Lawrence Holland and his famed Totally Games studio are best known for crafting a series of Star Wars space combat sims throughout the 1990s. Classics like X-Wing, TIE Fighter, and X-Wing Alliance made Larry Holland a well-known name among PC action gamers. But before Star Wars, Holland worked on a lesser-known flight game set in World War II called Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe. Now Totally Games is finally revisiting the greatest and most terrible conflict in history on the PC, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 with Secret Weapons Over Normandy, a flight combat simulation that's heavy on action and should be enjoyable not just to sim junkies but also to anyone who likes a good action game. We recently spent some time with the main campaign in an essentially completed build of the Xbox game, and we came away quite impressed with the accessibility and fun of the game's missions.

　　Despite its flight sim trappings, Secret Weapons Over Normandy is extremely easy to pick up and play.

　　The main component of Secret Weapons Over Normandy is a linear 15-mission single-player campaign that will put you into combat against the airborne forces of the Axis. Before the mission, you'll check out your aircraft in the hangar, including engine and airframe specs and weapons loadout. Then you'll receive a briefing of sorts in the form of a letter written about the situation, and finally, you'll take to the sky. The mission objectives in Secret Weapons Over Normandy are fairly diverse and will see you assuming a number of varied responsibilities. You'll have to protect an Allied convoy from Stuka bombers, for instance, or fight off waves of incoming fighter planes. In one mission, you'll take control of a captured German bomber and surreptitiously join in with an enemy squadron to get behind enemy lines and then wreak havoc on their ground forces. The missions have a dynamic feel, since they generally consist of multiple parts. For instance, once you've defended the convoy and dealt with a wing of fighters, you'll be tasked with taking out several bridges before a German panzer division can cross them. Having these new mission objectives pop up unexpectedly during flight lends the proceedings a hectic, exciting quality.

　　Though many gamers undoubtedly cringe at the word "simulation" and the stodgily difficult gameplay it often implies, the actual flight and combat mechanics in Secret Weapons Over Normandy are much more akin to an arcade-style action game. The flight controls are surprisingly responsive and forgiving, so maneuvering and dogfighting with ace enemy pilots is intuitively easy. Firing your main machine guns is a simple point-and-shoot affair. You've got a sim-style targeting system that keeps track of the location of enemy air and ground units and also provides a life meter that indicates their remaining strength, and you've got a lead indicator that shows you where to shoot in order to score a hit. Secret Weapons has a few cool, action-oriented features you won't find in similar games, such as a zoom function that lets you get a much closer look at whatever you're targeting. You can also hold a button to have the camera follow your target, which makes controlling your own plane a little more difficult but creates impressively cinematic sequences. Finally, and most interestingly, you can actually slow down time with the press of a button, which gives you a lot more room for error when aiming at targets and dogfighting enemy planes. Surprisingly, there's no limitation on the use of this function--you can play through the entire game in slow motion if you like. You'll have a variety of different planes at your disposal throughout the game, but the specifications of these weapons of war thankfully aren't written in stone. As you play the missions, admirable performance will award you with upgrade points that you can apply toward improving your planes. You can change all sorts of aspects of your craft. Engine upgrades will increase your top speed and climb rate, a better airframe will let you maneuver more easily, and a varied bomb selection will, of course, let you blow things up real good. Better plane performance will obviously serve as an incentive to perform your duties better during your missions.

　　The gameplay has a number of unique mechanics, such as a zoom-in ability and a slow-motion function.

　　Secret Weapons Over Normandy doesn't lack a human element during its missions: You'll play as American pilot James Chase, who's sent to England to assist with the fight against Germany in the early months of 1940, before the United States officially entered the war. You'll also get to know a number of characters as the game progresses, mostly through radio transmissions that take place during your missions. Even enemy transmissions will come through over your radio in the appropriate language--German pilots actually speak in German, which lends a nice bit of authenticity to the action (though the subtitles will thankfully be displayed in English). Further adding to the personality and atmosphere in the game, your mission briefings actually consist of letters home written by your character, and you'll also receive documentary segments about the war in between missions.

　　Secret Weapons Over Normandy is looking pretty good on the Xbox, with nicely detailed plane models and a high frame rate. The locales are fairly varied, and the assignments take place during different times of day, so the missions don't look exactly like each other. Everything runs at a nice, smooth frame rate, as well. On the sound front, there are plenty of rat-tat-tat machine gun sounds, and the screeching of incoming bombers is often evident. There's always a lot going on, and the missions are aurally pretty evocative of a World War II aerial battle. The voice acting is also good for the most part, especially since it uses foreign languages to convey even more realism. From the looks of it, Secret Weapons Over Normandy has solidified into quite an entertaining and accessible combat experience, and we'll bring you a full review of the game soon.