Thunderhawk: Operation Phoenix

• Red Faction (PS2)
• Conflict Zone
• WWII: Battle over the Pacific (PS2)
• Operation Air Assault (PS2)
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (PS2)

Both of the DualShock 2's analogue sticks are put into effect to accomplish control over your chopper, the left stick handling yaw and the right handling the pitch; this proves a little tricky to get to grips with at first--it took a good 30 minutes of practice at the target range to get the hang of helicopter manoeuvring--but once you've sussed it out it's intuitive and very effective. The missions are nicely paced, requiring a mix of armaments the player can set themselves, but the real skill of the game comes not from gung-ho head-on assaults on the enemy. A more measured approach involving sneaking and pop-up attacks will win every time, especially if you've no rockets left and are relying on the front-mounted chain gun. Graphically, Thunderhawk is pretty good--it's not going to win any medals but there are some lovely touches which really add to the atmosphere, including lightning and rain so real you can almost feel the wetness on your skin.

If nothing else, Thunderhawk: Operation Phoenix is a competent and fun game to play. It's not too difficult but the gameplay has been factored in such a way as to provide a passable challenge. The visuals are all you could expect from a chopper sim but don't detract from the fact that once you're in the game world it's possible to lose hours of your life at a sitting. --Chris Russell

The controls are unnatural and awkward to get the feel of. A good control system should very quickly start to become second nature. You do not want to have to be thinking about which button does what or how to manouver in a certain way. This just did not seem to be happening and did not feel like it was ever going to happen.

Certain aspects of the game also seemed to be outstandingly easy whereas other seemed to be too difficult. An example being the enemy helicopters were very difficult to target without rockets, whereas the enemy motorbikes would target immediately and only take a few shots to kill.

I may be underestimating the latter parts of the game, as I could not be bothered to persist that far. There are too many good games out there to waste time on ones you do not enjoy.

Action 3/10Graphics 3/10Playability 1/10Atmosphere 3/10Lastability 2/10

The makers of this game should dig up an old copy of Gunship2000 for a lesson in game-play.

The game itself look pretty good with all landscape and details in different weapons and vehicles. But it is neither a flight simulator or an true action, shoot them up acarde game. It's so stupid if you can fly into the mountain or an building, then bounce off without any damage to your aircraft.

The mission is interesting but not difficult, plenty of different weapons you can choose and you can shoot your target with long range missle from the other side of the mountain. But quite frankly, what's the point to have all this fine details but you can't even see it. (cos you stay really far away from your target most of the time.)

Anyway, there is some good point in this game but it didn't keep me awake all night.

Buy it if you have £40 to spare, you are really interested in high-tech-weapon-flying war game, or because there is no other game like this in the market. Enjoy.

• Categories > PlayStation 2 > Type of Game > Action & Adventure
• Categories > PlayStation 2 > Type of Game > Strategy
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