F-16 Combat Pilot
| Developer: Black Box | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Digital Integration | Sound: |
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| Year: 1989 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Flight simulation | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 2 by modem | Rating: |
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An action-oriented simulator (as the name suggests), but still serious, realistic, and totally incomprehensible to a layperson like me…
The landscapes seem a bit barren, though I suppose that was necessary to maintain an acceptable game speed, but they made up for it with the ridiculously detailed cockpit (you’ll need a manual just to make sense of the flight instruments).
It’s got all the usual specs for the genre: countless information screens about the aircraft and equipment, camera angle choices (only from inside the cockpit), endless keyboard shortcuts; but also some unexpected touches, like the customisable dashboard, the option (gimmick) to play with two joysticks, and night flying, complete with its black-and-green interface (infrared vision).
Kudos to the training mode, which allows you to gently get familiar with the basics of piloting; a nice touch, but completely ineffective in my case.
After this phase, you’re tasked with completing five simple missions to practice the main duties of an F-16 pilot (air combat, bombing, reconnaissance…), and then comes the actual campaign, where you’ll command an entire squadron.
From what I’ve read, the campaign requires a certain degree of planning that really engages the player. You’ll be in charge of managing the strategic aspects and making decisions about objectives and resources. During missions, you control any of the pilots, and switch … once one of them is broken.
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