basically “slow” and “fast”. In slow mode, you’ll be able to carefully maneuver your ship as you yawn at the utter lack of speed. In fast mode, you can do a bunch of showboating and evasion techniques. Either way, you’re still not moving at any speed that seems suitable for such a high-tech aircraft.
As far as combat goes, there’s an auto-aiming system, which exposes the game’s console roots. Make no mistake: this game can still be painfully difficult in parts, and without this auto-aiming system, it’s unlikely that you’d survive for long. Besides, considering how high-tech your ship is, It makes perfect sense that it has an auto-aiming system built in. Coupled with this auto-aiming system, you have plenty of weapons to dish out pain. Surprisingly versatile, your ship has everything from your standard lasers up to something exotic as a sniper gun. In an interesting twist for this kind of game, you’ll have to be picking up ammo scattered around the levels for some of the more interesting weapons. You’ll be shooting down plenty of enemy ships, so you’ll need plenty of ammo. Unfortunately, the enemies don’t pose much of a challenge as far as AI goes.
There are a few out-of-ship sections. These are quite a bit weaker than the parts where you can control your ship. Manning a stationary or even moving turret just isn’t as fun as it used to be back in the day. These parts are OK, but you’ll basically just be biding your time until you’re back behind the wheel of your ship. It does serve to bring a little variety into the game’s linearity, though.
Besides this, there’s a multiplayer mode. It sure sounds exciting to dogfight your friends and enemies alike over the internet. However, you’ll be hard pressed to find any opponents to play against in Aerial Strike: The Yager Missions. It’s pretty cookie cutter, anyway. You have ten maps and six ships to choose from, and only two modes: deathmatch and team deathmatch. If you and a group of friends buy this game together, the multiplayer might turn out to be worthwhile though.
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| The view from inside your ship, which seems overly cluttered. |
It is easy to see the game's console roots in these low-res textures. |
Top game moment:
All things considered, Aerial Strike is a good but somewhat underwhelming game. Graphics are average, audio is decent, and gameplay is fun if not simplistic. Luckily, it retails for the budget-minded price of $20. If you’re a fan of the genre, this game will probably give you your money’s worth.
AERIAL STRIKE: THE YAGER MISSIONS VERDICT
All things considered, Aerial Strike is a good but somewhat underwhelming game. Graphics are average, audio is decent, and gameplay is fun if not simplistic. Luckily, it retails for the budget-minded price of $20. If you’re a fan of the genre, this game will probably give you your money’s worth.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Taking down an enemy high above ground, and watching their former vehicle spiral down into the ground or water below.
