Apache: Air Assault reviews and impressions

[Delta-64-]

Hey guys, Im not new to these forums. I had a different screen name but forgot it (it's been a while). I felt obligated to write a review. Many sites have not reviewed this game and ones that have are some half-assed reviews, such as IGN.com 's review. So I wrote my own and am posting it on as many websites and forums as I can. This game isn't getting the spotlight it deserves. Its long, but I went in depth...and yes I am a real Apache pilot for the US Army. Here we go:


It’s a shame that Apache: Air Assault will fly under most people’s radar (no pun intended) this holiday season with all the other blockbuster games coming out. Especially since it’s release is in the shadow of Call of Duty and with upcoming releases such as Gran Turismo 5, this game is bound to be ignored and in bargain bins after the holiday season. It really is a shame because the game is a true gem.
I fly AH-64D Apache Longbows for the US ARMY. As an aviation nut and pilot, I cringe at most console flight games. I like my flight games with a degree of reality, not the unrealistic arcade games like Top Gun and After Burner. The only console flight games I enjoy are the Ace Combat series…that was until Gaijin Entertainment developed Il-2 Birds of Prey for consoles. Birds of Prey is what I envisioned a perfect console flight game should be. It blended realism with arcade type elements which made it user friendly and playable for console gamers. But, when I heard Gaijin was making an Apache game for consoles I was still skeptical. Helicopters are a lot harder to fly than airplanes. It takes both hands and feet to fly a helicopter and when you throw in radios, weapons, systems, etc., it takes all your fingers and concentration as well. I just didn’t see that translating well to a console game. I’m happy to say, not only did Gaijin do a great job mimicking helicopter flight using a console controller, they made one hell of an authentic Apache game.
The game starts you off with a tutorial mission, in which you must start out using the training difficulty mode. There are three types of difficulty modes: Training, realistic, and veteran. Training mode simplifies everything from controlling the aircraft to the HUD. The controls are as follows: The right stick is your “collective” which in a helicopter is the control that moves a helicopter up and down vertically. You can hover up by pushing your right analog stick up, and hover down pushing down on the right stick. The right analog stick acts as your pedals also. So left or right on the stick will have you spinning to the left or right horizontally, similar to an airplanes yaw. The left stick is the “cyclic” control. In a helicopter, the cyclic is your directional control such as climbing and diving, or banking left or right. It takes coordination of all the controls to properly fly a helicopter. In the training mode, it is fairly easy: Take off with the collective and fly around with the cyclic stick. It is the realistic and veteran modes that requires a lot more coordination and has a steeper learning curve. To speed up in a helicopter, you need to push the cyclic forward, but if you don’t add collective you will start diving and lose altitude. Realistic and veteran applies all these mechanics into the controls. The real treat in playing in these modes though, is the HUD. The HUD in realistic/veteran is almost identical in what us real Apache pilots see in our monocle, (Look up pictures of apache pilots if you don’t know what I am talking about.) from the radar altimeter on the right, to the velocity vector in the center, and the torque meter in the upper left corner, it is very similar to how we look at things in the aircraft. Realistic and Veteran are the same control wise, but Veteran, you get one attempt per mission and once you use all your weapons, you have to land at a predetermined pad to get reloaded. Realistic, you get 4 attempts and reload of weapons happen after a set time in the air.
Now onto the gameplay. there are two main modes of play. The single player campaign and squad operations. Single player is what I expected a single-player campaign to be. The Campaign takes place across three locations: Africa, Asia and Central America. The missions are varied enough, but mostly have you attacking ground targets. There is some air to air combat with other helicopters in the game, but in real life, you will never see an Apache with stinger missiles on the end of its stubby wings. There is just no need to use them in the real world, but sure makes for some good helicopter dog fights in the game. You can switch camera views from 3rd person behind the helicopter view, the pilots seat, co-pilot/gunner (CPG) seat, or just a plain HUD view with no cockpit. The cockpit views are authentic and modeled like the real life thing, which as a real Apache pilot, I was happy such care was taken into getting the details right.
Speaking of authenticity, the game is impressively accurate when it comes to the Apache. The in- game model is accurately recreated down to the side steps and panels on the exterior of the Apache to the button placement and screens on the interior cockpits. Even the weapon systems are portrayed accurately. One of my favorite things to do is press L3 which enable auto hover. The aircraft will hold the same position and altitude you engage it at, something that you can do in the real aircraft as well. While you are in auto hover, you can control the TADS (Target Acquisition and Designation Sight) in DVO (black and white day TV) or FLIR (Forward looking Infra Red) to pick out vehicles and human targets easier to pick off with the 30mm cannon. There is mission where you have to do just this and cover your down wingmen before they are over run. Just don’t hover too long or you will get picked off with a SAM or RPG. The TADS image is created accurately as well. Go on you tube and look up gun tape footage from real Apaches and you can see the developers created the TADS HUD accurately as well. And just FYI, contrary to what people think, the camera is not part of the gun. It is the bottom turret on the nose of the aircraft. That’s what the CPG uses to target and designate, as well as using the FLIR image to fly at night.
Have a friend over and don’t want to take turns playing single player? Hook up another controller and play the single player campaign together, one as the pilot, the other as the CPG, which adds a whole level of fun. Just like the real life aircraft, the two crew members have to work together. The pilot has to hold a stable platform for more accurate weapons while the CPG controls the weapons systems, for example rockets. Coop rockets require the pilot to line up the reticle while the CPG shoots the rockets. (It’s opposite in the real thing, the CPG uses the TADS to line up the shot while the pilot shoots the rockets, teamwork is required either way.)
Squad-Operations is another Co-op mode where you and a friend can crew the same apache or you and three others can complete a whole set of missions (that are different than the single player missions) online. The missions can be done solo and are similar to the single player missions, but are harder to try solo due to the fact there are mission objectives that are coop dependent and accomplished much easier with a buddy.
Graphically, the game doesn’t impress that much. They claim to use satellite imagery to create the scenery with, but the colors seem washed out. It isn’t ugly by any means, just doesn’t impress. Like I said before, the vehicle models are done well and are accurate to their real life counterparts. Everything that are in the “levels” is interactive. Buildings can be destroyed, whether by shooting them or crashing into them, you can chop down trees using the 30mm cannon. I enjoyed crashing into some trees and watching my helicopter leaving a path of destruction among the trees. The explosion effects look good as well. You will take damage as well that both affect performance and the exterior of the aircraft. Overall, I thought IL-2 had a better graphical package.
Sound is accurately portrayed. From the sound of the helicopter to the weapons. The voice acting is well done and most of it is radio chatter during the missions. The musical score is great as well. Not sure who composed it, but it fits the game well, from the menus to the in-game music. Nothing to really complain about sound-wise.
Now, if I had to change or add anything to the game, it would be the inclusion of night missions. We fly using a FLIR system at night, not night vision goggles. Again, look at the nose of the aircraft and the top turret is the pilot’s night vision sensor. That turret is slaved to the pilots head, so when he turns his head left, the turret turns left while he looks at his FLIR image through his/her monocle. The pilot flies at night as if his eyeball was on the nose of the aircraft, and it is extremely hard to get used to. I just wished the developers had a couple missions at night where they could have implemented the pilots night vision somehow. I guess there is room for that in a future game….

