C'mon, You Always Wanted To Be Pappy Boyington, Didn't You?
Written: Oct 22 '00 (Updated Nov 08 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Spot-On Flight Model, The Best Graphics I've Seen In Any Computer Game, Immersive Story Line, Accessible To Newbies and Deep Enough To Keep Veteran Simmers Happy, Moderate System Requirements
Cons: Huge (1GB) Install, Could Use More Single Missions, Thin List Of Wingman Commands
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| Brian_Igo's Full Review: Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe For W... |
I was a kid who's favorite TV show was "Baa Baa Black Sheep" in the 70's. I built models of Pappy Boyington's Corsair and tuned in every week just to watch the airplanes. As I got older the interest grew into reading about the real air war in the Pacific. Aside from that TV show and the occasional replays of Midway on cable it has become an afterthought in our memories of what Stud Terkel so aptly called "The Last Good War". But the heroism and historical effort of these men was at least as great as the fabled RAF pilots in the Battle Of Britain. They operated from carriers and remote island bases, fighting over open ocean where failure not only meant parachuting into the sea, it could mean the loss of a ship to return to. At the beginning of the war, carriers and naval aviation was considered a supporting role to the large battleships that had ruled the oceans for more than three centuries. In just four years that was changed forever. And as they invented a new age they closed another. By war's end propeller driven fighters like the Vought F-4U had become so powerful and difficult to manage that they were as deadly to a new pilot as the enemy.
For all these reasons I had very high hopes-and expectations-for Combat Flight Simulator 2-WWII Pacific Theater, Microsoft's long-awaited simulation of the Pacific air war. This is not the definitive computer simulation of the Pacific air war, not yet at least, but CFS-2 excels in every area I hoped for and in one minor but important area, gave me something I never would have expected from a flight sim.
When I play a new flight sim my first mission is always a free flight to check out the flight model and see how the graphics stand up. Not surprisingly, that first flight was in a Corsair. And after careening down the runway like a drunk as my hands frantically worked the controls, it ended in a fireball maybe three seconds after take off.
I smiled. I'm not that much of a masochist but the airplane did everything it was supposed to do. With the flight model set at "Hard" (Realistic) all the old ulcer-makers found in a high-horsepower taildragger are present and accounted for. If you turn the setting down to "Easy" you won't have to deal with torque rolls, ground loops, stalls or spins, yet unlike most survey (multi-plane) sim games, each airplane has a distinctive personality. You have to fly them as the original designers and engineers intended to stay alive. The Corsair, for example, was tough to beat if one was coming down at you from above. But put into the slower, turn filled dogfights shown every week on Baa Baa Black Sheep, the Japanese Zero would eat it alive because it was much more agile. Some survey sims get broad distinctions like this right. But none is better than CFS-2 at breaking down the less obvious traits between similar aircraft like the Zero and the Grumman Wildcat. In addition to just reeking of authenticity, it multiplies the replay value because you try a mission with different aircraft.
The program comes with six different categories of missions: Quick Action, Single Mission, Campaign, Free Flight, Online Furballs and a menu of Training Missions. For the experienced pilots there is a lot to love. The Single Mission menu is aimed toward the history buffs with a short but sweet list of the most important and famous air missions in the Pacific theater. It's not comprehensive by any means, and I was disappointed to not see Midway, Pearl Harbor or the Marianas Turkey Shoot included. But all Microsoft sims have used open source code to encourage users to develop new planes and missions, and CFS-2 is no exception. Less than a week after the release there are already missions for Midway on the net, and the game ships with a full-featured mission editor to create your own that can be shared online.
Several users are also developing other flyable planes to bring into the game. (Check the CFS-2 message board at Combatsim.com to stay up on the latest offerings.) If you want to create your own Microsoft offers a free Software Developers Kit for creating planes at the CFS-2 website. I'm hoping someone takes advantage of this because one of the most glaring omissions in CFS-2 are torpedo bombers. While not as sexy or exciting as the seven fighters included in the game, they played a much greater part in deciding the war.
