Graphics, Detail and Frame Rate

The graphics in Red Baron 2 have their definite ups and downs. Planes are textured and shaped with good detail, objects look reasonably good, and terrain is reasonably good, sometimes with repeating textures, sometimes not. The aircraft detail is arguably the finest ever put into a WWI simulation. From the spinning props, to the shaping of the fuselage, finally to the obnoxious vertical exhaust pipes on the Halberstadt, identifying craft visually seems easier than ever before.

On one hand, the framerate is really amazing for a non-accelerated game. Sometimes you can actually forget that there's no 3d card involved. You certainly get a good sense of speed zipping along just above the ground as well. However, despite how fast the engine is, it has some real drawbacks. You can't see very far at all, and the distance to which the ground is nicely textured is very limited even at the highest detail settings.

The colors for the ground terrain are frequently too strong, making spotting enemy aircraft against the ground extremely difficult, even when they are fairly close. Since many games make it too easy to spot enemy planes, it's hard to decide whether this is really unrealistic or not, but one can certainly make an argument that the strange pallette of colors they are using makes spotting strange and perhaps unrealistically hard for both air and ground units. Perhaps it comes from all the dithering.

About those colors. As many veterans of EF2000 know, that game seemed a bit strange in how everything was in dull shades of gray and green. While Norway can be understood to be a little less brighter than say, Holland, the game developed something of a reputation for having overdone it. In a similar fashion, Red Baron 2 seems to have gone the same way with a set of strong pastel colors. It gives the whole game a very odd look to it. Most likely this is a result of reducing the pallette size to allow for 256 color operation. You can grow accustomed to it, but it always makes things look a little more "story-book" than necessary.

The graphics system offers a couple of nice features that you don't see every day. In addition to the normal options, you also have access to windowed play. Not only does this allow you to surf the net or keep an eye on another program in the meantime, it also can be switched back and forth on the fly with only a couple clicks of the mouse. While windowed support isn't universally acclaimed by players, it's a nice option to have in today's heavily multi-tasking computing environments - and makes a nice diversion while you wait for a web download to finish.

The other useful option is "Combat Detail". This automatically reduces the detail settings to nearly the minimum once you fire your guns, and holds it until it determines that you are no longer engaged. Unfortunately, the routines that determine when to switch back don't always work, so you may find yourself firing off your ammo a few times just to change the detail level. The biggest problem with Combat Detail is that it turns off the ground textures, but doesn't put any features on the ground (unlike A-10 Cuba or most other flat-shaded polygon sims) so it's nearly impossible to judge your altitude when you're just above the deck.

There are still serious framerate issues, however. The worst of it seems to be due not to the actual graphics engine, but the calculations going on behind the scenes: AI, collision detection, and so on. When you have an epic battle taking place, the frame rate drops much too low to be practical. You need to be able to line up your target very precisely, and in a big fight, odds are you can't waste too much time doing it, or else you'll end up having someone else getting a clear shot at you.

Unfortunately, you just don't have the smoothness and response time to fight effectively in the really big battles. 3d accelerator support might not cure this, but it certainly should relieve some of the load on the processor to allow you to fight more effectively when the next mission up is a big one. Hopefully the team can find a way to streamline these routines more.

The issue about 3d accelerator support continues to be up in the air. First, it's not going to be supported, then it is, then more rumors about it being dropped, and so forth. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, Sierra officials could not be contacted for comment on what will be the final word.

Sound, Views and Padlocks

The game does a really remarkable job with sound effects - definitely deserving special notice. Looped engine sounds are very authentic and don't seem to have any irritating editing points in them. The coughing and sputtering sounds from an engine start, engine damage, or carb fouling from vertical manuevering are all extremely convincing. You can just imagine each of the cylinders laboring and just barely managing to fire. The sound of the engine starting while warm and in mid-air is even different that the cold startup sound.

Cutting your engine results in a nice "rushing wind" sound (Although that sound does indeed seem to loop too easily). The pilot will groan under high G loads, grunt when shot, and cut loose with a bloodcurdling scream when jumping from the plane. Spars creak and tension wires sing to warn of overstressing the airframe. Bullets smacking into wood have a remarkably delicious *crack* to them. Fluttering sounds can be heard as the cloth on the wingtips breaks loose and tears free of the wings. Loud explosion sounds greet many fallen planes (although it seems that the planes explode more often than they really should on impact).

