Others say...

"One of the Best Arcade Flyers Ever Made"
I may be a kid, but I know this game inside and out.

A lot of the other reviews for this game say it is a piece of junk, but not why. This is probably because the reviewers were expecting a flight sim. Notice that the average console review for this game is higher, because they anticipated an action game. If you still think this is a sim, read the back of the box; "intense WWII action-flyer." If you want a sim, buy Pacific Fighters. I've played it and it's the best sim I know of.

With that clarification, let's get down to business.

I gave this game four stars because it has wonderfull gameplay, good graphics, a wide variety of planes, secret weapons, and engaging missions. However, there are only fifteen campaign missions (the others are shot bonus levels), and they stop with D-Day. If it had twenty missions I'd give it five stars, no questions asked. Because of the short storyline the German secret weapons program has been accelerated. For example, intercontinental bomber prototypes and operational jet fighters in 1943. The designers could easily have kept close to reality with twenty missions, possibly with Gotha Go 229s over western Germany, or Natters over Berlin. Also, the designers left out some rather significant aircraft on all sides. F4U Corsairs at Iwo Jima or P-47 Thunderbolts at Bastogne are noticeably absent to the WWII enthusiast. Even more aggravating is the fact that some of these missing aircraft are being made availible, along with extra campaign missions, are being made availible on XBOX Live. I'm not about to pay $130 for an XBOX plus XBOX Live subscription for these add-ons.

Summary

Secret Weapons Over Normandy is an excellent game, and is a huge bargain at the $9.99 I have seen it for at several stores. the plot is a little weak at times, but that doesn't really matter, unlessyou obsess over Ace Combat-style, which, incedentally, almost made me throw up. The airplane and vehicle models are superbly done, and the landscapes are generally well done. The flight controls are also well done, with the option of either simple controls or realistic, stick-and-rudder controls. Arial gunnery is also simplified, using a gunsight and target "lead indicator." A nice inclusion is the SLED Mission Editor, which I haven't really messed with yet.

Conclusion

Buy this game if you are looking for a great action flyer. I have never even seen Crimson Skies, so if you're looking for a comparison, go find another pilot. If you have a good graphics card and joystic get it for PC. Otherwise, get it for XBOX. If you don't fit in either of these categories, the PS2 version has two-player levels, but no updates. Then again, if you are reading this you probably don't have a console sytem.

"Does SWON really suck that much? I say NO!"
I'm in the last stages of the Secret Weapons over Normandy single player campaign and thought I would share my experiences with this game. I have had a copy lying around for a while, and wasn't very enthused about installing it, particularly after reading the negative remarks posted here and on the various sim forums, nor was I very impressed with the demo. But there it sat wasting away and so I finally decided to give it a go. And I have been pleasantly surprised.

I refer to this as a game, which it is. It is not a simulation except in the roughest sense of the word, and that seems to have been the biggest criticism. The flight models are far from realistic. You can accelerate and decelerate at ridiculous rates. You have nearly unlimited ammo. You have HUD-like targeting to show you where you should be aiming. There is even the reflex time (like Max Paine's Bullet time!) option where you can slow everything down to gain an advantage. So far I know it doesn't sound very compelling to you flight sim aficionados. But what I quickly realized is that, as other reviews have noted, what SWON does bring to the table is an experience roughly similar to the various Lucas Arts Star Wars Games. In other words SWON is to flight sims what X-Wing fighter was to space sims. And like the Star Wars games this is lots of fun!!!!

Visuals are pretty good at 1600x1200, if a bit cartoon like. The only time I ran into performance issues at that resolution on my mid-performance pc was in the Norwegian fjord missions and even there it was still playable. You get about 15 planes (that only vaguely resemble their historical counterparts) to fly, in various areas in Europe and the Pacific. You get to use a large variety of weapons like torpedoes, rockets, missiles and cannons to blow up a larger variety of ground, naval and air units, usually with spectacular results! It does require some, but not a lot, of skill to fly since you can stall in flight and you will occasionally be fighting faster, more maneuverable and better armed opponents. The missions are well designed - interesting and varied objectives and not too long, and well placed checkpoints so you don't have to play the entire mission over if you screw up.

Some of the things I did to make the game more interesting included using the "realistic" controls set and enabling the first person mode. This still is far from a simulator experience but it does make the game more challenging and engaging. Pick up a copy at the bargain bin price and give it a try yourself. Which I heartily recommend to anyone who wants a fun gaming experience and doesn't insist on realism.




"Very poor game"
Don't bother - worse than I ever imagined. I gave it a 1 star, only because they didn't have a 0.

"Waste of money"
This game is a waste of money. If you buy it, don't say I didn't warn you.

"Hardly a follow up to SWOTL"
When this game was first in development I was psyched. Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe is possibly my all time favorie game in the world... and this is no follow up to that game. I've heard it claimed that SWOTL was an arcade style game and thus flight sim lovers should expect the same from Normandy, but that's really wrong. Luftwaffe was clearly a flight sim. It was all first person, there were concerns of conserving ammo and fuel, and damage was realistic. You had watch your engine temp, and your oil and manifold pressure. If it didn't seem like a flight sim because of the flight characteristics, think about when the game was made! For its time there was no better flight sim than Luftwaffe.
I'm not saying that Normandy is a BAD game, but for lovers of the previos trilogy of Battlehawks, Battle of Britian, and SWOTL, this game is going to be a total let down. There has yet to be a game that has been able to represent WWII in the broad and expansive nature that SWOTL did, and Normandy is no exception. It's too dependent on its "story" mode, and totally overlooked the best aspect of SWOTL... the campaign battles.