Mighty misfire - Military Video Games, computer games, games, gaming - Navy Times

Mighty misfire

I’m disappointed to report that “Apache: Air Assault” is another video game with an excellent concept that suffers from underwhelming execution.

By trying to hit audiences that want action and audiences that want a realistic flight simulator, it misses both; what’s left is a moderately fun hybrid that soon wears out its welcome.

Let’s get one thing clear: Attack helicopters are super-badass. They are the perfect subjects for their own video game on today’s consoles. So I had high hopes that “Apache” would do for close-combat support what “Call of Duty” has done for the rifleman.

But the world is still waiting for a great attack helicopter game, partly because of a programming quandary: How do you build an experience for a single player based on a real-world helicopter with a two-person crew?

An AH-64 Apache has two people aboard precisely because it would be too difficult for one person to fly and fight simultaneously. In “Apache,” you do both — unless you have a friend to play along in cooperative mode — and handling both jobs is predictably difficult.

Earlier games have dealt with this by focusing on one or the other. This year’s “Medal of Honor,” for example, included a level where you play as an Apache gunner in Afghanistan. The computer flew according to a preset script, turning the experience into a from-the-air rail shooter. But it worked; it was cool.

Similarly, the classic “Operation: Flashpoint” included helicopter levels in which you flew and mostly ordered a computer-controlled gunner to do the actual shooting. That, too, was fun.

In “Apache,” you pilot the bird and evade incoming fire while selecting targets and firing guided Hellfire missiles or unguided rockets; your computer-controlled gunner handles the 30mm chain gun under the nose.

In the game’s best feature, you can bring up the gunner’s TV or infrared camera to use with the cannon and get what feels like an incredibly authentic simulation of this weapon — but no one’s flying the helicopter while you do!

So there you are, using your thermal vision to spot bad guys and shred them, but to the outside world, your Apache is just a big, hovering target.

It must be too difficult for designers to write a game in which the computer can fly your helicopter by itself in an open-world environment. So you have to juggle two whole jobs if you want to take care of the opponents.

This dilemma might have been solved if “Apache” focused on the flight-sim approach — accurate controls, the experience of reading instruments in the cockpit, dealing with detailed maps and mission plans, that sort of thing. Instead, missions begin with a simple takeoff and a brief transit before the fireworks start.

“Apache” might also have let people geek out with the AH-64D Longbow’s advanced sensors — the game even starts up with a badge that says it’s authorized by Boeing — but no luck there, either.

When you’re trying to decide which distant targets are the best candidates for your precious Hellfires, it’s hard to determine what’s a tank, what’s a pickup truck and, most importantly, what’s a surface-to-air missile launcher. So you waste your best weapons and find yourself getting shot down quite a lot.

Although “Apache” is not the video game industry’s best offering, my basic faith in it is unshaken — we can solve this attack helicopter game problem!

We must. Blowing up tanks from the sky is just too much fun not to.

Philip Ewing is a Military Times video game reviewer.