WAA - Blazing Angels

This week's game for WAA is Blazing Angels, a flight simulator set during WWII. The game only has 7 Achievements and they are ALL very difficult...no freebies to be had here!

The "One With Combat"Award: "Veteran"
Beat campaign mode. It should speak volumes about how difficult this Achievement set is that beating the entire freakin' game (and a tough game at that) is the easiest award to earn.

The "Mile High Club" Award: "The Ace of Aces" and "Hero"
Ace of Aces requires you to get an "Ace" ranking in every campaign mission, which in turn requires you to finish the mission VERY rapidly while recording a large number of enemy kills. For Hero, you need to get all the medals in the campaign, but to get all the medals you need to get Ace ranks in all the missions. So essentially, it's the same very difficult Achievement twice. At least you'll bank 325 points for all your effort.

The "Seriously..." Award: "Survivor"
First you have to unlock every plane by playing through the main campaign and mini-campaigns. Then you have to beat Arcade mode with each of 32 planes by downing 36 enemies within six minutes. That's 1152 kills to get this one, assuming you never get shot down, crash your plane, or run out of time. LAME.

The "Little Rocket Man" Award: "Ace Killer"
It's you against a souped-up AI opponent one-on-one to see who the real Ace is. This one will definitely test your flying and shooting skills.

The Scientist Gone Gamer Award: "Hero"
This is actually a nice looking set. I picked this one because I like the shot of the WWII-era pilot in the background combined with the Blazing Angels logo in the foreground.

Achievement Set Rating - 2
This set does a lot wrong. There are only seven Achievements, and they're all really difficult. You could play the game for weeks, discover that the campaign is beyond your abilities, and walk away with nothing. There should be some easier awards so you feel like you're making more progress on the set as you go. Plus the "Ace of Aces" and "Hero" Achievements are essentially identical in practice, so why make them separate awards? Only the sharp icons save this from being a 1.

Achievement Difficulty Rating - 9
No freebies...heck there aren't even any awards I'd call moderately challenging. Every Achievement is difficult, time-consuming, or both. Mostly both. Expect a minimum of 25 hours to finish this set, and likely much more. Worst of all, you might walk away with nothing if your flight skills aren't well honed.