5 Responses to “AC-130: Operation Devastation”

1. Iphigenia says:

   September 4, 2009 at 3:43 pm

   2.0 out of 5 stars
   AC-130
   The game has a limited interface and limited options. For a “full” game, the graphics are more limited than the one episode in Call-Of-Duty 4.
2. Anonymous says:

   September 4, 2009 at 6:48 pm

   Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

   This is one of those wonderful situations where less really is more. I like military shooters, and I’ve always been fascinated with the AC-130, so this was an easy choice.

   First off, this is NOT a flight simulator, it’s a shooter. You are the gunner, controlling the minigun, 40mm cannon, and the 105mm howitzer. The controls couldn’t be simpler–weapons are 1,2,3, defensive flares are “tab”, and the rest is the mouse. The computer flies the plane, with calm, professional-sounding radio calls regarding direction changes and weapon reloads. Your view and available range is realistically determined by the bank of the aircraft, and the actual swing of the weapons, so sometimes you have to wait to shoot something, just as it should be.

   Don’t be put off by the simplicity, though, because this is a lot of fun! You get a “nightscope” view of the ground (really a combination of infrared and thermal, as the troops look just like a thermal scan from a satellite), and your ammo is all tracer-style. The big guns have a pleasant “whump” when they fire, although maybe not as loud as I would like. The main learning curve is in hitting moving targets–this is no modern lock-on scenario–you have to learn how far to lead your targets. I regret that I haven’t finished the game yet, so I don’t know if that changes towards the end, when the missions are closer to present-day (the game follows the history of the aircraft, starting in Vietnam).

   The reason why I didn’t give it 5 stars is that in the later stages, the logic seems to suffer a bit. While the gameplay stays the same, they get really picky about collateral damage–you somehow have to figure out how to blow up numerous tanks that are parked right next to civilian buildings, without the computer complaining that you’ve done too much damage. Back off, and you fail because you left too much standing. Maybe I’ll feel differently if I ever discover the “key” to this section, but for now, it’s really frustrating (and it’s too new to get a walkthrough to help get over the hump).

   That nit aside, this is one of those games that is just plain fun, because they kept it simple. Few buttons to remember, satisfying weapons to control, decent graphics (no state of the art stuff, but it looks like its supposed to–gun camera footage at night), and a nice variety of target-rich environments. It’s a great change of pace from the more technical simulators out there (which I also enjoy).
3. Xiao hong says:

   September 5, 2009 at 12:54 am

   Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

   For those who are fans of COD 4 this simple game can look somewhat familiar. Now, don’t get me wrong; this is NOT an FPS. But ALL COD 4 fans would remember the level where the game shifted from the first person view to the bird’s eye view. The bird’s eye view is what this game is all about. I’ve play about a couple of levels so far and I think this approach is NOT bad at all for a low budget game. The player is the gunner of an AC-130 and as the pilot, who is a bot, takes the appropriate course and makes the required adjustments, the player has to take out the enemy units without hurting the friendly units or the civilians. The whole game is played with the mouse. For zooming in and out,selecting the weapon type, the mouse wheel is used, and for firing the selected weapon ,obviously, you simply click. That is almost ALL there is to the controls in this game. There is also a map,the default key is “M”, where you can see the AC’s orientation as well as friends’ and enemies’ coordinates in real time during the flight. There are also a few other keys, but they are not crucial and you can pretty much do without those. The game is fun although it would become repetitive after a while. The game’s sound is relatively good, no major flaws in that department.The graphics and models, although somewhat crude, still are very much acceptable for a $20 software. The same can be said about the physics of the game. For instance, sometimes the enemy vehicles would make some very sharp turns without being turned over and they would just get away vanishing in the dark. Still, these kinds of oddities won’t impede the gameplay. So far all the flights have been night missions, and my guess is it’ll be like that til the very end. Over all this is a simple and enjoyable game that can be fun for some time without requiring a high end PC. If you like shooters or/and arcades give this a try.
4. Oded says:

   September 5, 2009 at 7:37 am

   Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

   If you’ve played the AC-130 level from Call of Duty 4, this is VERY SIMILAR. When I played that level, I was immediately hoping for a WHOLE GAME just like it.

   There are 12 missions, which is WAY too short. The last three missions are what I would call “hard”, and the rest of the levels are VERY EASY, with an occasional medium thrown in.

   I literally had to destroy my own buildings to beat the last level, as it is way-over-the-top difficult. By destroying my own buildings, the “attackers” would just drive in and sit there instead of blowing up.

   All of the other levels have a unique strategy, and once you figure it out, you can consistently beat it. This also means that the game has almost no replay value (except that it was so short, I played it a second time just to keep playing)

   One thing that’s kind of annoying is that sometimes you really don’t have a clear indication of what to blow up. There were a couple missions I had to play through twice (or more) simply because I was not exactly sure what I was supposed to do.

   I would love to see a mission pack for this game, or a part 2 with about 50 missions.

   Definitely worth $20 that I paid, especially for a chance to “extend” my COD:4 experience, but the game is easy overall, and very short.

   To give an idea of how short and how easy: I had an afternoon of conference calls on the day that this game arrived, so I installed it, and played it windowed on my 2nd monitor with one earbud connected to the game, and the other to my conference calls. WHILE actively participating in three consecutive meetings AND reading e-mail, I beat this game in under 3 hours.

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