By: Dynamix
Copyright (c) 1992 Lee Perkins
What started out as a "milk run" had just turned into a nightmare. Two of the B-25s had been chewed to pieces, and the other six were heading for the deck, with a swarm of Ki-61 Tonys hot on their tails. I followed, hoping to hell that my wingman was watching, as my radio had caught a slug when they first jumped us!
Closing in on the first bandit, I looked back to "check my six" for further company, just in time to see a pair of Zeros dropping out of the patchy cloud cover, guns blazing. My Hellcat took a few more holes as I jinked to port, diving into a handy cloud. Once hidden, I pulled the stick back sharply, throwing the plane into an Immelmann... The Hellcat came back scratching!
Combat flight simulations come and go. It takes a lot to make me sit up and take notice of a genre that has been coded ad nauseum, and I believe that I've seen just about everything that programmers could throw at the public. Aside from those nifty military simulators, there are very few that arouse any degree of gee-whiz enthusiasm, for any number of reasons.
Naturally, the standard home PC imposes some severe restraints on any simulation. The computations required for any degree of realism are staggering, as any events depicted are in real-time. Any hesitation in graphic display times detracts from the impact of the product, resulting in Mach Two aircraft that fly like hot-air balloons...Not very convincing, I must say!
This is not the case with Aces of the Pacific, I am happy to say. Granted, I was a little put out by the notion of having to find a 386-SX or better to run it on, until I considered the issues at stake. It is apparent that Dynamix wanted to code this simulation to a high standard to begin with, rather than face the problems of getting realistic effects from the older and slower PCs. Even I will grudgingly concede to their wisdom on this point.
In the time that I spent with Aces prior to writing, I was roused from my lethargy concerning flight-sims. The manual alone is worth a couple of dozen Victory rolls, as it is spiral-bound, and therefore a boon to "Kneecap Navigators" like me. The information inside is arranged in a logical manner, broken into historical overview, reference and gameplay. The appendix lists a glossary and an impressive bibliography, if only to show how well this sim has been researched... Before I begin singing the praise of this manual overmuch, I'd best get into the actual simulation pronto!
The first missions should be against something that doesn't shoot back! There are five basic skills to master, assuming that you are able to keep your crate airborne. Gunnery, dive-bombing, torpedo-bombing, ground attack and carrier landings are best practiced where there is a distinct lack of flying lead. Once these skills are mastered, it is time to run the gauntlet with higher stakes. Aces allows the player to set a number of reality level options, such as enemy skill, number of enemy, cloud cover, aircraft types and so on.
If the player has selected a Career, as opposed to single missions, the scenarios will be selected from famous campaigns. At this stage, you may decide to fly as either a Japanese or American pilot. This takes on a greater significance at higher skill levels, as the performance of certain types of aircraft become quite noticeable. I haven't explored this area fully, as my piloting skills are still quite ordinary, and I tend to get shot to pieces at "expert" levels.
My all-time favourite feature is the mission recorder. This allows the pilot to review the flight through a VCR setup, changing camera viewpoints and even the outcome of the mission. It may seem like cheating on one hand, but the feature allows for allows for the honest recording of any truly astonishing feats of aerial combat; yours to brag about at leisure!
As discussed before, graphics can make or break a simulation. The graphics are a little too jagged in places, but the addition of digitised actors more than makes up for that. The aircraft are responsive, within the limitations of the PC running the show. The action can get pretty fast and furious at times, in spite of this...Any simulation that can give me a pair of sweaty palms has got my thumbs-up seal of approval!
Ozisoft have given me eight Aces of the Pacific to deal out, and these can be won by the first eight 386-plus jockeys to answer these four questions correctly:
Reviewed on: PC 486 (minimum of 2Mb RAM required)
Recommended retail price: $79.95 Challenge: 85% Sound: 70% Graphics: 75% Documentation: 100% Kettle factor: 6 ****** Overall comment: Tora! Tora! Tora!Software supplied by: Ozisoft Pty. Ltd.