Top Gun: Combat Zones review

Top Gun is a film that everyone is aware of, whether its the awful song from Berlin, the rampant male sexuality or the action sequences, it was bold, loud and hugely successful. Perhaps on reflection Top Gun is the ultimate 80s film; slick, predictable and shallow but evidentially popular. Here was a rare opportunity to create a Harvest Moon type game, but with the focus on bar fights, motorbikes, training, flying, pulling women and aerial stunts. What we have instead is a dreary release, lacking originality, which is only connected to the film in name and through aircraft. You dont even get to be Iceman, Goose or Maverick, as you are strictly solo (no versus mode) and nameless. If this game included a squad aspect as seen inRogue Squadronor even memorable sound bites, as used inGhostRecon, the hollow experience would have been a little more enjoyable. The presentation is not comparable to the glossy Top Gun movie, and the lack of modes outside the main story is a huge oversight. The most interesting aspect is that Top Gun does not centre on some future fictional conflict of good versus evil. Instead the focus is firmly on the Top Gun Academy and its role in wars over the last few decades. The Top Gun academy for those unaware, is where the elite American pilots reside - earning the distinction of Top Gun. Once youve busted out of the Academy, you have over thirty missions to complete, spread across the world and time. Unfortunately there are no friendly fire missions where you can really prove your worth, however you begin in South East Asia towards the end of the Vietnam campaign. From here you move onto Gulf (circa 80s-90s), where events could be repeated in only a few weeks time. The final era is set around the arctic, where a global fuel crisis has caused a new conflict nice to see oil maintains its importance, even in the future.The problem with flight combat games is quite simply their lack of innovation or evolution since Namco released the original Ace Combat all those years ago. Since then, the visuals may have improved, but the missions and combat are consistently all too familiar. My own feeling is that such games should look towards the Mech genre, where you are able to customise your craft and improve your ranking through combat. Im sure the world of flight offers a huge range of customisation options with various additions, never mind a huge potential arsenal. Your sense of positioning has always been a problem if you prefer a first person view, and thanks to technology, modern warfare is easy. Now its just a case of locking onto your target and firing your missiles, which soon becomes sterile and devoid of fun. The AI does not help in this regard as opponents never come to you, instead you have to aggressively pursue them, gaining kills by using the same tactics.A two dimensional environment is still the best exponent of flying and shooting (recently seen in Ikaruga) as Top Gun suffers from the same universal faults displayed by flying games. There is a lack of urgency, skill and speed whilst engaged in combat, and the reasonable music fails to push your adrenaline further. Soon you have to make your own entertainment (like so many other games) and this can be done through dangerous manoeuvres, including everyones favourite under and over the bridge.Two principal problems with flying releases have been the frame rate and the lack of ground detail, with buildings few and far between. On both counts Top Gun does a reasonable job, as the detail actually looks three dimensional, and not flat as opposed to Ace Combat. There is noticeable pop-up on mountainous terrain, which rises up before you, but the negative impact of this is reduced through effective use of tiny fluffy clouds lovely clouds. Any flying game contains invisible walls, pre-empted by warnings of leaving the playing area, and Top Gun is no different in this respect. These are defined by large red lines on your radar screen, but the levels are adequately sized overall. The missions are linear and do not allow the freedom of invention or navigation just lock on and fire. At the end of each sortie you are treated to a wonderful replay, complete with shaking camera angles for added effect. The points scoring system, which allows you to collect bonus aircraft through high scores offsets the lack of mission variety. Points are awarded not only for kills, but also use of special moves or pulling off a crazy stunt, such as flying close to the ravine floor. If you wish to acquire the hidden craft, then only here are your flying skills tested, because the necessary scores are certainly challenging. The control system is robust and complimented by clear icons on screen, but the real skill is using button combinations to pull off those special moves. In conclusion this newly reworked version of the original Playstation 2 release is only a modest improvement in visual terms only. What we have is an average game, which could have been improved with better mission structure, variety and additional modes. Those who want to take to the skies in combat should really stick with Rogue Squadron for the time being.