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Heatseeker takes you into the fast and furious world of aerial combat were you give no quarter and take no prisoners. The missions will take you around the planet as you engage your enemies in the air, on the sea and even on the ground.

Based on what I have seen so far, this is not a flight simulator where you have to deal with the nitty gritty details of flying a plane like stall speeds or pulling G’s. Heatseeker is a high impact arcade style video game where all you need to worry about is getting your targets in your sights and pulling the trigger.

So far most of the missions I have played that involve air to air combat have been wave upon wave of enemy aircraft approaching some target like a base or other aircraft. My job has been to defend that target and eliminate all the offending enemies. It gets quite insane when your dogfighting 10 other planes trying to shoot them down while staying alive and defending their target.

The missions have a natural progression from one to the next leading you through the storyline. Thoughthey are not necessarily plausible, like why are you the only able bodied pilot who can engage the enemy, at least they supply you with a constant run of action and adventure.

There are numerous planes available to fly, though I’m not sure how you might select the plane your flying in the full version of the game. And actually the list is pretty impressive and includes planes like the F22 Raptor, F15 Eagle, SU47 Berkut and other American and Russian fighter aircraft.

In addition to the choice in planes, there is also a comprehensive list of weapon systems available for blowing your opponents out of the sky. And each one of these weapons seems to have their own characteristics in terms of type of weapon lock, weapons range, reliability and effectiveness.

With the extensive selection of aircraft this game should have quite a replayability aspect to it since I know that I had to play many of the scenarios numerous times just to try out different aircraft.

The game was not difficult to play, the UI is very simplistic with a radar and pointers to where your enemy is, though it would be nice if they would include an artificial horizon so that you know when your upside down. The flight controls where easy to use, up down left and right. I’m hoping that the full version will allow the use of the PS2 Joystick. There was no option to select mission difficulty so as to whether that aspect will be available I don’t know.

One cool aspect of the game is that, on occasion, when you launch a missile the camera view will change to follow the track of the missile so that you can watch, first hand, the destruction of your target. The explosions are fantastic and really give you a deep level of satisfaction of a job well done as you watch pieces of the aircraft fly apart as nothing more than flaming shrapnel.

The graphics quality of the game and the simulations are especially well done in recreating a sense of actually being at 10,000 feet rocketing along at MACH2. As you fly along you will notice con-trails and turbulence effects of the aircraft slicing through the air at high speeds. There is also a distortion effect that occurs after you hit the boosters which I believe is there to simulate breaking the sound barrier.

With the impressive array of aircraft and the great graphics that I’ve seen so far I think this game has a good future ahead of it. ESRB Rating wise, based on what I’ve experienced, it looks like it will be appropriate for most everyone. If your looking for a straight on flight simulator go elsewhere, if your looking for some high speed missile action Heatseeker looks to be the game that will satisfy anyone’s appetite for explosive destruction.