Novalogic has just released their latest incarnation into the growing GOLD series of games we keep seeing popping up on store shelves. I personally am not a big fan of GOLD games as to me it seems as nothing more than a marketing ploy to get gamers to drop more money on a product they already have. I tend to wait until a product DOES go Gold to pick it up.

Novalogic has just released their successful Comanche game as a GOLD product, just a year after releasing Comanche 3. In this latest release we find quite a few extras including a strategy guide and that little item everyone wants, a mission editor!

What You Get

First things first, the lowdown on what you get with this release. Novalogic has packaged the same Comanche 3 game in its fullest now Windows 95 native. All the original missions are to be found here along with new campaigns and internet mulitplayer compliments of Novalogics new Novaworld.Net. Here you can play this game over the web using their client, unlike the previous version which came with a trial version of Kali. There are some new campaigns with all new missions, weather effects and even a 127 page strategy guide thrown in for good measure. Not a bad package deal for most gamers.

Mega Action

As in Comanche 3 this one has plenty of action, but this is not a game for the more serious helo pilots out there expecting to be in a hard core helo sim. Those virtual pilots out there who want to jump right in and not worry to heavily about true flight physics will love this one as the learning curve is as steep as a bunny trail at your local ski resort.

Action is the name of this game and you get plenty of it with missions from the original and newer ones including a campaign designed by a former US Army Comanche pilot. In all there are 9 campaigns totaling 72 missions plus training missions. All areas of the world are represented from deserts, to mountains to arctic terrain there's enough variance here to keep you on your toes. Here you will fly across all different battlefields from the Ukraine, to Cambodia to Sakhalin Island and into Indonesia. Yes, you will feel like you are travelling the globe as all the terrain is

If it looks good it plays Better

Graphically this game is nice, even without hardware acceleration as Novalogic once again sticks with its trademarked Voxel Space 2 graphics engine. Their newest incarnation the Voxel Space 3 engine will be debuting in Delta Force. Personally I wish they would join the crowd and go with the stunning visuals we all see and expect 3D cards nowadays, but VS does do the job well. It's also a bonus for those people who haven't yet plunked down some of their hard earned duckets for a 3D card yet. (why anyone would want to miss 3D I have no idea :) )

Don't get me wrong, this game does look nice and there are even some nice weather effects like rain and snow you'll enjoy as well as the wind players of C3 remember so well. To give you an example there was a situation where I had to cover a Marine amphibious assault and had to wait until I saw all the Marines safely ashore from their LCAC's. It gives you a better feeling when you see some activity under you besides a static target firing at you.

The strategy guide that comes with the game covers each of the missions, giving you maps, enemy locations and routes you should take and how to fly them. It's a nice addition to have on hand if you find that one mission you can't get past, but I don't think it's something you should use much lest you kill your own enjoyment. The best way to use this strat guide is to play all the mission on your own the first time through, after that go back and refer to the guide and try the tactics you find in there.

The missions in this game are the same each time you fly them and with no unique changes each time you play, you're just cheating yourself using the strat guide the first time through. This is one of the shortcomings of this game, but at the same time this shortcoming has been overridden by the mission editor this game comes with. Using the mission editor you can create and pass around to your buddies missions you've created or changed from their original state.

Once again you will find yourself in charge of a team-mate (Army pilots don't use that Air Force slang wingman) as well as artillery. The biggest problem I had with this is that your team-mate doesn't always work accordingly. When you designate a target to him he still goes headfirst into trouble with guns blazing and can easily get himself killed.

Along with that there are a couple of other items I've found that need to be addressed as bugs. For one when you are first taking off at a low altitude of around 30 feet or below, (especially at 10-15 feet) do not issue an order to your team-mate as you will crash a lot of the time. I've tried this several times and found that the order issuing window can actually cause you to drop from the sky. This can even happen to you at higher altitude if you stay in the window too long.

I've been at 55 feet and was slowing down and coming to a hover when I went to give my teammate an order. I spent a couple of seconds taking in the sights from my side view before issuing my order when the next thing I know I'm just dropping from the sky. No autorotation here and no ground effect to save me either which was very weird. So it's something to keep in mind when playing this one.

The last big problem I found with this one was the way your teammate will actually disappear before your radars eyes. Give your teammate an order to scout ahead and... poof he's gone!.. even though I can see him out my side view window as he moves ahead of me and there's no terrain blocking him from radar view. He usually pops up ahead of you, but it's weird he disappears at all. Other than those points I found to be an annoyance, you have the same control you had in C3.

Again as in C3 we still see some stupid antics from our teammate while in formation as well. Although this game claims to have better teammate AI, I believe it's more in the control options you have than it is in the actual AI. While you watch from your teammate view you will marvel at his ability to maneuver so rapidly in NOE flight, then again marvel as from a hover he smacks right into your fantail when ordered to move ahead. I think the AI here is essentially the same as C3 and can get on your nerves at times, but it's not a game killer.

Head To Head

Multiplayer fans are going to enjoy this one with the built in multiplayer support through Novalogics own Internet site, Novaworld.Net. The first time you log in though you will need to download a patch but it's not too big After that you're up and running and can play any of the 80 missions as co-ops or you can play in head to head melees. There's a bit of lag to contend with at times but overall it plays pretty well considering the frame rates needed to continuously draw the terrain. This is again where the Gold version outweighs the standard C3, built in Windows 95 native, multiplayer support. No more Dos days revisited.

Bottom line on this one, if you have C3 and are happy with it and don't feel the urge to fly new missions then you don't need to get it. However if you would love to see some new missions, enjoy some new weather effects, want a Win 95 native version and love to play multiplayer it's worth the investment.

The mission editor will add quite a bit to the replayability of this one and it's a good game for those not looking for a high end helo sim and want more action than more arcadish helo games. Novalogic is even offering a rebate for C3 owners which can help defer the cost of the newest version. With 80 missions, built in multiplayer and some new atmospheric effects it's a worthy buy.

COMBATSIM RATING:
Core Rating : 75
Gameplay : 85
Graphics : 80
Sound : 80
Intelligence/AI : 80
User Interface/Mission Planner : 80
Fun Factor : 90
Learning Curve (in hours) : 2
Overall Rating : 81