The career-style campaign mode takes you through the Solomon Island campaign in the South Pacific that was the point of the greatest air battles in the theater. There are 120 missions in the campaign and while its not a true dynamic campaign a' la Falcon 4.0, your performance will effect the path of the campaign and the resources you have to take into the next fight. In WWII restocking with planes and munitions wasn't a problem but losing experienced pilots was. If you lose a wingman in the CFS-2 campaign you might be shorthanded for the next two or three assignments and his replacement is most likely to be a rookie you will have to babysit to keep alive. It adds a level of strategy to the game but Microsoft makes it more difficult than it needs to be because the list of wingman commands is inexcuseably thin. On a positive note the AI is better than I've seen in any other sim, including European Air War.
You can play the single missions and campaign if you are new to sims and enjoy it, but Microsoft has done a great job of gearing the Quick Combat and Training Missions to newcomers. If you are new to sims this is the one game in recent memory I can recommend whole heartedly. The training missions are narrarated and cover the basics of flight and air combat. But in a different twist, when you practice dive bombing you are practicing against an enemy carrier that will shoot back. It makes it more difficult but better prepares you for the rest of the game than the traditional training program. The quick missions are as easy or difficult as you want them to be. Through the settings panel you can turn on the unlimited fuel, ammo and invulnerability cheats to learn the art of dogfighting without the frustration of being shot down every two minutes. But unlike other naval aviation sims, there isn't a cheat for getting back on the carrier. I don't know why Microsoft didn't include one. But since death by any reason will put you back to the beginning, I don't recommend taking on the campaign until you have your landings down.
A word about the graphics and damage modeling: Yowsa! These are, hands-down, the best graphics I've seen on any video game-period. The level of detail is simply amazing when you are just cruising along. (But shame on Microsoft for not giving more external views to enjoy them...) And when you take some damage your plane shows it in wonderful detail. After a dive bombing attack my jaw hit the floor when I saw the holes ripped in my fuselage from flack attacks. That was after feeling them hit during the run. When you get hit with flack (which is an artillery round set to explode at an altitude instead of when striking the ground) the plane jerks violently. If it takes out an aileron or a good chunk of your rudder it will be a fight just to keep the plane in the air. This is the first flight sim I've played where I wished I had a force feedback stick. The level of immersion is that good. Microsoft has also done this without requiring a supercharged system to play it. With my midlevel system I get smooth gameplay at 1024x768 even with dozens of planes in the air. (And unlike Crimson Skies there isn't a bug to be found.)
Finally, CFS-2 is loaded with little details that make my heart sing. When playing the Japanese side the radio chatter is in actual Japanese, with English text atop the screen. In a dogfight wingmen do not blindly obey your commands, and they make mistakes you would expect in the fog of war. And the carriers move. Instead of being static objects they steam away from you when you are coming in for a landing and when you get close you can see the deck pitching in the waves.
And there is the feature I didn't expect. The cut scenes between missions are done in a comic book style, as is the opening movie. At first I thought it was cute and pleasantly different from the Hollywood style dramatics normally found in flight sims. But as I got into the game I discovered these were taking me deeper into the world these men experienced than any other game I've played. They didn't go to war as hardened characters from a bad movie, they were only months removed from the exhuberence and innocence of youth. The game does an outstanding job of showing the life they lived in combat, but it is the cut scenes and the excellent historical passages in the manual that fill out the picture of who they were. It is a reminder to remember and honor both.
Combat Flight Simulator-2 is by far the best flight sim game of 2000, and is challenged only by the original Jane's Longbow and Flanker 2.0 for being my all-time favorite. It has the depth and realism to satisfy hardcore simmers while being greatly accessible to those playing their first flight game, while the immersive storyline and outstanding graphics make the game more enjoyable for both groups.
Put this one on your list. It's a keeper.
Recommended:
Yes
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