It's OK but could have been better.
User Rating: 6.3 | AirForce Delta II XBOX
This game is a mixed bag. On the positive side it's got all of the fighters you could want in a jet combat game, good graphics, and a decent number of air to air and air to ground missions. On the negative side "hot spot" missions (kind of mini-missions in between the main ones) are very repetetive and are almost all exactly the same. Since the game is in the context of a war, it would be nice to see some other planes from your side at least once in a while (maybe like in the missions where you have to take out an entire enemy fleet and their air cover). I haven't finished it yet so maybe that will come later (at the very end?) but I'm not getting my hopes up. The replay mode could be better too, there are only 3 camera options: auto, aircraft, and cockpit. Auto is almost good, but it's got some weird camera angles and they don't always show you hitting your targets. It just kind of continuously scrolls through a number of different views of your plane and occasionally tracks your missiles to their target. Aircraft view lets you manually pan the camera around the plane in replay, but at the fixed close up camera position it's easy to end up with a significant portion of your aircraft off-screen. And my biggest gripe about the replay: WHY IS IT CUT DOWN TO A LETTERBOX FORMAT? A full screen replay even with its other shortcomings would have been much better.
Controls are ok, but only on the expert or ace settings. Novice doesn't allow you to roll beyond a steep bank or yaw with the rudders.
It's too bad there weren't any further games in this series, as it probably could have been developed into a decent alternative to the Ace Combat games on the PS2. In the end, I find myself wishing those titles were available for the Xbox instead.
