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Publisher and Developer: Microsoft (www.microsoft.com/games)
Thanks to the recent release of MicroProse/Wayward's B-17 II and the pending release of Blue Byte/Maddox Games' IL-2 Sturmovik, and Empire/Rowan's Battle of Britain, there's still life left in the flight simulation market. The winner of the sales battle in 1998 was Combat Flight Simulator, thanks to the reputation of Flight Simulator, and after two years in development, Combat Flight Simulator 2 makes a fitting move to the WWII Pacific Theater. The sim market of 1998 was more like the European Theater that inspired much of it; dense and high-flying. In 2000, the market is more open, with fewer competitors but still much at risk. In the harsh jungle that is the simulations market, have the Microsoft developers made the necessary moves to please the diehard enthusiasts, the casual gamers, and more importantly, the accountants?
Combat Flight Simulator 2 may look dramatically different with its unique comic book motif, but the original Combat Flight Simulator engine is evident in the menus and settings screens. The artistic change in the menus also extends to the cut scenes, which visit the lives of the American and Japanese pilots, depending on which campaign you are playing. The art style is a definite change from the usual photos and sepia tones used in traditional simulations, and though some may prefer the classical approach, this is a matter of taste. The departure in style works best on the cover of the documentation, where it successfully mimics a pulp comic, complete with a ten-cent price tag. The manual, just as it was with the original game, is nicely written, mixing historical information with strategies and game instruction, but is light in details dedicated players would prefer more of, such as aircraft and performance specifications.
The two campaigns contain roughly thirty missions each, and the game includes sets of training missions and single missions. The game includes more than 100 missions plus multiplayer support via LAN, Internet, direct connection, and free play hosted on the MSN Gaming Zone. The multiplayer is the same as that in the original Combat Flight Simulator, currently confined to deathmatch with up to eight players. Performance on the Zone continues to be very good, considering it's free and my modem connection is limited to 26.4kbps. Better still, Combat Flight Simulator 2 includes a complete mission builder that's fairly extensive. At the time of this writing, the game was barely a week old in the retail market, yet user-made missions and flight model tweaks were available, and there were numerous players on the Zone. Players certainly receive considerable play for their money. This is, however, hardly the product's only selling point.
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