Description Strike Fighters is a multi-faceted flight-simulation game that features one of the most versatile combat aircraft of all time – the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. Take command of a thundering jet fighter and engage in aerial dogfight with enemy fighters while seeking and destroying ground targets. Set in the 1960s, the intense air battles involve visceral, in-your-face gunfights, where outmaneuvering your opponents remains the key to victory and survival.
Summary: This simulation has taken a real hammering, some of it justified, some not. I`m reviewing the European release "fully updated" as it says on the box, it has a lot of the things that were missing even on the post-walmart release in the US. This sim was designed by the guy who gave us European Air War probably the most modded sim of all time, this game clearly is going the same way, the fact that the Third Wire Strike Fighters official site has weekly updated links to all the mod sites is a clue as to who this game is really aimed at. Already there are numerous skins, terrains and extra aircraft to add and some are already working on carrier based ops and campaigns.
Summary: I bought the UK - 'just flight' version of Strike Fighters, which comes with the first patch included. I'm a long term fan of combat flight-sims and tend to buy all the new titles as they're released. A lot of other reviews have compared this to microsofts CFS games and the IL2 games.. which is a little unfair as its not really set in the same era. It might be more useful to compare with something like Flanker 2.0 or Falcon 4.0, but it doesn't feel anything like those titles either. In short, strike fighters fills a niche in the simming market, being set in a fictional conflict in the 60's, a time when jets were a new thing and missiles were around, but were so unrealiable the good ol' gun was still the fighter pilots main weapon of choice. What you end up with is a game with all the 'seat of the pants' excitement of a WWII simulator, but with aircraft capable of mach 2, which as you can imagine is a hell of a rush. Unfortunately, its not without its shortcomings, many can be overlooked simply because playing the game is such goddam good fun.
Summary: Wow has this era ever been ignored. We get plenty of WW2 and modern combat sims, but the 1950's and 60's tend to be left in the dust. SFP-1 rather nicely creates the primitive conditions of Viet Nam era aviation in spite of a few bugs and missing features. But those not corrected by the first patch are forgivable.
What a lot of people don't realize about this sim and what the box doesn't say is that it's based on a COMIC BOOK. That's right, SFP-1 is a rather obscure comic book set in a fictional middleeastern country in the 1960's about a mercnary squadron trying to earn a buck on a war. But just put that aside, the lack of a true Vietnam campaign was well explained and forgivable. I'd rather not fly under so strict an ROE either.
What really makes this game for me is the open architecture. EVERYTHING can be changed or modded. Already somone has created a Europe map, most of the non-flyables have been made so by some real 3rd party talent. Other aircraft like the F-105 and the F-86 are also available as 3rd party add-ons. Even a 3rd party carrier campaign aboard the USS Midway is in the works. Since you can choose the paint scheme of your aircraft, skin factories have been churning out some incredible work. The modability of this sim is exceeded only by the MS flight sim titles. If you're one of those who loves flight sims and mods, this is for you.
There are a few things still in need of fixing. Some important key commands don't always work. For instance, the radar aquisition bug. But that's pretty easy to get around using the boresight radar mode or acquiring a target visually.
Aircraft back then didn't have a projected heads-up display as we would understand it, so the lack of a HUD ladder and other such functions is forgivable, but the feature needs to make an appearance before more modern aircraft are added in. I think that this, too, could be added in by a third party, but I'm not sure.
One more thing. The manual is paltry and underdetailed. If they anted to save room in the box, they could have given us one of those stupid PDF files and let us spend our own paper, but this game needs training missions for the universe of stuff not covered in the manual.
Rating Reviewed by: Robert Van Schepdael(Unregistered User)
Review Date March 18, 2003
Overall Rating 5 of 5
Review NaN of 13
, from Winnipeg,MB,Canada
Price Paid:
$22.00
from Electronique Boutique
Summary: I HAVE played and owned every flight sim since 1991 (DID, Janes, EA, Microprose, microsoft, Lucas Films) and feel this is the most realistic and exiting game I have yet played. Course I just bought it in 2003 so I put the patch in first. Yet to play IL-2 yet though.
Summary: Well I have read your reviews and felt compelled to add my own thoughts. I have been flight simming for almost 2 years. FS2000, CFS,CFS2,IL-2, WW2 Fighters, and Fighters Anthology. Strike Fighters is a waste of money in its current state. CTD's were numerous, multiplayer needs a lot of work, and this is after the long awaited patch. One reviewer compared it to IL-2 and said it was equal, I rather doubt that. I would suggest they scrap the project, I deleted it off my system after a couple days of disappointments in multiplay. Start from scratch and build us a true Vietnam era sim, most of the aircraft in SFP-1 participated in SEA and for us old farts it might give us a chance to really win the damn war!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyway, dont spend your money on SFP-1 in its current state.
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