Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers

If you like your games built around aviation and air combat, then you might want to check out 2012 release Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers. These simulator games were developed by Games Farm and published as part of the Maximum Games banner. The game itself was seen as a fun and engaging take on World War II air battles. However, scratch beneath the paint even slightly, and you find a repetitive, dull game that lacked anything like the invention that fans of such a storied series might have expected.

Intriguing concept, dull execution

As a long-awaited sequel to the 2006 title Air Conflicts, this was supposed to take on the best features of games like Ace Combat and make a deeply intriguing flight simulator. Sadly, the reality is a game that is fun to play at first but quickly devolves into a series of repetitive and dull game experiences.

There is a pretty distinct lack of imagination within the game. The initial hours are fun and packed with intrigue, but this quickly falls away and is replaced by a game that lacks any real depth. Despite having relatively good graphics for the era, too, you do begin to notice a lot of asset copies and cut corners.

While it tries to build on the strength of the games that came before, this simply lacks the craft or the invention needed to do so in a convincing manner. It’s a by-the-numbers flight simulator that soon loses anything like the kind of ideas and innovation you would have hoped for. If you don’t mind dull and dour flight simulations that are fun for a short duration, this might be worth picking up on a sale.

A loss of momentum

It’s hard to find too much positive about the game because it really does just run out of ideas within the first few levels. Take on the role of Lukas Stark, a US Navy Admiral, and take on various scenarios that will see you take on the Pacific campaign. The levels are pretty generic, though, with most scenarios sharing more than a few similarities that can quickly derail the whole experience.

You can, though, at least go as the Japanese and play a second campaign – which, sadly, does not offer much more in terms of artistic depth or plot development. The actual minute-to-minute aerial combat is decent, but you do quickly grow tired of the repetitive nature of the gameplay. It’s really not a game that builds on anything new, with much of the features present in its 2006 predecessor.

Pros:

• Decent gameplay mechanics at first
• Two campaigns to play through of decent length

Cons:

• Lacks any innovation or new ideas in the gameplay
• No real improvements over previous Air Combat games