[PseudoNim] This one's been long waited for.
Whenever DiD does something, they do it right.
Remember the flock of F22 sims that came out just
about at the same time a while back? F22:
Lightning II, F22 - Raptor, iF-22 and more got
released overnight, and they all, put plainly,
sucked. DiD never hurried, and released F22: ADF
a while later, and man oh man was it worth the
wait. It was by far the most realistic, most
authentic F22 sim at that time, and even today, for
that matter. And now comes the long-awaited F22:
Total Air War.
[TraderX] For this review we're attempting a
different approach. Rather than having two or
three reviews all about the same thing, I will
focusing on PseudoNim's main review and giving
my opinions on the points he makes. At the end,
feel free to e-mail us if you prefer this style of
review or our regular style. To start things off, I
must agree with Pseudo where he makes his point
that DiD has definitely achieved excellence with
their latest title. Total Air War takes flight sims to
new heights in realism, and authenticity. It seems
they always pay extra attention to how the flight
sim feels to the end user, and it definitely paid
off this time around.
[PseudoNim] Total Air War takes off where F22:
ADF left off, adding crucial features such as, most
importantly, dynamic campaigns. What's a
dynamic campaign? That's a campaign that, rather
being scripted and force you to, say, successfully
complete every mission, tracks your results
instead and adjusts enemy activity accordingly.
Lost a mission? You might find yourself facing
extra-heavy forces at that last military plant you
didn't bomb. Missed a SAM? Watch your teammate
go flaming down in, uh, flames, blaming
irresponsibility and ignorance on the part of the
planners. Or maybe he just sucked and never
looked at the radar. Whatever, the point is you get
an environment with (according to DiD, I'd never
be crazy enough to count - give me my target wing
of Migs and a couple bunkers and SAM sites and I'll
be happy) over 22,000 targets, 5,000 named cities
and towns (didn't know that many existed, wonder
if they invented some for the goodness of the
scenario - Pseudoville? Has a nice ring to it,
wouldn't you agree?); 300 airfields, with correct
runways, control towers, accompanying buildings,
and so forth. And to top it off, 4.5 million square
kilometers of land mass are covered in the game,
spanning eight countries, for ultimate realism.
(Now I know what those spy satellites
must've been doing after the Cold War. Too bad
they never got hold of the Russian ones, as the
quality of the terrain textures might've been a tad
better if they did).
[TraderX] The dynamic campaign system they have
created for this title truly surpasses any campaign
system seen in simulators today. I mean, when
you've got so much land to discover, so many
enemies to destroy and most importantly, so many
decisions to make, the replay value of this game is
heightened one hundred fold. I was very impressed
with the way they created the outcome based
actions, as Pseudo described, one decision you
make could easily affect the entire plot and
objectives of your campaign. By doing this it not
only increases the replay value, but it actually
makes the game fun as opposed to many linear
flight simulators that keep you heading in one
direction throughout the game.
[PseudoNim] The training missions are very
well-done in the game. There's a quick key
summary right before the mission for the
obsessive-compulsive fast-actioners who get
seasick looking at a manual or a Readme file (is
that at all possible?). It helps reading the keylist
though, as some advanced functions, such as
thrust vectoring, are never taught in flight school.
The training missions span everything from takeoff
and landing to intermediate weapons training to
AWACS control (yes, you can play the role of
Cmdr. Whoever and play God, i.e. look over the
battlefield and direct fleet movements, and are
able to jump into any plane and take on the action,
if you see them doing too badly). There are also
dogfighting lessons, which are very useful if you
intend to look like you can fly in multiplayer. The
enemy AI is quite good in dogfights, but there are
certain patterns to the way it flies, especially on
undermatched planes - like the Mig-31 or 29 for
example, which have inferior handling to the F22.
