The story largely revolves around an orphaned boy who grows up to become a pilot, and fights for his country, while also seeking revenge against the enemy fighter pilot who killed his family years earlier. This is presented in an elegantly produced slide-show style, with a voice-over.

The game comprises 20 missions, ranging from taking out cumbersome C-130 transport planes to escort and ground attack missions. Variety is achieved by the inclusion of missions that encompass the many differing aspects of air-warfare. 'Mission Updates', where an objective may change mid-way through a mission, also add to the level of variety.

Completing missions earns you credits that can be used to purchase new aircraft and ordinance for those aircraft. You start off with a lowly F4 Phantom, with aircraft such as the A-10 Attacker, F-18 Hornet, F-15 Eagle, and Tornado (to name but a few), becoming available for purchase as you progress. Once unlocked you will be able to select from 20 different modern day aircraft to fly.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty, the graphics are simply great. The anti-aliasing is achieved successfully with the terrain looking lush and beautiful from the air. Ground targets sometimes seem too small for what they are, but taking into account the excessive speeds involved, this is quite reasonable. From higher up though, it's very much an experience akin to looking out of the window of the 747 as you pass over the Grand Canyon. Lovely. "Threading the needle" down a narrow canyon with a river at the bottom while taking out gunboats, container ships and various other ground targets is much fun. The theatres of war are a major improvement over previous games because of the PS2's extra power - they are vast, and the draw distance is impressive.