Review NaN of 4
, from Seoul, KoreaSummary:
Well, this is a game that just feels like it was half done. This would have been a pretty impressive alpha or even early beta but without some of the main things needed to give this game replayability in single player, I cannot find this a high rating.Grapghics: Ok, but not outstanding. Some things do impress me. Control surfaces move (a given in flight sims anymore), and the aircraft appear visually pleasing. Watching your wheel bounce off and roll away is interesting. The tracers (with their little smoke trails) probably are the most realistic yet seen in a WW2 sim. It really looks like gun camera footage from WW2. Other nice touches include individual component modeling of aircraft parts. Blow a wing off a FW190 and it seperates where it should.
Ground textures are passable, but not exciting. There are few trees (ok for North Africa, but not for Europe or England). There is little as far as ground objects, some are there, but you have to hunt. In fact, it reminds me of a 1994 game (1942 Gold) in looks and in ground objects. This is not a complement to a 1999 game. In comparison to European Air War, the ground is sparce.Sound: Sounds are nicely done but don't over-impress me. The in flight music is irritating but you can turn it off. It is OK as an option but having music playing while flying can be a distraction and makes the game feel arcady.Gameplay: This is where the game slips up. There are a multitude of problems with the game. As hard as I tried, with full realism set, I could not get the planes to stall or spin. I am sorry, but I should not be able to point a Typhoon straight up like an F-15. The real plane would bleed energy so fast it would stall in less than five seconds and stall. I performed all kinds of aerial acrobatics in this game without any problems.
Speaking of planes, where are they. Only the FW190 and Me262 as german fighters? Where is the Bf109? This is the most produced fighter of WW2 and it isn't represented in a European based flight sim? That is an inexcusable error in this game. Other omissions include such famous planes as the P-47 or the P-40. Any game with the Tunis set needs planes like the P-40, B-25, Bf 109f, and any italian aircraft used during the war. This game supposedly will have the ability to import other aircraft, like Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator. It had better, it needs more than a couple of fighters for each country. There are ten missions included in the game. Period, ten missions. You can fly them from a different sides for a total of 30 but there is very little by way of replayability. There is NO campaign. For the life of me I cannot understand why no one would at least put a quick scripted campain into the game. There is a good mission editor with the game so I am sure there will be campaigns added by third parties but for 40 bucks they could have at least tried something. I got hooked on EAW's immersiveness. Seeing 70 to 80 planes fighting at one time, with trains running underneath, and vehicles running for cover, really made me feel like there was a war going on. This forgave the less than state of art graphics of the game (probably necessary to maintain the whole immersion-no computer could maintain frame rates with that many planes with the latest graphic hog sims out there). In FS:SDOE, the planes are sparce (I escorted three B-17s against three FW190's, not too impressive) and you just don't get the feeling you are in a big war. This is OK for some, but not for me. Multiplayer is supposed to be fantastic. I haven't tried it yet but people I know swear by it. This, and maybe a patch or two, and some new add on aircraft, may help this game. Until then, wait until it hits the bargain bin before you pick it up.Tom Cofield Report this review >>
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