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.
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.
