Not all video games have to be sweeping epics or contain controversy to be a fun to play. Sometimes, people just want to turn their minds off and blow stuff up. Well, Thunder Wolves from Most Wanted Entertainment is the answer to that desire. Playing like a helicopter air combat game from the 80’s, Thunder Wolves is all about loud, heavy metal music, paper thin characters, and explosions – lots of explosions. With a short, three hour single player campaign, Thunder Wolves doesn’t have time to waste in setting up a plot or giving the players a twist in story telling, because that would get in the way of the massive amounts of destruction you need to be committing.
Story:
The story for Thunder Wolves is as straight forward as you can get. You play as “Blister”, a new helicopter ace that has just joined the mercenary group “Thunder Wolves” for cash and glory. You will be sent through thirteen missions with various objectives and goals, since that is what you have been paid to do. The other characters that round out your mercenary group include a grizzled, foul mouthed veteran and a bossy, stern mission specialist. The characters are all one dimensional and serve a singular purpose for the story, which is to give you something else to listen to instead of the constant explosions and death screams of your enemy.
Thunder Wolves story line serves one purpose and one purpose only: To give the player some sort of frame work for all of the madness that is on-screen. The plot, writing, and voice acting are all over the top and exaggerated, which fits the style of the game perfectly. Like story lines for most fighting games, the story is just “there” and does nothing to either take away or add to the enjoyment of the game.
Game Play:
The game play for Thunder Wolves is the meat and potatoes of the game, and is really well done overall. The helicopters are outfitted with a chain gun that has unlimited ammo and won’t overheat, regenerating rockets that come in three flavors, flares to help you avoid incoming missiles, and regenerating health. This is all there to help you deal with the onslaught of chaos that is on the screen for almost the entire three hour campaign. Enemies will be plentiful during each mission, and will fire a barrage of guided missiles at your helicopter, so using every tool in your arsenal is an absolute necessity to survive to see your objective finished.
There are thirteen missions, each mission has a main objective for you to accomplish. Secondary objectives will pop up as the missions proceed, to give you something else to do then just blow up the entire map. Each map also has a hidden collectible that players can search for in the form of a man named… “Pedro”. There are skins and different helicopters to unlock by playing through the missions, but these feel mostly like cosmetic changes instead of giving you any type of performance boost.
The controls are very forgiving, which is perfect for this type of arcade style game. When it comes to arcade flight games like this, I wish I had a control pad and not just a keyboard and mouse to play the game. If you only do have the keyboard and mouse, then you will be happy to know that the controls still work very well. The controls are what allow you to put your brain on auto pilot and enjoy the senseless destruction you are about to unleash, since you do not have to stress over how to fly the helicopter.
Aesthetics:
Visually, Thunder Wolves is lackluster at best. The graphics do the job that they need to do, but do it without beauty or creativity. For this type of game, it would have been fun to see the aesthetics more over the top to match the game play and audio. The developers went with Heavy Metal for the soundtrack in Thunder Wolves, which really is a perfect fit. The loud, guitar riffs and pounding drums actually fits quite well and accentuate the game play. It isn’t something I would want a copy of for my digital collection, but does the job while you are blowing stuff up.
The voice acting and dialogue are just as over the top as the game play is. The developers and actors did a great job in channeling their inner Duke Nukem by making the dialogue just outrageous enough to be fun, without going over the line into the realm of being offensive. The actors were definitely into giving their characters some life and personality.
Final Thoughts:
Thunder Wolves is a fun, mindless helicopter combat game that reminds me of the good old days of video gaming. Days before every game had to be a serious, gritty, and thought provoking experience. That isn’t to say Thunder Wolves does not need strategy to complete its missions, you do need to actively avoid incoming enemies and complete your objectives. However, it can all be done with your brain shut off and your finger on the trigger. The over the top voice acting and loud Heavy Metal music helps extend the experience of Thunder Wolves, I just wish the developers went with a visual aesthetic style to match. The game play is very forgiving, but the campaign will only run you about three hours to complete, with some more time to explore the whole map or hunt down every achievement in the game. Overall, Thunder Wolves is a solid and fun arcade style shooter that will allow your brain to take a break from today’s more serious video games. Thunder Wolves allows you to sit down, have some laughs, and destroy everything you see on the screen.