Basically, once you get on someone's tail you just
stay there and circle around pounding him from
the machine gun. I could easily take on two Migs
and come out with but a scratch or two, and all
that due to my sheer incompetence. However,
fighting an F22 was hard. Much harder than two
Mig-29s, in fact - the computer controls the plane
REALLY well. However, I therein I found another AI
defect, or, perhaps, I was too good for it, which I
doubt: when I did my beloved
I-am-two-meters-above-the-ground-and-you-suck-t
oo-much-to-touch-me trick, the PC F22 ran into
the ground. Go figure, I'd never expect that.
[TraderX] It's true that the training missions are
outstanding in every way, and I definitely
recommend completing them before you start the
campaign (for rookies or veterans). Pseudo
mentioned that you can control the AWACS, but
he forgot that you can also be a Tactical Mission
Planner, Weapons Officer, AWACS Commander or
Combat Pilot during the actual game, providing
MANY modes of play. Once you have a good
enough feel for the flight systems and control, you
are ready to take off. Yes, like most simulators
there's a whole whack of keys (about every key on
the keyboard does something, and then holding
shift gives you another 101 options, and so on... ).
Pseudo was very keen in discovering the A.I flaws,
it was not until I did the dog fight training for a
second time that I discovered his F22 trick.
Despite the realism, the A.I does have a few flaws
that I can understand the programmers easily overlooking.
Perhaps their intention of the Mig's flying
in circles was to simulate a more realistic pilot,
because that method is very effective for evading
missles (but not cannons, as I learned in
multiplayer with Pseudo :).
[PseudoNim] The gameplay is fun. Major fun. The
physics engine is completely realistic, with
redouts, blackouts, stalls, and all the other fun
things you can do when you don't feel the
g-effects. It was such a great change from Mig-29
that I reviewed a few days back I almost crashed a
few times. Among some of the coolest features in
the game are thrust vectoring, which tilts the
exhaust nozzles up or down slightly, thereby
increasing your pitch rate, which can be very
useful in tight turns. Also cool is the gearless
landing, which I, being a complete landing freak,
love to do every once so often. The idea of it
basically is that if your gear is damaged you
should be able to land an F22 by landing it on the
belly which, if the speed is right, works like a
charm. Looks cool, too. The ego feels better
afterwards, too.
[TraderX] Perfect gameplay is probably the key
word here (if you exclude the minor A.I defects). I
loved the way the plane physics were done as well,
it truly gives you the feeling that you are
actually sitting in the plane. Especially if you have
equipped yourself with a proper weapon (joystick,
which I assume most flight sim fans DO own), you
can get caught up in this game for hours. You'll be
pleased to know that Time-compression is readily
available (Shift + T), so don't sit there for 6 hours
saying "Where the f**k are the enemies dude?!".
Unfortunately they only present you with the
option of doubling your time compression (if I
recall, JSF let you multiply it six times), never the
less it's still fun to watch the scenery below in one
of the 20+ views as you approach your next way
point.
[PseudoNim] The graphics in the game are decent.
This is not Novalogic's eyecandy, and DiD is
usually known for making realistic sims that lack
just a tad on the graphics side. It's
understandable, considering the only company
who manages to swing great realism AND great
graphics is Jane's, which I'm sure is to DiD in size
as a Space Shuttle is to a model plane. Or
something. In any case, the ground textures are all
right, but the plane detail is where the game shines
- assuming (rightly I'd say) that what you'll be
seeing the most often is your plane, DiD did
(pardon the pun) a great job on the plane, up to
the camouflage colors. The interior is great, too -
when in virtual cockpit mode, you can turn your
'head' around and look on different sides of the
plane, with the corresponding lens flares and
reflections in the canopy glass. What's weird is
that you can turn your head about 180° around -
feels unnatural and makes you want to turn back
fast 'cause you feel like you're doing something
you shouldn't be. A neat gadget is also one where
you can hit 'Z' to switch to padlock view where
your pilot stares in the direction of the currently
targeted object, so that you get a decent idea of
where you should turn. Again, problem is, he
sometimes looks in directions that ... let's just say
they're a bit off-axis.
