Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War - Iron Cross

This is ambitious offering is a truly a top-of-the-line flight simulator. It is at least two generations ahead of anything Microsoft has produced. It is simply stunning.

It is simply the most accurate historical recreation of World War One air combat that exists, and is very close to the most accurate that can be imagined.

However, there are some drawbacks.

Pros:

The aircraft are absolutely gorgeous, with an extreme attention paid to every detail. Each aircraft seems truly unique and individually valuable. The terrain and clouds are quite good and there are a variety of detailed ground objects.

The flight model is very high-fidelity. The sense of flying an aircraft is intimately there and you can almost feel the aerodynamic forces as the air moves over the plane. Even if you don't want to dogfight it is worth it just to fly. Each aircraft handles differently and details such as rate of climb and diving speed that were more important in WWI than any other time period are present. Any movements on the plane's will create drag and cause it to lose speed, making air combat more like a game of chess than anything else.

The damage model is also fantastic. Parts of the aircraft can bend as a result of damage. An aircraft that has lost a wing will gradually pick up speed and crumple like a butterfly as bits are torn off by the airstream. The internal structure of the aircraft are modelled and a bullet to a spare or the pilot can take out an aircraft, while a hundred bullets through the fabric will have no effect - this leads to a lot of different situations. The artificial intelligence is quite strong in some areas and can manage energy states to end up higher or faster than the player. The AI also exploits dives and shows considerable potential for future development. The two-seat observation aircraft can either user their gunners to defend themselves or use their fixed guns to attack the player!

As of the time of writing the product is still in development, with future versions and patches planned. In addition, it is possible to buy new aircraft as they are added. This, combined with the strong mission editor that comes with the game ensures hundreds of hours of gameplay.

After the product is activated you can use it offline for as long as you want (unlike the original release). The new release (Iron Cross Edition) also comes with a greater variety of aircraft and features.

Cons:

It has stiff system requirements and is detailed enough that only a few aircraft can be in the air at one time. These system requirements tend to climb as new patches are released (there isn't a roll back capability - so you can't stay with earlier versions).

It is extremely strongly recommend to have a 3d (twisting) joystick or rudder pedals. The padlock system is also a bit primitive and there aren't good visual warnings for stalls or overspeeds (In other words it is easy to fly too slow or too fast). This means it is much easier to use with a force feedback joystick and a head tracking setup such as free-track or track-IR both overcome these issues. The game is still very playable without this equipment - just a bit harder to handle.

The End User Licensing Agreement is one of the worst I've seen. The game cannot be resold and is permanently tied to whatever e-mail address which is used to register it. I believe it even says that the services can be terminated at any time. However, I've talked to the owner of the company and some of the employees and they seem fairly nice. But essentially your buyer's rights are worse than those of a serf and you're relying on the good will and gentlemanliness of your software's owner (which doesn't happen to be you). The campaigns also require a periodic internet connection (although 3rd party campaigns and the single missions do not).

At the time of writing the AI sometimes gets stuck using a shallow turn as an evasive maneuver - which makes them very easy to shoot down. The more skilled AI sometimes dive into the ground while attacking the player. In addition, the AI is much better with some aircraft than others. After a while the AI can seem repetitive. The modelling of bullet dispersion is also very simplified. However, this may all change as development continues.

In conclusion:

As a serious flight simulator it may take some patience to learn. This is a game about beauty, about calculating turns, not about holding down a trigger and blasting everything in sight. It isn't so much the greater challenge as the different orientation that may turn some people away. However, for those like Gerard Manley Hopkins, it will be bliss:

"I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!"

Lets face it the only thing computers are really good at are manipulating pixels... whether in an image or as in this case - a game.

Yes, the load times are a pain, the (still) limited number of planes (bombers/recon.) are a minus and little quirks in the game are something to hope for a fix in a patch... but WOW what an amazing, immersive, thrill to be in a WWI airplane in this game.

If you have an older dual core with 2 GB of ram (like me) you are going to barely meet the min. system requirements but as long as you don't have a sky full of planes it will be fine. When I first had IL2 on my old windows 98 machine I was in the same position. As One on One duals are the main interest for me it is not a big deal, others may disagree.

I bought the Iron Cross Edition and the user interface for setting up a one on one battle is the best I've seen. It also has a "Survive" option which gives you waves of ever increasing numbers of planes which can be a real challenge.

So, what else does it do great?!

Amazing graphics, rendering of the planes, damage model. The AI is good and unlike other games of this type you can kill off the rear gunner in two seaters.

Flight models seem to be right on - just amazing. And in full realism flying is amazingly difficult to master although you have options to dumb it down. TIP: Watch your airspeed - energy management is all important in flying these "kites"!

Absolutely incredible lighting and shadows on/in the plane although the shadows on the ground are not optimal yet.

Sounds are quite good as far as I can tell on my system (PC Works 2.1).

I don't use the multi-player but it seems to be thriving and busy even though I can't comment on it first hand.

The only bad thing about this game is that a login to their server is required. This edition has included a login offline option but it does not always play nice in that it keeps track of settings etc. and loses track on occasion if you play offline for a bit. The implications of what would happen if the company went under or the game stopped being supported are ugly to say the least.

But until/if then - WOO HOO!! Highly recommended.

And, I hear you can do something called "work" on computers as well...

Eric

While it is my intention to purchase and play this game, I have done neither at this point.

*This is not a review - it is updated info on this release. Based solely on previous reviewers and a very trusted simulation columnist I read, I rated it 4/5 simply to be able to post this update. When I finally do play it, I may ammend that review up to a 5/5*

Some of the glowing reviews indicate concerns over limited aircraft and lack of support or playability in offline mode should anything happen to the original developer, Neoqb. I have recently discovered (while researching this game as I will NOT purchase any solo playable game that requires persistant online connection - and I'm pointing at you UbiSoft) a U.S. company, 777 Studios, has pruchased all rights to the game and thus there is now mainline North American support options. They will be releasing patches/updates and additional game content. This should calm some of the fears of the original Russian developer giving up, closing down, being bought out, etc and players being unable to continue to play in offline mode.

No guarantee I suppose, but more promising for the overly doubtful like myself!

I also understand that 777 Studios has already released 2 or three patches since this versions 2010 release, including some more graphic tweaks (someone said something about cloud shadow but I can't recall the details) and additional planes. A British bomber I think.

Another tidbit of info was that 777 Studios was working on a campaign/career mode with "squadron management" and even more planes. This sounds like a downloadable update, but may end up being DLC for a fee. I haven't heard any more on it.

I invite you to look into it more if you want to buy it - I will be buying this either as soon as Amazon re-stocks it, or if I can find it on one of my local retail shelves. I despise heavy-handed DRM, and until this Iron Cross Edition that allows offline play, I may never have even chosen to buy it.

Trust the reviews of those that have played it, and not those that had tech issues from the get-go and never explained what type of system specs they were running it on - it is no secret it requires a pretty decent rig or at least fairly updated if you want to play it to it's fullest.