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By Al Giovetti
Price:$45 - $50
Genre:flight simulator
Release:
Developer: Rowan Software
Lead Artist:
Programmer:
Producer:
Publisher: Empire Interactive
Phone: 800-216-9706, 301-916-9302, 301-916-9303
Website: www.empire-us.com, www.empire.co.uk
Requirements:Pentium, 166 Mhz, VESA 2.0 SVGA, 8X CD ROM drive, 6 MB hard disk space, 16 MB RAM, flightstick pro, rudder pedals

Flying Corps

History

There is and was a mystique about the first years of flying, and more especially, the years of flying in World War I. At first men went into the air with their wood and cloth ships to spy on enemy lines, to perform reconnaissance. Early on the pilots waved and saluted at each other with respect and even friendly curiosity.

Eventually someone got the idea of taking a gun aloft, and ever since that time the competition to carry more deadly arms into the air has never abated. Bigger and more accurate guns were eventually replaced with bigger and more accurate missiles that could shoot farther then you could see. Currently, the biggest gun, the Phoenix missile, is mounted on the F-14 and can hit a target as much as 150 miles away.

Rowan Software programmed the Flight of the Intruder in the early 1990's which came with the paperback book of the same name packaged in the game. Flight of the Intruder was the best, actually the only, Vietnam era simulation around at the time. Rowan has produced since that time Fighter Duel, Air Power, Navy Strike, and Operation: Overlord games that kept the company on the map, but did not sell well enough to be hits.

Company Line

Have you ever dreamed of a time when to fly an aircraft was to face your opponent at close quarters, relying on your wits and skill to survive? Flying Corps allows you a glimpse of that time... ...a time when your plane was made of canvas and wood, with only a 150 hp engine under the cowl. A time of honour, skill, guts, pluck, and heroes. There were no HUD's or radar-guided missiles in World War One. It was a pilot, his 90mph aircraft, his machine-gun, and his chums. Welcome to that time... Welcome to Flying Corps.

Game Play

Select which side you want to fly for: Brittish, German or American. You can fly six different fighter aircraft including the Albatros DIII, Fokker Triplane Dr.I, Nieuport 28, S.E.5a, Sopwith Camel, and Spad XIII. You will fly against these aircraft plus the Bristol fighter and arguably the greatest plane of this era, the Fokker DVII which was introduced in the last year of the war.

The flight models are accurate. The snap rolls are require you to pull back on the stick and jam the rudder to one side since regular rolls are so slow. There is very little power on each plane. Stalls cause the screen to shake and the plane to make shuddering sounds. The options include blackouts, bomb drag, slipstream, torque, wind and others making the difficulty matrix as complex as that seen in many American flight simulators, and eliminating one of the objections that many have when concerned with Eurpean sims. Stall and overspeed buffetting is very realistic.

You can play eight set missions and four campaigns: Flying Circus, Spring Offensive, Battle of Cambrai, and Hat in the Ring. In Flying Circus, You take the part of Lothar Richthofen and try to beat your brother at his own game. In Spring Offensive, You are a green Camel pilot who arrives at the front just before the Spring Offensive of 1918. You take on missions to stem the German advance. In the Battle of Cambrai, You become a "tank buster" in the first massed tank attack. In Hat in the Ring, you start as a new American pilot in the first all-American squadron in April 1918. Can you get promotion and lead your squadron to glory by November 1918?

The campaigns are played on a dynamic battlefield without the advantage of scripted missions, each mission is different. And while randomizing features make each campaign replayable, they lack the finesse and content of scripted missions. The number of aircraft and ground forces are randomized on the dynamic battlefield so that you cannot predict where or when they will strike and in what numbers, even after playing the game several times. There are eight instant action missions to practice with.

In some campaigns you are a flight leader and in others you are simply another war dog up for a good fight and following orders of your flight leader. With time you can move up from war dog to flight leader. The flight leader can determine formations, number of aircraft, pilots to fly with, routes, altitudes and other factors. A careless flight leader may find himself flying a desk in the rear, if he does not watch over the members of his squadron while building his kill tally.

A most important part of any flight simulator is the views and how they affect situational awareness. Typically Eurpean games have fewer views when compared with games like U.S. Navy Fighters and Falcon 3.0, and this game is no exception. The views include padlock, closest friendly, next closest friendly, and panning view, but inexplicably there is no rear view or side views. Empire expects to fix this oversight with a patch soon. Without the views necessary to put your head on a swivel or to do the "Linda Blair" you are severely limited in this game.

Plot

You take the role of an American, Brittish or two German pilots starting off the war in an air combat squadron.

Graphics

As in the real battles of World War I, navigation was by map and visual inspection of roads, rivers and other terrain features. It was necessary to follow roads to find your way around and the game is no different. The graphics are so good that the roads below can be made out, as can lakes, riveres and other terrain features that have been accurately reproduced from the WWI era maps, reconaissance photographs and other information gathered by spending time in the Somme area of France. The game comes with detailed maps to help you find your bearings by looking at the ground similar to Dynamix's Red Baron.

Another nice feature is the ability to paint your plane in a number of paint schemes from green with red tail to green and white stripes and others including up to 32,768 paint options, if you are promoted to Squadron Leader. Graphic resolutions start at 320x200 and go as high as 1024x768 where frame rate suffers considerably. A 640x480 pixel resolution results in unacceptable frame rates even in a P200 MMX system, since there is no support for 3D video cards. The game is more playable at 512x384 or 400x300 pixels of resolution.

Animation

Voice Actors

Music Score

Sound Effects

Utilities

The inclusion of an over 200 page paperback book by Flight Commander W. G. McMinnies entitled Practical Flying: Complete Course of Flying Instruction is a wonderful addition to the package. Also are included six double sided maps just like the ones used in WWI by actual pilots who flew with the maps sitting on their laps. The manual has some problems, and the control key legend omits the function of several important keys, including the rudder control keys.

Multi-player Features

Cheats, Hints, Walkthrough

Journalists

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Future

References