Active Reviews

Written by Edward Hankins

The kind developers at DivoGames have been nice enough to bring us an all new add-on for their recent shooter “Air Strike II.” If you remember a few months back I reviewed “Air Strike II” and found it to be one of the best games for the money available. It is packed full of non-stop explosions, awesome weapon upgrades, incredible special weapons, and an enemy that won’t stop until you are burning wreck. “Air Strike II: Gulf Thunder” brings all of the action back for an exciting 24 more levels.

The plotline of “Air Strike II: Gulf Thunder” follows the story set up in the first game, you are back as a pilot in the war on terror. The only thing that stands between the terrorists and their evil plans for mass destruction is you and your trusty helicopter. This time the terrorists have adopted a new strategy and have fortified their position in a heavily armed bunker. They are armed with new weapons and explosives, as well as equipped with all new military units. This final boss will test all the skills you have and may prove too difficult your first time around, in fact most everything in this version proves to be more difficult than in the original. But this is not a real problem, only motivation for you to keep practicing; once you have finished the game you can post your score and check with other online to see just how you rank among your peers around the world.

The enemy seems to have a little bit different artificial intelligence, or they have at least been programmed to behave a little bit differently. They are more likely to shoot at you before you can even see them and blanket the screen with fire, often getting hit by ground fire is unavoidable you just must limit the damage. The enemy is also tricky and will try to force you into a corner and then cover that corner with fire. One trick that may help is to change the camera angle in the options to high-pitch, this will tilt the camera up a bit allowing you to see further in advance than before.

To battle these new enemies you have access to all the weapons in the original plus a few new ones. One of the new weapon upgrades is a type of combination laser wrapped in a plasma band (it is the red and blue laser) this upgrade will lay down the hurt. Another new weapon is a type of plasma beam gun that can cover the screen in blue plasma; this weapon is especially good when sustained fire is needed. In addition to your new weapons you will also find your standard fare of lasers, plasma cannons, sonic waves, and machine guns. You can also equip your chopper with any missiles you find on the level, the missiles include: standard missiles, large missiles, heat seeking, and double heat seeking. You will definitely be impressed by the plethora of weapons of mass destruction available at your fingertips and the destruction that they bring.

There are no major updates to the graphics engine, but this is not a problem at all as the engine used in the last game was plenty adequate. There are 24 levels all with fully rendered beautiful 3D backgrounds. The backgrounds are also capable of receiving damage, and often behind an oil refinery or small building a special weapon or upgrade will be hiding. “Air Strike II: Gulf Thunder” takes you through an industrial waste land on your way to the destruction of the terrorist base.

One of the few problems that I found in “Air Strike II: Gulf Thunder” was the limited number of helicopters available to the player. In this version there are only three different choppers available, and each has sacrifices more armor for speed. This is a shame, because of the difficulty of the game the first helicopter available is actually the best. It would have been nice to be able to choose a helicopter with both armor and speed.

For the amazing price of less than $20.00 this is probably the best game you will find anywhere on the internet. In fact it is probably the most fun you could have for under $20.00 since the early 80’s. Divogames is one of the few companies that realize that arcade game play and cool explosions make a good game, toss in awesome graphics and that amazing price and you have yourself a top shelf winner.

Go back to the Airstrike 2: Gulf Thunder page.

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