The attack on Pearl Harbor was one of the most tragic moments in history, and many never forgot the day. Here in 2007, we have Legendo’s Attack on Pearl Harbor which allows you to take the side of America or Japan. While some might find it offensive to take the side of Japan, others might look at it as this gives them a few extra missions to the game.

Story

Well, there isn’t much to be said about the story that is driving AOPH to bring any real interest to history buffs that are also game players. One cool thing is that for this mission based game, comic book style storytelling is used to push the narrative through to the gamer. This is better than nothing since many games that are mission driven don’t have a cohesive story to tell at all.

Gameplay

One of the most important areas that is the main reason to keep you coming back for more in gameplay is something that some will find as a godsend with this game and others will be wanting more after a bit of playtime. The gameplay mechanics have to be some of the simpliest I have ever seen in a flying game and that is a good thing. I don’t think that the developer was going for a Ace Combat type of game where you need to know every nook and craney on how to fly your planes. Now while the controls are simplistic, I have a problem with the battles in the sky. They just feel way too easy and I can see people getting bored fairly easily with this game. There needs to be a challenge there for people to keep on coming back.

Missions consist of flying after other planes trying to take them out of the sky, bombing runs, and then battles over the sea with battleships. There is a bit of a variety as you can see of missions, which is good. But the drawback is that each and every plane feels the same and there just doesn’t appear to be differences with them on both sides, so this does kill the fun factor. I just don’t want to continuously get in the same type of plane over and over, just becomes boring. If they continue this series, I would hope that the planes start to get some kind of personality in the next go around.

Graphics

Graphically, this game is a bit underwhelming and lacks some detail. Again, like their last game I reviewed they have done a good job with the actual environment that you fly in. I think that CDV is good at nailing down the look of their environments for a game, they just really need to tighten up the rest.

Closing Comments

While this is not that bad of a game, I think that there are some things like the repetitive gameplay nature and not so smart A.I. that holds the AOPH back from being a better game. Maybe if AOPH 2 is developed, they can take the current engine and refine the gameplay to help make this an overall better experience.