Air war in the Pacific? Tropical beaches, sparkling ocean? Lethal combat? Yeah! Gimme my mae west! What...I'm dead ????
User Rating: 7.5 | Pacific Fighters PC
Dynamix started it all with "Aces of the Pacific" + add-on. The gameplay was fast and furious. The choice of aircraft....well, choice! When you flew CAP over the carrier group and were sent to intercept a Japanese strike group it was one helluva scrap. Planes everywhere. Tracer everywhere. AAA...get the point? Bringing that Avenger or Judy down to wave-top level (100 ft) facing AAA and letting that torpedo drop at a perfect angle were much practiced arts. Knowing your work paid off when the water column rose from the ship was pure joy (unless your tail section had been shot away). Microprose upped the ante with "1942: Pacific Air War". The graphics were beautiful, the gameplay endlessly engaging (except the ground attack missions...yawn!). You had to note down the expected position of your carrier on return, just in case you were alone. There was no inflight map or auto pilot. It happened to me, and I had to fly by dead reckoning, my Dauntless over endless Pacific blue watching the fuel guage plummet with no ship in sight. Then a sparkle, a shadow, a ship. I ran out of fuel just as I snagged the 3rd wire on landing. That was 12 years ago, and I still remember the thrill. Now Maddox, with the unbeatable IL2 series goes East. I couldn't wait. I wish I had of. "PF" isn't a bad game, but with the pedigree it had and the forebears listed above, there was so much it could have done. The planes are gorgeous as expected. The AAA from beautifully realized ships is lethal. BUT! Most campaigns take place over water. Lots of it. And if you start at the lowest rank in any campaign, you are very lucky to participate in combat. The US planes 9 times out of ten have no cannons. So you quite often empty your whole belt of bullets to knock down one Zero (27 feet of bullets in fact - hence the term "the whole nine yards" if you emptied your magazines...ice breaker at parties). I could even fly for the RAAF (with the Beaufighter, the only flyable plane in the game that carry a torpedo). But the Beaufighter Campaign is flawed by very boring ground missions, and an auto-pilot AI that endlessly enjoys flying you and your wingmen into mountains. Often on an escort mission for the USN or the IJN, you in your fighter may notice the strike aircraft you are protecting are colliding with each other and losing 1/2 their planes before an enemy even appears. The Pacific Theatre is a good choice. However, the wealth of targets, the mission variety, and the lethal dogfights are gone or seriously diminished. Promotion within the squadron is more like "IL2" than "FB" which is good. The variety of aircraft is great (but lack of torpedo bombers is baffling). However, if, when you choose to play Pearl Harbour, don't expect swarms of Japanese aircraft, blazing ships, or smoking runways. You'll get maybe 12 planes, one ship on fire, and...well that's about it. You bang away at a Zero for eternity to shoot it down ( historically they blew up with almost a near miss because of the lack of armour around the fuel tank), whereas one pass by a Zeke will knock you down straight away. Why your Auto-pilot AI happily follows your leader while 3 Zekes blaze away from behind you has me really confused. As far as content, the package is solid, and if installed as an add-on to "IL2FB" will give you a sim with maybe too much. Overall, its' disappointing, bug-ridden, and really not a lot of fun. Like the B-29's though. 