The most atmospheric sounds come from the ground, however. Machine guns, flak, and artillery can be heard bursting and chattering in the distance, of course. The real icing comes from the aerodromes and churches. Fly over any church where opposing planes are present, and you can hear the echoing of it's bell tower wafting up to you as a warning. It not only gets louder and clearer as you approach, but it has an incredibly authentic "doppler shift" in pitch as you go by. Do the same over an aerodrome or city and you hear the wailing of the air-raid siren. You may even hear the ringing bell of an ambulance. It's really difficult to do justice in words to just how well these sounds have been implemented and how far they go in setting the proper atmosphere. Red Baron 2 has really done well in the audio department.

View options cover the basics well, but could have gone even further. In any of the views, you can instantly padlock to an enemy, friendly, flight member, landmark, ground unit, or enemy threat. This makes focusing on your fight much easier, although some would make strong arguments that it makes spotting too easy, since it is pretty common to be padlocked to an enemy aircraft that you can't see until you're virtually on top of it - due to disappearing among the ground clutter. Having an option to padlock whatever target is closest to being in front would be helpful.

Also, using the ground-unit padlock seems to be difficult to do right. The virtual cockpit padlock helps line up your target better when you're not quite pointing in the right direction, but on the other hand, your field of view is very narrow, so much of the time in a dogfight - especially an energy fight - you have absolutely no point of reference to understand your aircraft's orientation. This could have been mostly alleviated by including a "wide angle view", so that some part of the aircraft is always visible "out of the corner of your eye" (unless you are looking directly upward).

In addition, those favoring sophisticated cardinal views will be disappointed at first, as only views at 90 degree increments have been included. However, the latest patch is said to correct that, and make cardinal view combat more practical. The "45 degree up" view in front is of course, very useful in a dogfight, although allowing it to be selected by toggling the F1 key could make accessing it easier for the programmable-joystick impaired.

Click to continue . . .

Flight Modelling

The flight model has a good basic feel to it. Roll inertia and control authority seem to be modeled reasonably well. Some roll induced yaw seems to be present. Torque effects tend to require a bit of left trim to fly level. Right turns are very sharp, left turns are slower and tend to climb. Torque is most noticeable is you emulate "blip-throttle" flying. (Some WWI aircraft didn't actually have a throttle per se, but an on/off throttle). Vertical flying can lead to engine sputtering, complete with smoke, from the carbs being unable to feed properly.

The taildragger layout that the biplanes use is understandably difficult to land - especially because landing gear at the time had no suspension to speak of, and you're landing in a dirt field. Don't be surprised if landings are the deadliest part of the mission at first. You can always use the autopilot or turn off collisions, but the game would benefit from a mid-level "easy landings" setting. Perhaps even some feedback would be in order to let you know if the landing you did was easy enough to be safe for realistic settings.

While the flight model feels good in general, it seems to be somewhat rule-based, as opposed to the "airflow modeling" systems in sims like Flight Unlimited or A-10 Cuba. It's when you go outside the flight model that things seem not quite right. RB2 lacks the serious penalities of spins and doesn't always seem to model uneven stalls properly. Furthermore, the planes seem overpowered and - strangely enough - don't seem to have any option to turn on or off the "engine boost" like most other WWI sims. That tends to make the realistic mode seem a bit simplified.

The flight model also has been the topic of considerable debate and even more rumors, many of a colorful variety. The current talk is that there will be a more-realistic flight model eventually made available for download, although it is not quite clear why this model couldn't make it into the initial release. Once again, Sierra representatives could not be reached for comment or clarification.

The manual is a real piece of work. While a spiral-bound manual would have been preferable, the existing manual is a little over 200 pages long, with a considerable section devoted to the historical aspects of the air war - complete with a heavy sprinkling of actual WWI-era photographs. The section that describes the planes seems short on statistics, but is at least descriptive, and each plane has a beautiful full-color rendering, some of the best illustrations ever put into a WWI game. The actual information available on gameplay could have been a little more thorough, but is definitely enough to get you in business.

Interface and Mission Planner

A Zoom shot from the Planner. Click for larger image...

The interface definitely has some serious ups and downs. The main screen interface is a classic display of wasted space. Why should a player have to go several screens deep to find information and yet not use up anywhere near the entire screen? While one can understand Sierra's desire to maintain consistency with their earlier sims, the interface design is due for an overhaul. Also, working with waypoints seems to require several more clicks than necessary and cannot be said to be intuitive by any stretch of the imagination.

