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Campaigns

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Fig. 6. Main Campaign Screen

The campaigns are all set in Europe but not the Europe I know. The Europe I live in is hilly, filled with huge valleys, mountains, and delicate landscapes. Gunship's Europe is dead flat with not a mountain or even a hill in sight. From a realistic military campaign point of view, which side you start a war on is very important. On the Gunship! box it reads "Unparalleled attention to detail: weapon systems, sounds, threats and terrain." I do not know if they were paying attention to detail because the landscape lacks attention to detail in European-like terrain.

Fig. 7. Campaign Briefing

The campaign in Gunship! contains nothing more than a series of scripted missions. My main complaint against the current campaign engine is that it will not let you select specific mission to fly and it will not let you move to the next mission until you successfully complete the current mission. For me this leads to many frustrating 'do overs'. Another let down is that during mission play in the campaign, a lot of action is concentrated in a small area of the large 16km x 16km map. I will again quote from the box: "You're the point man for WWIII" and "Realistic World Campaign System". There is no system in this campaign and it is not a realistic world WWIII battlefield environment. A World War III campaign should have multiple points of engagement with the enemy over this huge area at any given time.

Campaign play in Gunship! is completely static and without any dynamic capabilities. Considering other products Microprose has published like Falcon4 and EAW with powerful campaigns and huge battlefields, I am deeply disappointed in the overall campaign Gunship! offers.

Fig. 7. Campaign Intelligence

Battle Builder

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Gunship! includes a mission editor. This allows modification of existing missions and building new single player or multiplayer missions. Again this appears to be a powerful tool that is hampered by a lack of proper documentation. Access the Battle Builder from the Single Battle screen.

Fig. 8. Battle Builder

I have only played with the Battle Builder briefly but it appears flexible and powerful. If MicroProse is allowed to patch Gunship!, I promise a full how to guide to building single battles.