When Blazing Angels soared by on the gaming horizon in 2006, we were already busy on the ground re-enacting countless battles from the Second World War. No matter what you think of it all, WW2 games – particularly in the strategy or shooter genres – are big business. Yet the skies overhead were pretty much barren; aside from Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, Crimson Skies and some stuffy sims on the PC for the anorak-wearing crowd, there wasn't much in the way of WW2-inspired aerial combat, particularly on consoles.

So for gamers who were sick of slogging through trenches or commanding tanks, taking to the skies for a few dogfights was a pretty attractive diversion. As far as debuts go, Blazing Angels was what you would probably call "solid” or "enjoyable”, but nothing beyond that. In the cutthroat world of modern gaming, where anything less than shining success often results in a death-dive for a franchise, the last thing anyone expected was for Blazing Angels to rise like a phoenix from the ashes and fly once more. But Ubisoft's Romanian studio is back with all-new high-flying hijinks, and we've got the low-down!

Blazing Angels walked a fine line between fighting historical battles while keeping the action intense and the story fictional. While it succeeded in some ways, overall it didn't quite pull it off – the characters were cliché and boring, the dialogue terrible and the German accents offensively bad. The developers have obviously learned their lessons though, and have taken the sequel in a new direction; a little less History Channel, a little more Indiana Jones! Famous aerial encounters like the Battle For Britain are gone, replaced with sexy spies, sinister superweapons and death-defying derring-do.

With a subtitle like "Secret Missions of WW2”, you know you should expect something a little different, and Blazing Angels 2 is exactly that. Over the course of the fifteen or so singleplayer missions, you can expect to take down giant Nazi zeppelins, defend San Francisco from V2 rocket-launching submarines, tangle with Tesla towers, and pilot experimental planes packing experimental weapons. And it's probably the most fun you'll ever have in the skies of WW2 at that! The storyline is pretty incidental, but much less stuffy than the original, and is told through some weird graphic-novel style comic panels which are at least something a bit different.

The other main difference here is the experimental planes and technology you will use to fight the Fascist hordes. Some of these are based on real-life planes like the British Vampire or the Axis Messerschmitt Me 262, others are a bit more out there. There's nothing particularly realistic about the new defensive weapons though, which include Tesla coils and flash bombs among others. Admittedly all the good stuff is saved for the second-half of the game, but this makes you appreciate it even more. The conventional planes feel pretty weak and clumsy compared to the jets, and this is only compounded by the upgrade system.

During missions you will earn points which can be used to enhance your fleet of planes with a slew of different updates: better armour, tighter handling, increased weapon damage or range and a bunch more. This offers a fair degree of customisation, without limiting your options, since purchasing an upgrade unlocks it for every available plane. Of course this really favours not only obsessive gamers who complete all secondary and bonus objectives, but also the later planes you acquire, which will come out of the hangar much more powerful with the benefit of all the upgrades.

But while these upgrades may make your planes seem pretty tough, you'll certainly need the added firepower and toughness in the later missions. Once you unlock the homing rockets you'll often be facing off against entire fighter-wings in addition to battalions of ground units. In a lot of ways, the shift away from the traditional dog-fighting gameplay is a little bit disappointing, because the lock-on mode in Blazing Angels was always pretty great and made the one-on-one air duels quite memorable. Now, the series has taken a decidedly arcade turn, which certainly makes it more accessible, but whether you like the new direction is entirely a matter of personal taste.

Still, the controls are still responsive and tight just like in the original game; each plane will feel a bit different based on the variables and ratings it has in terms of speed and handling, but they all manage to be similar enough not to confuse you. Purists will no doubt have words to say about the samey controls, but the thing to remember is that Blazing Angels 2 is not a serious simulation, not even a little bit. Planes can repair in mid-air, you can pull insane G's without passing out, and that's not even touching on the obviously fictional experimental stuff. Make no mistake of it, this is an arcade-action experience through and through.

One of the main changes in this direction is the changed nature of mission objectives. Gone is the emphasis on things like taking reconnaissance photos, replaced with much more fun tasks like shooting down volleys of V2 rockets streaking towards San Francisco or landing on a moving train to drop off a spy. Almost every mission now has some sort of larger-than-life component, which makes for a much more enjoyable experience. Plus with the lock-on homing rockets and super-tough planes, they can throw twice as much enemy flak and fighters at you while you're doing this, making for some truly crazy encounters.

Visually, Blazing Angels 2 is a moderately enhanced version of the original; nothing more, nothing less. There's even more going on at ground level now, the smoke effects have been vastly improved, explosions are bigger and brighter, and overall everything just feels a bit crisper. The most notable improvement is the colour palette, what would best be described as "bland” before is now a little bit more varied, moving away from drab greys and browns and into the realm of bright blues and verdant greens. It's still a little monochromatic in places, but it's a definite improvement over the original.

This is also true of the audio department: the plane sounds are perfectly serviceable, the music is competent but largely forgettable, but the single biggest improvement is the voice-acting. The original had some truly offensive characterisations of German and Japanese soldiers that really tarnished an otherwise competent debut – well, Ubisoft Romania have learnt from their past mistakes and really gone to lengths to make the dialogue and voice talent a little more believable. On its own it isn't really something that would stand out, but it speaks to the efforts the team has gone to to build on the solid foundation of their debut title.

This is especially true when you boot up the Xbox Live multiplayer and see the new options. Bound to be the most popular is the co-operative missions which allow you and a friend to team up against the A.I. in slightly modified versions of the actual campaign missions. Sadly points gained here can't be used to unlock upgrades, but this mode is still a lot of fun and hopefully any future sequels will expand this into a full-blown, squadron-based dedicated co-op campaign. Vanilla multiplayer is available in deathmatch and a sort of juggernaut mode, and while the lag is minimal and it plays pretty well, the lack of gamers booting the game up on Live is the biggest impediment to enjoying Blazing Angels 2 online.