On the other hand, some interface choices are very nice to see. You have a nicely animated "kneeboard" where you can turn pages to review formation settings, target areas, and the map. It really fits in with maintaining suspension of disbelief. You can choose from *three* different types of instrument clusters, ranging from modern day instruments (for those who spent too many nights with the civil aviation sims) all the way to a realistic set of primitive WWI instruments. Many options can be quickly and easily adjusted in flight by merely right-clicking on the mouse - although it does seem that the mouse pointer itself appears on the screen as a distraction more often than it should. Your progression of control over your squadron in very interesting, since as you become squad leader, you can control pilot assignments, waypoints, formations, and eventually weapons loadouts and even go on totally custom missions. Eventually you even get to decide the colors for the entire fighter group.

The paint kit is back, available once you reach ace status or a certain rank. It too, represents a step forward as well as a step back. On one hand, you can import bitmap files from any paint program or trade over the internet. This kind of flexibility is always welcome. On the downside, however, the included paint schemes available are limited to only the existing schemes of fellow squadrons and aces, without any decorative choices or even flat colors available. Hopefully Sierra will release a small collection of custom paint schemes to give a little more variety to those who aren't feeling up to scratch with painting on the computer.

Campaigns and Gameplay

The campaign itself is relatively unconventional. The team decided to go the "historical route" and give the player little or no ability to effect the progress of the war. Instead, the war mostly progresses according to historical precedent, but the missions themselves are not "canned" in the strictest sense of the word. Perhaps the best way to describe it is that the campaign falls somewhere between a pseudo-dynamic campaign (as in JSF or EF2000) and a random-mission generator. While the status of the various groups can be affected during time, and aces can be made or killed according to what happens in the game (rather than strict historical precedent), that is really the extent of how the player can participate in the war. Your ultimate goal really isn't about winning the war, it's about surviving with the highest kill-count possible. You could argue that that is more realistic, since pilots are thinking more about that than how to conquer the big picture, but it also tends to make you question your purpose in the game.

Time skip seems to be an important area for improvement. You have the options of using time compression from 2x to 16x. A good option to have, but the problem is that frequently the frame rate drops so low under compression that the sound becomes choppy and the 8x and 16x speed update so slow that 4x is sometimes faster. 16x is rarely faster then 8x on the test system. The limited scenery visibility means that you can't really entertain yourself by looking at the terrain go by, so the waiting time between waypoints can get pretty long. The game would also benefit from a "skip straight to action" feature, since non-hardcore players will have limited tolerance for cruising for extended periods without any contact at all.

"Autopilot" features are very well done for the genre. The autopilot has three basic modes to simplify flight. One is a conventional autopilot which hits the various waypoints in turn, and also manages takeoff and landing. Another is a "hold steady and level" autopilot that merely flies straight (good for keeping things under control when you are time-compressing). The last isn't something you see everyday, and is called the "combat autopilot". This makes your plane basically an AI plane. It does everything - and is very good for helping you see how to make certain attacks more effectively. Also, if you accidentally leave the time compression on too long, the fact that it will fight enemy planes gives you a sporting chance until you can manually wrest control back from the computer.

Red Baron 2 represents an unusual balance of pro and con. On the one hand, slow framerates (in large battles), long waits between battles, dated graphics, imperfect AI, and a very restrictive campaign all can be a downer for those looking for the perfect WWI sim. On the other hand, satisfying gameplay, good weapons modeling, superb sound, and a well-done sense of atmosphere also make it a very entertaining one for gamers who can be more forgiving. If you have a very fast machine and can play a game without nitpicking at it, then you should find Red Baron 2 to provide many hours of entertainment - and a pretty good sequel to one of the most fondly remembered simulations ever made.

Ed. Note: Sierra has released a 3 meg patch for the flight model for Red Baron II. The 'Realistic' flight mode is now the 'Easy' model and the new model is realistic and difficult. Several views have been added. Multiplayer stability is increased and paint schemes are now allowed. Flights no longer circle endlessly above the starting aerodrome and Direct-draw has been enabled again. Tracers may now be seen against dark backgrounds, and time compression turns off when you spot an enemy. 3 meg download.

Go to Red Baron II: A Taste of the Action