Hellfire: Apache vs Hind Review

For whatever reason, the Cold War is raging on in Hellfire. The long-standing peace between the two world’s super powers, America and the Soviet Union, has been broken. My personal opinion on how this new round of military offensive started (note: this is a joke) was after Reagan’s “we begin bombing in 5 minutes� accidental proclamation, war broke out between the two nations.

Enough funny-talk. It’s time to get down to business, since war isn’t something to laugh about. After having to “unpack�, the game will start; the same wait is necessary to close the program. The only two game modes are: campaign and mission. Mission is where you play unlocked missions.

First, you’ll choose between American forces and Soviets. I’ve played both, but I’ll be referencing to the American campaign in this review. The first level has you destroy enemy defenses and bunkers, holding prisoners. You’ll rescue these “CIA operatives� and return them to the base. If you want to, anyone can play this level for free, since this is the demo level allowed for download on Astraware’s website.

The controls are run down, as follows: the analog stick is used to move your chopper, whether American or Soviet. I guess I should point out that the Soviet chopper has better handling, but seems to have less potent ammunition. Moving on, your chopper can speed faster by pressing forward or reverse itself by pressing back. Other than straight, it can also move at angles. Fire/land is done with the yellow hard key (right) and the change command/weapon button is blue (up).

For the US military, nothing’s better than napalm in the morning, but for me, it’s all about downing enemy choppers with hellfire missiles. You have limited ammo for each of the three weapons. Your three choices are a machine gun, weaker missiles, and hellfire missiles.

For those of you wondering, there is a graffiti area in this game. It was meant to serve a purpose (you can use it to control your helicopter with most PDA’s), but when trying to use it with the Zodiac, the screen will freeze. Other than the 2/3 view, the graphics are stupendous. Nice 3D textures, along with flourishing detail help make this one of the best looking Zodiac titles.

If Bluetooth multi-player were an option, this game would be a heart-stopper. As is, it is still an amazing game to play, and it will last quite a few hours. There are a couple different difficulties, though I’ve only played through with one, so there is potential for replay value, on top of the already long game and ability to switch sides. Even without multi-player, I can’t help but say that this is a “go getter�.