BOTTOM LINE:
….But we may not see a sequel, I just have a feeling this game isn’t going to sell well. The genre isn’t that popular to begin with and with all these popular games coming out, this one will get over looked. It is a damn shame. It is a great game, and if you are a fan of the genre or an aviation/helicopter enthusiast, this is defiantly a no-brainer. Like IL-2, this game blends arcade and sim elements for a perfect console flight game and remains faithful to its source material: flying a real Apache. I highly recommend it.

Hope this review helps.

[simfan]

Thx Delta.
Incredibly informative review ! I loved reading it.
At last a true review from someone with in-dept knowledge on real helicopters.
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I've been enjoying a.o. EECH on PC (past 12 years) and I am so glad this new title is now available on both consoles and PCs.

[Steiner]

Delta-64-, ...Thank you very much for that detailed review, OUTSTANDING!
If you don't mind I want to copy&paste your review and put it in my Apache: Air Assault thread that I have at Ace Combat Skies.com.
Thanks again.

[bobbysocks]

Delta 64, thanks for the insight. i took the liberty to cut and paste this on the yuplay forum...hope you dont mind. well i am trying to post it anyways....the site must be having issues because it keeps giving me error messages...and not taking my post.

[Zatoichi_Sanjuro]

Blops and GT5 as release bookends are really going to hurt casual sales. I guess they just couldn't factor in GT5's release.

@ Delta-64-

Great review. Do you have an issue with the 30 mm fire? On some guncam vids I see it arching quite dramatically.

[JRay85]

About the arch you see in real apache tapes, the apache has a weapons processor that has a ballistics solution. Meaning the real apache's weapon processor takes into account range to target, winds, speed, etc. So when we take aim at a target with our tads at a far range, the barrel is not going to be pointed right at the target, it's going to be pointed up so that rounds will arch down onto the target. So no, the arch isn't a problem. The weapons on an apache are very accurate.

[Korsakov829]

This should never have gone internation, not with all the big releases out there. Keep it in eastern Europe where people never heard of EA games, Treyarch, Activision, etc.

[Robotic Pope]

Originally Posted by Korsakov829

This should never have gone internation, not with all the big releases out there. Keep it in eastern Europe where people never heard of EA games, Treyarch, Activision, etc.

What a dumb thing to say. Really, you do have some crazy opinions.

[Draupnir2]

Fantastic review Delta 64 !

I had no expectations, and was simply blown away by the demo ! (trying to get hold of full version here in Norway)
It has the same strong "being there" feeling as BOP, and a sensational feeling of speed. I play it in a home theatre with a 100" PJ screen and really powerful surround sound.
I agreee that terraingraphics looks dated, but it is very functional, fluid and stutter free.

I must say that controlling it with an ordinary X360 controller is too difficult on realistic. I fired up a custom HOTAS i made for BOP (from old Thrustmaster PC gear), and wow a completely different experience ! The complexity of flying is much more enjoyable, and feels more realistic. The mapping of controls from BOP matched up pretty well too, but some adjustments will be made. From what I have heard Apache is very well suited to the console joysticks in the market.
Link to my HOTAS thread: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=10528

[tbtstt]

Originally Posted by winny

The guy I spoke to in Game said that it was supposed to be there. They even had a demo running on the screen above the empty shelves where it was supposed to be.. He just said there must be a problem. I also saw BoP today for 19.99. Oh well, guess Activision are probably busy making another 3 million copies of CoD Black Ops instead...

I didn't make it to the shops on Friday evening, but popped down to my local Blockbusters early the next morning. Almost gave up the search when, tucked on a bottom shelf, I found a lone copy - hurrah!

Spent most of the day playing through the campaign, plus I had a little bit of time online, before I headed out for the rest of the weekend. Will be resuming play this evening!