The intro and cut scenes are voiced by Will Lyman, and if you don't recognize his name you will definitely recognize his voice. He's known for narrating numerous PBS programs and sounds like he's right off the history channel. Here, he's taking you through mostly-factual events of the war in relation to your flying squadron, the Battle Hawks. The Hawks are formed just as Germany has taken most of Europe and turns their attention to the bombing of England. Your role in the coming months of the war takes you to Europe, North Africa and the Pacific.

The story is progressed by scenes done in traditional documentary fashion, with pan and scan techniques across historical still photographs. Interspersed are computer generated animations that go with the look and feel of the historical media. They stick out enough that you can tell you're watching video game footage but not so much as to ruin the mood of the story. These scenes, along with voiceovers from the main character's mission diary, immerse you in a story about the last great war. And they do so on both a personal and epic level, without being intrusive of the game itself.

When it comes to the game, this one is all about flying the classic, historically accurate warplanes that dominated air combat in the 1930s and 1940s – and there are TONS of them. You'll start with one mediocre fighter badly in need of some improvements, but after several missions your hangar will have plenty of choices. Each successful mission, and "challenges" in between, rewards you with a certain number of upgrade points you can use to make your different planes faster, more durable or able to carry more ammo.

The best part is that flying different planes actually feels different. You'll salivate when you see a squadron of slow, cumbersome Stukas because you know you'll fly circles around them and drop them like ducks. You'll be on the other end of that equation, too, and have to figure out how you're going to bomb stationary targets with a slow, bomb-dropping pig of a plane while Germany's finest fill your fuselage with lead.

Missions include escorting ground units, destroying Axis installations, scouring the skies for enemy planes and combinations of each. One thing that's done very nicely is how mission situations can sometimes change after you've taken off. Obviously these are preprogrammed changes, but it still helps establish a feeling of real combat. The fact that objectives can change after you take off because of poor intelligence or performance makes the whole experience just a little richer.

The intelligence of the A.I. goes from mediocre to extremely challenging, depending on the situation. Early on, when you're defending an installation, the German dive bombers act like you're not even there and almost dare you to gun them down. In other missions, however, bombers actually defend themselves before trying to blow things up. Some enemies, particularly specific characters in the story, don't sit still for a second and react immediately when you finally line them up in your crosshairs.

If you turn off the HUD, which offers lots of info to make the game easier, like targeting reticules and bogey information, you'll be appropriately in the dark about what kind of plane you're tracking until you get fairly close. This isn't because the graphics are hard to distinguish, it's because small planes, when viewed with the naked eye from thousands of yards, are hard to tell apart from one another. This one feature makes all the difference in the difficulty of the missions.

Piled on top of that is the first-rate sound during gameplay. Missions that include several planes means there are more pilots in the air than you, and they're going to talk to each other. The radio chatter between your allies, and sometimes your enemies (in language, with subtitles), often has little or nothing to do with you. Add the necessary engine noise, machine gun effects and an epic background score, and you've got an engrossing audio package that takes advantage of every possible angle to make you feel like you're really there.

The planes and landscapes all look good, both up close and from afar, but they don't exactly push the envelope. Explosions and smoke trails are nicely done, too. In short, Secret Weapons Over Normandy looks very good, it's just not a graphical powerhouse. It looks more like an old WWII movie than a summer blockbuster, which fits perfectly.

It's also packed with loads of extras. Some of the in-game features show a lot of thought behind them, like automatic replays of the last 15 seconds before you crashed and burned. There's nothing like going down in the middle of a huge dogfight and not knowing which Kraut took you out. And the ability to slow down or speed up game time is invaluable, especially during long missions. Traveling from one far point to another is a lot less boring when you can artificially speed things up.

The other extras include the movies you unlock during gameplay. They won't interest every player, but those with any curiosity about WWII and aviation in particular will appreciate the Gallery section. Included are brief overviews of some historic events and a few new interview pieces with aviators and historians.

There are also multiplayer modes, though none are online. You can have dogfights against a friend, play the missions cooperatively or competitive co-op — you and your friend play a mission and the one with the most kills wins. After completing all the single player missions, you'll unlock Star Wars X-Wings and Tie Fighters for use in Instant Action and Multiplayer modes. That's right, you'll be able to fly Star Wars classics over Europe during World War II.

Not a graphical showcase, Secret Weapons Over Normandy is about gameplay and, secondarily, immersion in a story. With so many WWII themed games available it's surprising how well this one stands out. The story is interesting, well told and serves as the perfect excuse to get into the cockpit of the era's most famous aircraft. And each is faithfully represented and useful in your quest to rid the skies of the enemy. The mission variety and complexity, with multi-tiered goals and mixtures of dog fighting, bombing and strafing, make Secret Weapons Over Normandy a long-lived, rewarding experience. It's not just for vintage aviation enthusiasts, either. Flying the daredevil skies of the 1940s should serve as a nice change of pace for fans of action, adventure and shooting games, because this game combines elements of all three.