Secret Weapons Over Normandy Critic Reviews

As a standalone game you will find at least 15-20 hours of quality gaming waiting for you between the missions and the challenges.

In terms of shoot-'em-ups we can't recall a more enjoyable one, and any game that causes someone who's supposed to be holidaying from videogames to not only complete every single campaign and challenge mission, but go back and replay some of them as well has to go down as a one of the games of 2003.

Great stuff, with the most intense dogfighting and most spectacular production values I've ever encountered in a flight-action game.

While I would have liked to have seen online gameplay (and I do take off points for that), the single player campaign is very stong, and the storyline will keep you sucked into it. The controls are great, and the presentation is great.

Unfortunately, there's no online support, but SWON is packed with enough diverse gameplay with a heavy challenge level that you won't lament the online absence too long.

The mission variety and complexity, with multi-tiered goals and mixtures of dog fighting, bombing and strafing, make Secret Weapons Over Normandy a long-lived, rewarding experience.

Thankfully, LucasArts have traded in realism for arcade action and the end result is a joyous ride through history.

Plays great, but ultimately doesn't compare to "Crimson Skies."

Isn't a game that does anything obviously or overtly clever or innovative. But any game that takes such a simple premise and polishes it, hones it and refines it until it's this engrossing, this absorbing, and this much fun, is quite obviously doing something very clever indeed.

A rare take on World War II that doesn't involve storming a beach.

Flight-sim purists will be horrified by SWON's simplicity, but everyone else will be too busy having fun.

Casual flight fans will find lots to love here, but true flight jockeys will crash and burn in despair.

I can appreciate it as a fun action game but it holds little of the weight you'd expect from a World War II dogfight game. The lack of a compelling narrative enhances this pick-up-and-play mentality and detracts from my own involvement in what's going on.

Although the AI is good having a human wingman can be a great help. It's just a shame that this can't be extended onto live.

Military buffs and the hardcore flight fans will gobble this one up, but I think most causal gamers that have Live will sadly pass over this one.

The game is fun, the graphics and music are solid, and the multiplayer mode is lots of fun.

I can't help wishing that Totally Games and LucasArts had gone in for a penny, in for a pound, and made the whole thing Live-compatible. If we're not going to get "Battlefield 1942" from EA, this could have been the next best thing.

Its instant accessibility, great overall presentation and tremendous historical feel make this game a secret worth spreading.

It fails to really capture that edge-of-your-seat feeling due to its slow combat. What it does do, however, is stir your emotions a little, which isn't easy.

The confusing gauges have been banished and the pesky laws of aerodynamics relaxed, freeing you to focus on sending Japanese and German pilots to their graves.