Project Sylpheed 360

[Winnow]

I played this game a little today. I'm not into space shooters but it was from Square Enix so I had to try it out.

I went through the entire tutorial so I would had the basics down.

I made it through the first mission ok. Took out 65 enemy fighters and got my first medal.

My impressions of the game may be a little biased because I don't like games where there's shit happening everywhere at once.

Flying around in space is disorienting. There are a couple controls to help with this. You can lock your viewpoint onto the target, match the speed of the target (this helps a log staying in range for your weapons), and give commands to your wingmen to attack, support, breakoff, etc.

There are also three special attacks...first is firing off all of your weapons at once...so if you've got a shitload of fighters in front of you, this works well...all the guided missiles will find their targets. second is ramming...you put up a force field and ram into your target...third is (i forget the third one)

The animations for the cut scenes are pretty generic as is the voice acting. IMO, the game has no heart. I don't think Square really wanted to make this game.

On my first mission, the problem I had was that there were buttloads of enemy fighters everywhere. The targets are all orange with the main target having a special icon. Every so often I'd get a message that there was a missile lock on me but nothing ever hit me and I don't think I took any evasive action. With so much shit going on, I either gave my wingmen the command to support me or attack my target. Beyond that, I just kept targeting the next closest fighter and shot it down, usually with a guided missile when I got into range, but sometimes with some machine gun fire. I didn't feel like I was in a dogfight as I couldn't tell if someone was on my tail and there was too much stuff going on to keep an eye on it. Basically, I closed in on my target, locked on, and fired off a guided missile. Repeated that a lot mixed in with some gun bursts from the machine gun.

The flying controls aren't bad (for space). I was able to orient myself on targets pretty fast and there's also a "point toward targeted enemy" button so get you in the right direction but I forgot to use that. You have accelerate and decelerate as well as a "afterburner" mode. The heads up display is pretty good. You have an indicator on your right that shows which of your weapons are in range for your current target.

You can refuel by finding a tanker (marked blue) and getting close to it. You don't have to land or anything...if you're close enough, you hit a button and it rearms and refuels you.

There was some annoying chatter from my wingman...some helpful but a lot of the time they were saying "shouldn't we be attacking the orange target?" when I was already locked on the target and also had them assigned to attack. Incompetent fools! These are no Starbuck and Apollo pilots!

After your first mission, the Hanger and Armory are available. You can change around your weapons (can have three weapons at one time...at least on the fighter I had) and weight plays a part possibly in maneuverability. You gain points for kills and successful missions that you can put toward upgrading weapons and buying new ones.

I suppose the issue I have with this game is that it's not too exciting taking out fighters in a huge dogfight where you're sort of overwhelmed and can really only focus on the target at hand. The story/plot is also not interesting at all so that doesn't help! I like the WW2 or WW1 dogfights where you can see your enemies and actually make some maneuvers. (Blazing Angels is fun on the 360)

Overall, a weak effort from Square Enix. I know it's going to sell for 39.99 but it really may be more of a rental type game. It's possible you might like it if you're a fan of space battles but I'd check out a demo or something first.

[cadalano]

sounds like TIE Fighter for pussies

[Sabek]

Grabbed the demo and was hoping for a Wing Commander kind of game, and was under-impressed.

It tries for an animeish space combat, but falls short of fun for me.

[Funkmasterr]

I have never been in to flying games of any type, but I tried this and had a little bit of fun. There was too much going on and it would get a bit repetitive. I liked it enough to rent it so I probably will, but it's not a buyer.

[Animalor]

I'm usually into space dogfight types of games but I thought the demo for Sylpheed was underwhelming as well.

I may pick up the retail when it hits the bargain bin but I won't buy it even at the 39$ cdn price.