Choplifter HD Reviews

Choplifter HD is the return of the classic video game that many of us used to play on Apple, Atari or our Gameboy (+ more). Its return should hold a special place in every gamers' heart as its modern rendition still gives us hours of fun and humor. Choplifter HD should not be passed up by any casual gamer and is great for Steam achievers.

Why this scores so low on Metacritic is probably an issue of nostalgia for the old game, which was more physics oriented rather than action oriented. In truth, this is a solid and entertaining "coffee-game" pick-up-and-play action game with a forgiving learning curve, pretty visuals, and fun gameplay. Best taken in small doses, however, since the captives who like to run under your landing skids or into the path of your tail rotor can turn your mood from catharsis to frustration-induced homicide pretty quickly.

Choplifter HD is a spiritual successor of the original Choplift on Apple II. The mechanics are simiar, but updated. The chopper is in 2D space: it can go left, right, up and down. It can turn left, right, or face the player (out), and this is important as enemies do come from 3 directions (left, right, and out). And you can't hit the enemy if you're facing the wrong way. The game is presented in 3D with parallax and real scrolling to give the impression of 3D but the actual movesments are 2D. Different helicopters have different handling, such as firepower, speed, carrying capacity, fuel capacity, and so on. Armed helis have missiles and/or chain gun, and all helis need to rescue people (civilians or soldiers or even the occasional news crew). As you play you will unlock better helos by achieving "stars" on the missions. Enemies have AAA gun sites, soldiers with AK, soldiers with RPG, SAM sites, technical (gun trucks), APCs, tanks, enemy heli, enemy jets, and just general terrain obstructions. Your objective is basically to rescue as many people that needs to be rescued as possible by flying there, kill enemies in your way, land next to the people (not ON them!) so they get on, then fly back to your base, drop them off, and repeat until either time runs out, or you rescued them all and/or other missions. It can get frantic, when you have enemies on all sides, missile lock on you, and so on. In many ways this is a twin joystick shooter, as the left stick controls the chopper while the right stick controls the aim (laser sight pointing the chain gun). Fuel is limited, and any use of "turbo" (speed boost) eats up fuel like crazy. And your helo won't fly without fuel. Rockets are limited in qty and reloaded only at base. Chaingun is infinite but there's a heat limit to prevent it from firing too much. Carrying capacity is limited and the larger choppers don't fly as fast or move as nimbly as the smaller ones. On the other hand, they can often do everything in one trip rather than taking multiple trips. There are various "campaigns" containing various missions, and each mission usually has a bonus objective as well as news crew to rescue (2 extra people!) DLC packs adds extra helos to play with (some are very powerful) and more missions. All in all, it's a fun little game, worth successor to the name.

Very much a game for the Choplifter enthusiast, this game is what a "sequel to a classic" should be. It reproduces the tone, gameplay, and atmosphere of the original arcade classic in a very meaningful way, without introducing obscure "new" mechanics that detract from the theme or feel of the original. Mind you, the original was controller-breakingly difficult, and Choplifter HD is no different: the gameplay is simple yet exceptionally challenging. Since the graphics are simple and the gameplay is "old fashioned" , I can't recommend this to newer gamers; however if you are a retro junky or a fan of the original, then Choplifter HD is a Must Buy.

Very fun modern take on the old choplifter games. It can get really hectic at times where you're trying to fly back to base with moments to spare and dodging things by inches. The game suffers from "there's no way you could have known this would have happened, time to restart the level" but only rarely. The pilot dialogue is a nice bonus and usually pretty funny. Artillery is dumb until you figure it out and can kill you in two hits and usually just one hit results in you restarting the mission. Once you're past the first couple of sections they give you the choice to pick whatever helicopter you want so you have to think and strategize. You can go in guns blazing with the attack helicopter but probably take more trips, or try to do it all in one go with the big helicopter, or use the attack helicopter and try to get key objectives as absurdly quick as possible to make up for the points you will lose for not saving everyone. The controls were made for keyboard/mouse which is a nice bonus, ie it isn't some console crap. There's DLC that was only offered for a bit that you can't get anymore but the good news is it looks like they were just a few filler levels and a useless looking helicopter. If anyone has the DLC I'd like to see you make a video of it though. Unfortunately you cannot buy this game anymore and the company is gone and it looks like they want to pretend it doesn't exist. Very tragic end to the Choplifter series as this is probably the last anyone will ever bother to do for it. I bought this game 10 years ago and it was sitting in my library and I only played it just recently, I'm kinda sad I didn't experience it when it was new.

