Combat Flight Simulator 2 (PC Game Review)

During the Second World War (1939 - 1945), there were many battles whose importance would only be fully understood later. These battles became famous because of - as expected - dark facts, such as a high number of fatalities, strategic relevance, new technology involved, and acts of heroism.

The Pacific War is one of those "special" conflicts inside WW2. USA versus Japan: battle of Midway; Pearl Harbor; Kamikazes; and nuclear power... These expressions are, or were in the first place, all about the Pacific War.

Microsoft is a strong name on the flight simulators software scene (and elsewhere, sure :)). The Seattle giant now offers two monster products for sim aficionados: "Flight Simulator", for those into no-weapons flying; and "Combat Flight Simulator" (CFS), for those into must-fire-at-something flying.

This article is my opinion of CFS2, until now. In CFS2, you fly planes during the Pacific War. You can be american or japanese, but I haven't but tried the american side.

When flying for the USA, you have a choice of 3 planes: the A6M2 Zero, the F4F-4 Wildcat, and the P-38F Lightning.

The A6M2 Zero is light and agile, but can't carry much weapons and so it won't be much effective against ground targets and fights where you are easily outnumbered.

The F4F-4 Wildcat is another single engine bird, a bit more robust than the Zero, and increased firepower.

But if you are after engine redundancy, more power, safer rides, slower maneuvers, and the ability to carry heavy bombs and / or rockets, then you must try the P-38F. I really can't choose other but this plane!

What's the drawback with the P-38F? Answer: its weight and slower response, though it is also the fastest gear on airspeed. The weight gets very relevant when taking off from the Enterprise CV-6, a carrier with a wood track which makes your yoke vibrate as you've never experienced before!

I read in PC-GAMER UK that the hardest thing in CFS2 was landing - "the missions are fairly easy"... Well, they surely are the greatest gamers in this world!!! I have tried hard and never managed to fully achieve the first mission's goals!

Why can't I succeed? Am I that bad? I don't think so. I am playing with 100% realism settings, and if the PC GAMER UK reviewer really did that well, then or he is not-human, or he is not playing with full realism.

In fact, the hardest bit is taking off with ANY plane! Using the light F4F-4 is nightmarish, as the plane easily stalls on low speed, making me crash 4 out 5 attempts!! On the other hand, the P-38F is much more stable, but is delicate to lift off, requiring plenty of speed, averaging as difficult to airborne as all the others.

Because of these difficulties, I learned an awkward strategy: do a 180 turn in the deck, and slowly drive until the very end of the carrier, then 180 again and throttle it 100%, with flaps half way down. This should give you the highest possible speed when leaving the boat. Once in the air, press 'G' to bring the landing gear up => AND <= push the yoke GENTLY in your direction in successive calls, eg push, push, push... Don't push it all on a single move - do several gentle pushes. This should do it.

When finally flying and on-route to the mission goals, you'll easily realize that there is a strong boredom potential, as the shortest trips range in the 200 miles distance, meaning ~ 1 hour of flight over Pacific waters... Fortunately, the simulator allows you to press 'X' and go straight to what matters. Do it.

In the first mission, "what matters" is a small island where you must command a flight squadron to destroy at least 2 ground targets; once the deed is done, get back to the Enterprise and land safely.

Destroy ground targets? To get back? And to land safely? Yes, it will be hard - very, very hard! When playing with full realism, forget all you read in magazines stating "the hard bit is just landing", because even if you manage to survive the hundreds of bullets you'll be welcomed with; and even if you do manage to destroy something on ground; then you'll understand that FUEL might not be enough to bring the plane back home...

Currently, I can achieve a 50% success on the first mission, by destroying the ground targets, using the P-38F and carrying a pair of "medium bombs". However, because bombs are quite heavy and take the place of the extra fuel, I won't be able to get back home.

If I take the extra fuel and forget the bombs, then I won't manage to destroy targets with just the machine-gun's bullets.

I believe the "secret" is on taking the extra fuel, forgetting the bombs, but loading "rockets" which aren't very effective, but might do the job, though I never managed to.

Landing is cool and easier than what happened before. There is a fellow who waves flags telling you that your are too high, too fast and so on, so you can correct the plane according to that.

In CFS2 you can't change the fate of history (yes, the american will win), but you can affect the balance of power between battles.

Graphics are very detailed; sound is great; and I manage over 35 fps with a Voodoo 5500 AGP doing 2 x FSAA, on Windows 2000. The game itself is very hard and that might cut the fun for most people. Crimson Skies is much more enjoyable, but it won't teach you the History CFS2 does - this is interactive learning at a level you've never seen before.

If you are into REAL simulation, go for it! If you want easy firing, forget it. The day I get the grips with the american side, I'll re-review the game, from a japanese PoV :).