Griffy's Strike Fighter: Project 1 Review

[Grifter]

I got the game from a "friend." The following is on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best. All settings on absolute realism or "hard"

Fun: 8. overall a fun game. Let me emphasize that this game can be addicting despite its shortcomings.

Realism: 8 Fm's seem pretty accurate. However, the glide slope reminds me a lot of mig alley, and I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. The enemy are tough and use appropriate tactics in combat.

Control: 5 to 6. The cockpit is not clickable with a mouse. You can only do the most rudimentary.

Interface: 5-6 Not the best, Not sure how to get a digital readout of my basic guages off the left corner of my screen when in flight. Takes away from realism. The game menus, especially the keyboard control editor is somewhat limited and cumbersome. Can't rig my hat switch to move the pilot's head the way I want. There is no reference points, even reflections, on the ceiling of the canopy. When you padlock a target, it's easy to lose your a0a and nose reference to target. The mission editor is rudimentary.

Graphics: 10. Some real eye candy, but lacks explosions when you drop bombs?

Special effect: 7. seems somewhat limited, but may be my settings. 800 by 600 on 32 bit?

Music: 1 Does the phrase "el cheese" hold any meaning for ya? Talk about harkening back to the commodore 64.


Overall a fun game that does not live up to the hype around it. Seems the game has the potential to do a lot more. A good vietnam era sim. I think Lomac will run circles around this sim nonetheless. Recommend you all buy it after the price comes down.

Griffy.

[Kamikazi]

I also have a copy of Strike Fighters, and I agree with your review. The eye candy is superb (although sluggish on my machine). The FM's feel ALOT like Mig Alley, and almost straight-up difficult to perform simple maneuvers. I like the choice of aircraft, as well as loadout setups. The theater is somewhat...lackluster I'll say, due to the lack of a realistic theater. A Vietnam theater would make this sim worth twice its current value. I also noticed the lack of explosions from dropped bombs Griffy. The menus...ah, what to do about the menus...that music gets QUITE annoying, especially since it resets itself at every menu. There also seems to be a LOT less aircraft than their should be in an active wartime theater. Your flight, maybe a couple cover flights, and the enemy flights are the only aircraft ever in the air, with very little action going on around you. I must admit the ground war battles are quite entertaining though. Also the lack of being able to change the view-pan function off of "reverse" is very annoying, and tricky to get used to.

I'm more of a hardcore simmer, so I give this one a strong 7.