It's an Apache helicopter combat flight sim with up to 4 person multiplayer missions a lot like Spec Ops in MW2. It's actually a pretty decent game and the flight physics are really good for a console video game, especially when you turn the training mode off and fly in realistic mode, which is well....more realistic. You can fly three different versions of the Apache, this one little unmanned copter thing called a Fire Scout and the Hind. Campaign is pretty decent, you can play it single player or local co-op which allows a second player to be your gunner so they control all the weapon systems while player 1 does the flyin'. When you play the campaign alone then you control all the flying and weapon systems. There is online matchmaking of sorts and leaderboards, etc. There is also a Free Flight mode which allows you to fly any of the helicopters on any of the maps at any time of the day in whatever weather conditions you want and put in enemy helicopters or ground troops if you want so you can either fly around for fun or fine tune your flying skills or practice shooting enemies, whatever. You can fly from the cockpit, gunner's seat, virtual cockpit, or 3rd person. If you engage autohover then you can shoot from the gunners view in regular view, thermal view, or another view that I can't remember. If you flip the sticks in the options menu then the controls are set up like a real helicopter, left stick up and down controls the collective, left stick right and left controls the anti-torque pedals, and the right stick controls the cyclic. It's not hard at all to fly on realistic once you have the controls down but you can also play in training mode which lets you control the helicopter more like an arcade type of flight sim, so you won't tilt the rotor too far forward or fly into the ground because you don't lift up the collective as you start flying forward, etc. Graphics are not phenomenal but good, sound is good, controls setup is great, all in all it's a good game. Best flight sim I've played on a console so far, and I have Ace Combat, Hawks, etc. Helicopters are a bit trickier than jets and this game pulls it off pretty well. It's $49.99 new. I'm giving it a 8/10. If anyone gets it let me know and we'll definitely fly together. Toodles!
Gunner's View
Cockpit View
Gunner's View
Cockpit View
