.FLYINGHEAD WE GOT GAME!
.TITLE Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind
.AUTHOR James Booth
.OTHER
.SUMMARY It’s time to blow things up, rescuse some prisoners, and then do it all over again. For the in-depth details on this Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind, read this article.
From Pazzazz Games and Astraware comes Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind, the helicopter combat action game that puts you in the pilot’s seat of an Apache gunship or Soviet Hind attack copter.
You may remember Pazzazz Games (see http://www.pazzazzgames.com/NP_home.htm) as the same team that brought us GTS Racing Challenge. Astraware (see http://www.astraware.com) has a complete repertoire of games, such as Bejeweled, Alchemy, GTS Racing Challenge, and Insaniquarium for Palm, Pocket PC, and Windows platforms.
Hellfire is available for the Palm OS and Pocket PC platforms, but as I own a Palm and not a Pocket PC, I’ll be covering the Palm version.
.H1 Briefing
Set in the Cold War era, Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind casts you as the pilot of either a U.S. Apache AH64A/D Longbow attack helicopter, or the Soviet MiL Mi-24 D Hind. With a realistic weapons load-out in your arsenal, you’ll be flying sixteen different missions in a worldwide theater of operations against either Soviet or US adversaries, depending of course on which helicopter you choose to fly.
.BREAK_EMAIL Be sure your seats are forward and your tray tables are in their full, upright, and locked positions. Then tap here to read the rest of this review.
.H1 Preflight
Once past the splash screen, you’ll hit the Select Mode screen, in Figure A, where you choose between Trial, Campaign, Mission, Random, and Options. The Options screen will allow you to program the Controls and Settings. The Trial is just the single mission demo, so we won’t cover that here, but rather the game as a whole.
.FIGPAIR A Make your selection on the Select Mode screen.
The controls for Hellfire are completely user configurable, enabling you to program whichever buttons you like for the functions of land/take off, forward, reverse, left, right, weapon select, and fire weapon. In addition, Hellfire provides complete support for the Palm 5-way navigator button.
Settings are the controls for the game’s speed, volume, and control method — either Button or Graffiti.
The Campaign will take you on a series of sixteen missions spanning the globe on a quest to defeat your enemy superpower.
Missions seems to be the list of missions that you’ve already played and can replay again, perhaps to refine your combat technique, or resolve a problem mission.
Random will generate a mission for you, or allow you to input a mission code number to play a specific mission.
Once you’ve selected your mode of play, you’ll be prompted to select a difficulty level from Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, or Colonel. Figure B, shows the Superpower screen, where you choose which superpower you will fight for, the Americans or the Soviets. From there, it’s on to the mission briefing.
.FIGPAIR B Who will you fight for, the US or the Soviets?
The Mission Briefing, shown in Figure C, gives you a global view of your theater of action while the mission parameters scroll by. The screen then switches to a close-up view of the combat map, detailing where your targets and enemy units can be found, along with a listing of all objectives for the mission.
.FIGPAIR C The mission briefing outlines your objectives.
.H1 Cleared for take-off
At the beginning of each mission, your helicopter will launch from either a ground base, or waterborne destroyer. Across the top of the game play screen, shown in Figure D, is displayed the number of helicopters you have left, or lives, the undamaged percentage of your current helicopter, and the number of enemies you have killed.
.FIGPAIR D This image shows in-game scenes of both the Hind, on the left, and the Apache, on the right.
The tactical-area map with your objectives and enemy placement, in Figure E, can be accessed any time during play. On the bottom of the screen is the weapon you have selected and the number of rounds remaining. To help you out, a white arrow will display in the game play area to point you in the right direction of your objectives if you stray too far in the wrong direction.
.FIGPAIR E The in-game tactical map can be accessed any time during play.
The missions consist of eliminating enemy units in the form of tanks, anti-aircraft guns, destroyers and frigates, enemy helicopters, and radar sites, escorting friendly aircraft like harriers, and rescuing prisoners from enemy bunkers and returning them to your base. Mission objectives can be one of these tasks, or multiple combinations. It seems like the further along you get, the more objectives and enemies there are, which is as it should be for a game like this.
When it comes to combat, an enemy unit will be bracketed with a large white X when you have it targeted. All of your weapons have considerable range, and some will even drop an enemy unit with one shot. Your helicopter can take quite a bit of punishment, but keep an eye on the damage gauge and your ammo count.
To rescue those prisoners, you’ll first have to destroy the bunkers where they’re being held. They’ll come running out, and you’ll have to land to pick them up. Mind these rescued prisoners; they’re worth damage repair when you get them back to your base or ship. And remember, the Apache can only hold four passengers, whereas the Hind can hold six.
You can also replenish some of your ammo, but not all, by returning to your base. Periodically you’ll also gain extra helicopters, or lives, as you take out enemies and complete objectives.
.H1 Debriefing
Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind reminds me a lot of the old Sega Genesis games Desert Strike and Urban Strike combined with Choplifter.
The terrain and enemies in Hellfire are rendered in real-time, with the player helicopters themselves being pre-rendered. As far as the graphics go, they look pretty good, especially since they’re rendered on the fly.
The game is supposed to have dynamic sound, but to be truthful I couldn’t tell, because Hellfire has a major audio glitch with Palm Tungsten T2s, resulting in the audio being clipped. The development team is aware of this flaw and is working to figure out the cause and remedy the problem. Apparently they had a similar problem with GTS Racing Challenge.
The completely customizable controls were a definite plus. It allows the user to set up the game in whatever way is most comfortable. True, most games now have customizable controls, but it’s still a plus. I especially liked the 5-way navigator support.
After a while though, the missions seemed to become a little repetitive, but they were definitely more challenging towards the end than at the beginning. I think a little more background story, or plot, for the game would serve to alleviate this a bit; after all, this is supposed to be set during the Cold War. Why are the enemy forces attacking in the first place? Or why are we attacking them?
A little more variety in the missions themselves would help too. It seemed like every mission had pretty much the same recipe: launch, take out some helicopters or tanks, and rescue some prisoners. Perhaps if some stealth, or intelligence gathering missions were thrown in there, and maybe a few more escort missions it’d be more fun. The addition of some "boss-type" adversaries would spice up the play a bit. Then again, a lot of good clean arcade fun is based on repetitive game play.
Overall, I give Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind from Astraware a 3 out 5. It’s a good game with a lot of fun, but could use a bit of polishing to make it one of those great, can’t-put-it-down games. One of the most important things would be to solve the problem of the audio clipping with Tungsten T2 devices. Truthfully, it was very distracting and may have been one reason why I didn’t find this game as amazingly mind-blowing as I had originally anticipated.
.RATING 3
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Pazzazz Games, visit http://www.pazzazzgames.com/NP_home.htm.
For more information on Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind and other Astraware products, visit http://www.astraware.com.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
