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As mentioned before, the campaign is semi-dynamic, and the missions will branch depending on your performance and whether or not you achieve your mission goals. Sometimes a spur of the moment rescue mission will pop up if you have recently had a pilot survive a shoot down in enemy territory. The campaign management screen is where most of the planning is done, and we'll have a closer look at the mission planner in Part II. The campaign does work in real time, and a time acceleration arrow is provided in order to skip to the next event, which can be things such as news, re-supply, and new mission orders.

The cockpit of the Ka-52 is a 3D modeled job, and the player can pan around the inside view with the hat switch on the joystick. Since the player can only fly from the pilot's seat, the predominant gauges and MFD's are on the left side of the aircraft. The HUD has two different operating modes, navigation and combat, and the ability to change colors and brightness is included. The multi function displays are basically right below the HUD, and they both can be viewed in the 3D cockpit mode as well as in full screen mode. The MFD's can be set to several different modes including Threat Warning Mode, Radar Mode (two sub-modes, ground and air), Shkval electro-optical complex, weapons systems, engine stats, aircraft systems, and mission stats. The ability to configure and interact with the sensors and MFD's is a bit more complex than the preview copy of GUNSHIP! we have, but TA still falls short of Longbow 2 in this department. The Shkval can be zoomed by several factors, and the other modes have multiple levels of zoom.

The radar sub-modes are a little useless, since they are basically the type of displays found in a Wing Commander game. They are always on, and the only show the types of targets in the area - you can't lock on to any of them using the radar. The Threat Warning System does have a good half dozen different icons which indicate early warning radars, AAA, SAM's, missile launch, and targets that are lasing your chopper. A box will surround any of theses icons that are tracking you.

There are several back-up gauges in case the HUD gets knocked out, and these are the airspeed, barometric altimeter, vertical speed indicator, and the artificial horizon. These gauges are on the gunner/co-pilot's side of the cockpit, and they can be a pain to read depending on the resolution. There is also a warning panel with 17 warning lights, and this works in conjunction with the systems display in the MFD's.

Wingman communication is key in TA, since you are usually leading three flights of two Ka-52's, and sometimes additional forces such as Mi-24's are included in your package. There are five different channels, and these are assigned to the different flights in your package, and there is also a channel that broadcasts your orders to the entire package. The commands are broken down into navigation and combat orders, and there are nearly twenty different commands available. We've found that the wingmen AI is decent, although the enemy AI isn't.

The enemy AI is a bit weak in our opinion, especially when there is no difficulty adjustment for this in the game. It seems that the gunners in all the AAA and SAM vehicles found some free cases of Smirnov's, and then drank brake fluid once this ran out. We've flown over columns of enemy units time and time again without a scratch. Strangely enough, it seems the enemy infantry is the most accurate, although they have to hit you a lot in order to cause any damage. When the enemy AI does eventually hit you, the damage model is sufficient, and individual wings and landing gear can be blown off your helicopter. This along with the stock flight model is the two weak points of Team Alligator. Lucky for us that Zero G, the infamous helicopter pilot from the great white North has been a real trooper and released his fix for the flight model. After installing this fix the flight model becomes a lot more believable, unlike the arcade-ish feel the stock model exhibited, and Zero G has said in our forums that he will be updating this new flight model once he gets a boxed copy of the game. Superb!

So far we have been fairly impressed with Ka-52 Team Alligator, and the strength of the overall package overcomes the small flaws in the simulation. Depending on the situation, the graphics range from above average to excellent, and the campaign, especially the management options, make TA's single player experience a very enjoyable one. Night fighting is a real hoot with the external spotlight and internal cockpit lights. The sense of speed is excellent in low-level flight, and the immersion factor of being part of a team will appeal to many simulation gamers. The intro movie and cut-scenes are also among the best ever done, even if the weapons effects are a bit on the Hollywood side. Team Alligator is also available at a bargain: We picked ours up for 25$ USD. We'll have an update on the campaign, weapons performance, multiplayer features, and in-game units in Part II of our Ka-52 Team Alligator Review.

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