If you enjoyed Choplifter back in the day, this is a nice twin stick shooter update. If you are expecting an arcade shooter like Thunderwolves, this isn't for you. Despite the arcade look, the aerodynamic behavior of the helicopter is more based on reality, esp. as you add weight. If you land hard, you may kill someone. Gas gauge and zombies are logical extensions of the original game, all well implemented. Would forget to refuel again 7/10, esp. under five bucks.

"fly by wire" game, up and down keys, turn to sides additional buttons :P graphics very nice 3D view on 2D gameplay ^^ Night Avenger dlc most useful, playing regular helicopters first, after complete a mission the dlc helicopters unlock. the "fly" crew (pilot + navigator) jokes nice to hear but became annoying when trying complete a mission for 5 stars and hearing over and over :) cool to buy cheap, 12h all awesome Achievements done. Tip: do everything you can to stay alive (keep flying). go back to repair and refill fuel is better from keep fight and die trying over and over mates. - after mission completed the dlc open to beat the mission for 5 stars. Good luck Pilots, go there and save our guys :-)

I really wanted to love this game, and as I was a huge fan of the old Choplifter I bought it. The graphics are great but the learning curve is just too steep. Enough folks complained that the makers "dumbed it down enough that a 12 year old girl" could play it, to quote them. I still can't get past level three, and in frustration, after buying downloaded DLC helicopters to just see and enjoy this game, I threw my hands up in disgust. I bought it, I wanted to experience it, but this is another instance when the creators don't understand their audience. When selecting easy doesn't make a game easy, there is no sense in it. I am not trying to master some great adventure quest, I am trying to blow off some steam and relax. This game is beautiful, and captures the essence of the original very well, but is too hard for all but the serious gamer, and you will wind up frustrated and give up, just as I did. SKip this game in my opinion.

Having played the original in the late 80's as a kid in amusement arcades, it was hard to resist purchasing this very addictive game. It's worth purchasing the Night Avenger dlc helicopter as some missions are quite difficult to get a perfect 5 stars. The more stars you acquire the better helicopter upgrade you receive, you have to use non dlc helicopters to complete a mission before being able to use any powerful dlc helicopters you may have purchased. Zombie! Zombie! Zombie! dlc level pack is worth buying also but not necessary to complete the game. You can easily play this game off onboard Intel HD Graphics 3000 very well, the graphics are superb. Bought in the Christmas 2013 steam sale with 75% off.

Choplifter HD is only recommendable to people who don't mind a severe "old school" challenge. Everyone else will probably find the game too frustrating, even on the lower difficultly levels. Like the 1980s original, Choplifter HD puts you in control of a helicopter and tasks you with rescuing people and bringing them back to safety. Enemies dot the levels and they'll take shots at you; if your helicopter takes too many hits you'll blow up. Likewise, if you run out of fuel, you'll crash. Choplifter HD becomes a game of risk management; do you have enough fuel to make it to the next person who needs to be rescued, or should you turn back to refuel and repair first? The clock is ticking... All of this is fine, and is keeping in the spirit of the original game. Where Choplifter HD veers off-course is in the difficulty: this game is tough as nails. The first two or three levels are easy enough, but the difficulty spikes severely from that point on. Levels are jam-packed with enemies that can take your health down in a flash and many of them re-spawn after a short time, meaning you have to deal with them over and over. Enemies with RPGs and EMP rifles that stand on rooftops are very hard to spot, and later on you'll have to avoid missiles fired from jets as well as incoming mortar fire. There are even tanks and AA cannons that can take you out in a couple of hits. It's almost impossible to avoid taking damage in Choplifter HD, so get used to restarting some levels multiple times before you finally conquer them. If the campaign becomes too much to take, Choplifter HD also has a zombie mode: here, you fly back and forth across a besieged city, shooting zombies and rescuing people. It's fun for a while. One other thing worth mentioning: the awful voice-acting. Throughout Choplifter HD, you'll be treated to poorly-written and voiced jokes and one-liners from your chopper's crew. None of the jokes are funny, and they're repeated over and over. Some of the dialog is surprisingly tasteless too. Turn your speakers off. If you're one of those people who think that modern games have become too "casual", then Choplifter HD is for you.