F-15 STRIKE EAGLE II REVIEW

                            by John Knight


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    As mentioned in my "Feedback" in Readers_Letters this issue,
  Microprose have supplied F-15 II in a format whereby you can copy
  it (for backup purposes) and also install it to a hard drive (which I
  don't have, unfortunately). Copy protection is via a
  page/paragraph/word search from the manual, where the first letter is
  given so as to make it easier. Thank you Microprose, for allowing us to
  use our hardware. All other software houses please take note!

    The "game" itself has 4 difficulty levels plus a demo/training option.
  This enables you to fly all day and sustain damage without being
  destroyed. In this mode, you can refuel and rearm by merely hitting 2
  keys. You can crash the plane if you dive too steeply, but shallow
  dives have a "stone skimming" effect whereby you bounce off at a height
  of around 200 feet.  This is a good way to get acquainted with the
  plane's controls and instrumentation, as well as the fun part of the
  simulation, destroying the targets. If you choose, you can let the
  plane land itself while on autopilot, but I couldn't get this to work.

    Once you have become familiar with the plane's controls, you can seek
  out and destroy the primary and secondary targets and anything else you
  choose along the way. At the start of each mission, your objectives are
  stated by name, as is the base from where you take off.

Guidance

    To help guide you (you are not given a co-ordinate based system), a
  waypoint indicator is used, to point you in the right direction. To the
  unwary, this system can mean that you bomb a friendly target, if it
  happens to be in the same line as your target. To get around this,
  hitting the Target key will cycle through all the available targets in
  range. If you know the name of your target, then you only need to keep
  cycling through the targets until the one you want appears, then its
  range will be shown.  Sometimes, you can fly for hundreds of kilometres
  without knowing how far away your target is, guided only be the waypoint
  indicator. Of course, if this indicator suddenly veers away to the
  side, then you know that you have gone past your target. This is
  something you need to get practice with.  It's quite a good system
  really as you don't need to work out co-ordinates.

Weapons

    You have short and medium range air-to-air missiles, a front mounted
  cannon and air-to-ground missiles. All the missiles are "fire and
  forget". The cannon is the hardest thing to hit anything with, due to
  its short effective range. You know when it's time to fire your
  missiles because the targetting system will display a lock on a target,
  both on the HUD and on one of the CRTs. If you get a lock, you're
  almost guaranteed of a hit, unless the enemy takes some kind of evasive
  action. Of course, you yourself can take evasive action by releasing
  flares or chaff or by flight measures.

Hindrance

    Of course, life's not all easy. Wouldn't you know it, there are enemy
  planes and SAM missiles out to stop you. There can be quite a few of
  these around at any one time. To reduce the problem, if you fly really
  low, most radar installations won't pick you up and this cuts down on
  enemy activity.  You can also admire the scenery and this is probably
  what is one of the major drawcards of F-15 II. The detail is quite
  spectacular; not boring green slabs of colour but little huts(?), roads,
  etc. Just don't get carried away and fly into a mountain or something.

Sound

    I don't like the opening music much, but I suppose it's all a matter
  of preference, anyway, it disappears soon enough. Incidental sounds are
  great. There are digitised speech sections, explosions, the whine or
  roar of the aircraft. The mission review segment at the end of the
  mission, has a very military-style tune which isn't bad.

Graphics

    Simply great. As mentioned above, I love the detail. This is the
  best of any flight simulator that I have seen. Action is fast and
  smooth. Various points of view are available; front, rear, sides,
  missile. A director mode is available whereby any action warrants a
  change of camera to another physical location. Thus, you can see MIGs
  take off to intercept you, or missiles. It is not advisable to use this
  in the heat of battle though.

Gameplay

    This simulation spends less time on the effort required to keep the
  plane airborne, and more time on the action itself. This is more to my
  liking - you may have your own views on this. There is plenty of action
  but things can be made easier by using the demo/training mode and using
  automatic landing. All these features tend to help you get easily
  acquainted with the program. Six different scenarios are supplied;
  Libya, Middle East, Persian Gulf, Central Europe, Vietnam and the North
  Cape. These all have many missions and no mission will play the same
  twice - this is not to say that you can't have the same mission twice.
  The manual lists the scenarios in order of difficulty so you can
  progress to more complex areas. Along the routes to your primary and
  secondary targets, and also on the way back to base, you can also blast
  other targets, and you are rated accordingly in the Hall Of Fame. At
  the end of the mission, it can be reviewed. A map is displayed and each
  action location is displayed together with a picture of the event. A
  nice touch.

The Manual

    The manual is well written and includes a "quick start" section for
  trigger-happy individuals who can't wait to get airborne. It also
  contains sections on dog fighting, missile avoidance and aircraft
  recognition. Each scenario is also described so that you are aware of
  the enemies capabilities and armament, as well as friendly and neutral
  bases. The aircraft control section is quite short as this program
  doesn't deal too heavily with the flight simulation aspects. You also
  get a supplementary manual which describes the changes since the IBM
  (Yuk!) version was released (2 additional scenarios and changes to the
  cockpit instrumentation). Strictly speaking, they should make the
  corrections to the manual and reprint it. Although no keyboard overlay
  is supplied, a quick reference card is, and this contains the commands
  and a view of the HUD. Because all keyboard commands are logical and
  start with the correct letter, an overlay is not really necessary. Even
  someone with my memory will quickly remember the keystrokes.

The Downside

    I have had the occasional guru unfortunately, and on one mission the
  plane landed short of the base when its fuel ran out and then just sat
  there. (I couldn't get it to do anything constructive). These points
  are annoying but don't cause sufficient impact to deter from the game.

In Summary

    Great graphics with much detail on land surfaces, good sound effects,
  easy to get into, plenty of variation on missions and scenarios, great
  action.  I've been playing it for hours and I wish I had more time to
  spend with it. But, I had to tell you about it, didn't I? So, go and
  BUY it. I'm sure you'll like it. (RRP $89.95 - shop around - I got it
  for $60.)


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