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Top Gun: Fire at Will
Reviewed by:
Jonathan Dreyer,
MGA Editor In Chief
Top Gun: Fire at Will is an interesting game, it's not quite a full fledged flightsim and not anywhere near an action game. Top Gun is a Flightsim/Arcade hybrid, the flight controls are not nearly as complex as in F-18 Hornet, allowing Top Gun an arcade like gameplay.
The action begins at Top Gun School, where you'll compete for the coveted Top Gun Trophy. Then, you'll lead your wingmen through fierce aerial combat in a burgeoning global crisis. Top Gun gives you the ultimate that modern F-14 dog fighting has to offer.
(Click
to Expand)Gameplay
Although I said that the control
of Top Gun were simple compared to Hornet, that doesn't mean
that an idiot could fly the famous F-14 Tomcat. All the
necessary aircraft control to be a successful pilot but the
emphasis has been put on gameplay, not realism. While Hornet
is a better simulator, Top Gun is by far a better
GAME.
(Click
to Expand)The Gameplay is the greatest part of Top Gun. You start in the Top Gun school where you go through numerous training missions, each one increasing in difficulty from the one before, your goal is the infamous Top Gun Trophy. There are plenty of mission in many varieties, night flying, escort runs, carrier takeoffs, carrier landings, etc... You have 4 different weapons at your disposal for success in those missions, the M61A1 "Vulcan" cannon, AIM-7 Sparrow missiles, AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles, and AIM-54 Phoenix missiles. And of course you have your RIO sitting right behind you waiting for a chance to give his sarcastic advice. The Top Gun school missions are a perfect to give the flightsim newbies the basics of takeoffs, landings, and dog fighting. There were even some Top Gun school missions later on that I (the flightsim expert) had trouble with, namely the grand canyon mission where you have to stay under the rim of the canyon while dog fighting 3 enemy planes, that was one of the toughest flightsim missions I've ever flown.
(Click
to Expand)Graphics & Sound
The graphics of Top Gun are it's
biggest flaw, they stink. The graphics seem to be heavily
pixelated even at the highest graphic settings available.
The ground and the ocean look ugly, as you can see in some
of the screenshots scattered throughout this review. Objects
look great, such as other planes and buildings but, the rest
of the Top Gun world is almost painfully ugly, if it wasn't
for the great gameplay this game would really suck.
(Click
to Expand)The sound and music of Top Gun is wonderful. It even has the Top Gun song from the movie (although sung by a different singer). The music perfectly balanced for the levels giving it just the right amount of atmosphere without being too distracting. Sound effects in Top Gun were nothing special, the missile sounds are the same for every missile you have and the gun sound is rather annoying when trying to shoot down your enemies.
Interface
Top Gun is a top notch port. All
the expected macintosh elements were there, including the
use of Apple Input Sprocket for joystick support. Note: I
found a conflict with SpeedDoubler 8 and the input sprocket,
to play disable SpeedDoubler first.
Difficulty
Top Gun has a perfect difficulty
balance, each mission get progressively harder from the one
before. This balance allows you to master the basics of
flying in Top Gun without being forced to fly unusually
difficult missions.
(Click
to Expand)Conclusion
In conclusion, Top Gun has the
best gameplay of any game I've played recently but, if
you're looking for a flightsim, this is not for. Top Gun is
more for gamers with little or no flightsim experience or
who just want to play a really fun game. Once you look past
the graphics into the gameplay, you'll realize that Top Gun
is great game.
(Click
to Expand)|
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