[TraderX] I agree with Pseudo to the extent of
half-decent graphics, but if you take a look at some
of the screenshots when they are motionless, it
seems to look a lot better than when you're
actually flying (for some odd undiscovered
reason). I guess it was because of all the texture
glitches I noticed while running the game @ an
800x600 resolution. Some of these glitches include
overlapping textures, ripped textures, and
polygons that "go-through" each other (a problem
seen in almost every 3D game). Despite the fact,
you'll be pleased to know that the game fully
supports Direct3D, and seemed to work fine with
Direct X 5 and 6.
[PseudoNim] Multiplayer is a blast. But then again,
isn't any game where you can show your friends
how good you are at Immelmans? Or landings? Or
kicking their ass in dogfights? Or how "ereetly"
you can crash into the neighboring mountain?
Wait, scratch the last one. Some of the modes
available include up to 8-player coop and
deathmatch. Too bad there's no Capture the Flag
or Jailbreak. Actually, CTF would be fun if you had
to land on an enemy base and drive around looking
for a flag... then take off and get shot down by a
clever camper with a armed-and-ready AIM120...
then drop the flag in the desert... hmm. Then you
stop dreaming and get on with life.
[TraderX] The multiplayer is without a doubt
enjoyable, and during an internet match up with
Pseudo, we both experienced very little lag using
56k modems. More multiplayer variants would have
been nice, currently the coop and deathmatch
should last quite a while though. Maybe DiD has
some variants up their sleeves, who knows, but I
honestly think most of their attention was paid to
the campaigns rather than multiplayer. Another
possibility is they could be focusing on multiplayer
for a future release, with internet gaming on the
rise, anything's possible right now...
[PseudoNim] And last, but not least, the manual: a
336 page monster awaits you right out of the box,
subduing you and squashing your hopes of an
evening of gameplay - you're taught everything,
from what the Bernoulli effect is up to whatever
the complicated stuff is, I never read these things. I
got bored about twenty pages through the AH-64D
Longbow manual, except for the pretty pictures.
Sort of helps I know some of these things, though
- objectively speaking, it's a great resource. And
DiD enlisted the aid of two air force vets (both
retired - I wonder why no active-duty personnel writes
books? They must be playing too many games,
yeah, that must be it. *Cough* I think I'll go look
outside now, see if anyone's following my car. No,
they're not after me. Not yet, anyway.) The two
great Knights of the um, Map table are Colonel
Rich Reynolds (retd.) ex NATO Air War Planner
and AWACS specialist and Major Dave "Pooch"
Putze, ex F-18 Hornet pilot. There is also a
reeeeally long section about the actual plane,
written by the renowned "World Air Power
Journal".
[TraderX] The manual may provide headaches for
some, but I know a lot of "freaks" who would
probably sit down and read through the entire
thing. Just remember, there is something called a
PAUSE button (oddly enough, its "P" on the
keyboard), so if you run into trouble just pause the
game and look up the topic you require help on.
(Duh)
[PseudoNim] Overall, all I have to say is 'DiD does
it again.' The EF2000, then F22: ADF, now Total Air
War... they just keep churning out great sims. So
what if the graphics suffer a bit, Su-27 Flanker had
flat-shaded polygons. 'Graphics don't make the
game', once said a wise man - and one can't be
more right than that. Kudos, DiD. 'Wolf Lead,
Splash One.'
[TraderX] I know graphics don't make the game,
but perhaps if someone at DiD is reading this, you
know what to focus on for the next game. You could say playing this game was
an experience of the classics (from DiD) such as EF2000 and
F22:ADF in a different form. Overall
they have done and excellent job on this sim, and
true fans will appreciate what they have created for
us.
Graphics: 15 / 20
Sound: 15 / 15
Gameplay: 30 / 30
Fun Factor: 20 / 20
Multiplayer Play: 5 / 5
Overall Impression: 10 / 10
Overall Rating: 95 / 100