Hell in the Pacific Skies: Combat Flight Simulator 2 by Microsoft

Having enjoyed Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator - World War II Europe Series, it was only natural that I would want to try out Combat Flight Simulator 2 - Pacific Theater. Combat Flight Simulator is, after all, one heck of a World War II buff's dream games, so I figured its Pacific counterpart would be as good.

I have to admit that I am not the best of pilots. I still fly at the most basic of realism levels in Combat Flight Simulator (Europe), and that is enough of a challenge. Facing off German bombers and fighters with Rookie-level artificial intelligence is tough, and I still am not skilled enough to set my realism settings (flight models, ammo loads, enemy skill levels, and sometimes invincibility levels) to 100%.

Nevertheless, having completed the two Campaigns in the European theater, I recently decided to try Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 2: WWII Pacific Theater.

Although it is similar to its European-set predecessor, CFS2 is markedly different in many ways, both good and not-so-good.

First, the good:
Like CFS1, it immerses players into its WWII setting, using historically accurate settings and time-appropriate aircraft (you don't get Corsairs or Hellcats in early 1942, for instance). Unlike CFS1, however, the title scenes and end-of-mission screens are rendered in 1940s comic-book style art, which I find more fun than the European Theater game's more documentary-style narration. I like the "you are there" feel of a more story-oriented game premise that has comic book panel art and a narrative voiceover that reminds one of either personal war logs or pilots' letters to loved ones back home.

Although some missions begin and end on land bases, many involve take-offs and landings from aircraft carriers. This is perhaps the toughest non-combat skill sim pilots have to master, although there is a "cheat" command that allows players to end a mission without actually landing the plane. Purists who want to experience the drama and tension of a carrier can do so, and the program has a Landing Signals Officer to help them get back on the flight deck.

Also, players can fly for either the Americans or the Japanese, although thus far I have only been playing as an American. Because I have only been flying for seven "months" (in the game, not real life), I am still only an ensign, even though I have almost 25 aerial victories and several medals and commendations in my "jacket" (service record file).

The game's sound effects are pretty good, especially on a PC with a good sound card and a set of stereo speakers. There are piston engine roars, explosions, machine gun/cannon bursts, flak, rocket "hisses" and impact sounds as bullets hit your plane.

The game's basic flight control commands are nearly identical to the WWII Europe simulation, although here one has commands that affect artificial-intelligence wingmen. I have had a hard time getting the hang of this (more on the negatives later, I promise), but with trial and error I am learning.

The graphics, like in many computer advances, are improved from the older game. The scenery is a bit monotonous in some battles, but that's because the Pacific war took place over large expanses of ocean, with sometimes little or no land below to use for reference points. But when islands are depicted, they really look like islands. The jungles look lush, the beaches are almost vacation-worthy, and there are even variations in the blues of the ocean, going from aquamarine in shallow coral reefs to blue-gray out in the open seas.

The warships here look better than in CFS1, and the planes themselves are beautifully rendered. I particularly like the visuals when I hit a Japanese plane: if hit just right, Zeroes and Betty bombers have a tendency to catch fire easily. Microsoft's game designers render this quite nicely, and because the Japanese fighters are particularly difficult to hit in the first place, I just feel so rewarded when flames spurt out of a Zero's cowling and the Mitsubishi product spirals down with a trail of realistic smoke.

The flight models, I assume, are as realistic as game designers can make them. I've noticed that Japanese fighters are much harder to hit than the German planes from CFS1, and that even enemy planes with "pilots" and "gunners" at Rookie level are deadlier. I humbly admit that my realism settings are all at zero per cent; I tried one mission using settings similar to the ones I have on CFS1, and got shot down fairly easy.

The negative features are things that are missing in the game rather than how hard it is to play or the graphics.

Sorely missed is a hard-copy manual. CFS1 had one, and although it is somewhat intimidating to look at - many game players hate thick manuals - it is nice to know one can read up on how to fly and fight. Most of the manual of the European Theater game helps gamers understand and learn the context of the game, as well as providing the basics of flight and survival in combat without bogging down into boring technical detail. CFS2, on the other hand, comes in a smaller box and has all its instructions on Help files. That is fine for gamers who hate reading manuals or are naturally-born-flyers. But for me, a manual or even a keyboard command card would have been helpful: I still don't know, for instance, how to drop a bomb...which in a few missions has cost me valuable points. Maybe the "online manual" feature saves Microsoft a few bucks, but it's giving me fits.

Game play is also problematic for players without joysticks. CFS2 not only recommends a joystick, it requires one. If you lack one, buy one before buying this sim. True, it's almost a requirement for gamers to have peripherals for entertainment software, and to own a flight sim without a joystick is like owning a car without a radio; with some games you can "fly" using alternative keyboard commands, but this is only good for such sims as the old F-15 Strike Eagle series, which featured easy to master keyboard commands. But even those old games were far more fun with a joystick (the more advanced the better), and I've always tried to have at least a basic two-button one. However, when my eMachines had a malfunction and I had to have it replaced, the Microsoft Sidewinder joystick I had used with this game refused to work with the T2482 PC I am now using. (Yes, I tried Troubleshooting; there's no way to add the joystick -- the computer doesn't auto-detect it when I plug it into the USB input jack, and there is no Device Manager on my copy of Windows XP Home.)

The only other flaw I see is that it focuses on American/Japanese naval aviation rather than the multi-service aspect of the Pacific air war. True, CFS1 has a similarly small aircraft selection: only 3 different planes for each combatant air force (for a total of 9 aircraft), but I had hoped to fly a few Army Air Force fighters as well. So far I have seen only one Army plane that is player-flyable, and that's the P-38 Lightning. I would have liked to fly the P-40 (maybe in a Pearl Harbor introductory game) and the P-51D on escort duty over Japan. Still, I understand that game design often involves compromises to enable different computers with different capabilities to run this kind of software, so this gripe is not a major one that should deter you from buying this game.

Internet gamers can also play head-to-head against other human players via modem at www.zone.com

System Requirements: (Minimum)
300 MHz Pentium processor or 233 MHz with 3-D accelerator
Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or 2000
32 MB RAM
300 MB hard disk space
2x CD-ROM drive
SVGA video card with 4 MB video memory (3-D accelerator recommended)
Joystick or yoke (force-feedback joystick, yoke, and rudder pedals supported)
28.8 Kbps modem for multiplayer option