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  Flight of the intruder                                  Spectrum Holobyte  
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Original supplied by : Ron Flonflon

Reviewed by          : Peter Wijgerse


Another flight-simulator on a crowded market. How does it stand up against
the competition ? First of all is a licensed product, based on the same 
movie (which is based on the book). Quite novel for a flight-sim. You pilot 
your aircraft in missions based on the real story. You're trying to destroy
several key-targets or try to lure sam's from their hiding places.

In this sim you can fly two types of planes, (and finally NOT a F-16 or F-15)
On is the F-4 Phantom and the other is a less familiar plane, the A-6 
Intruder. The intruder is a lowlevel flying plane used for bombing runs and
taking out sam missiles and their bases. It has no means to defend itself
from incoming Migs. That part is up for the Phantoms.

After a very detailed briefing you are able to select which plane you want
to fly. Missions can be flown with several aircraft together. After taking
of you have the option to switch planes, the computer takes over and tries
to perform as good as possible. So it is possible for you to just watch and 
don't fly at all. 

The sim is very technical (no F-15 strike-eagle flying here), most keys on
the keyboard have one or more functions, and also very realistic. Incoming 
radio-messages and evasive flying (try escaping from a mig without the
means to destroy it) are all part of the deal. The missions vary enough
to keep things entertaining. 

Graphically it looks good, trails from your wingtips and fire from your 
exhaust when you're using the afterburner. The land though is quit flat, 
but the buildings even have windows! (no, not the workbench kind). It's 
also fast enough to make it playable. Sonically it also good, especially 
the incoming messages.

To conclude this review, FOTI is a very interesting and novel flight-sim.
It has a different aproach to flying compared to others, this also means,
that you have to persevere for some hours to get going somewhere. If you
just want to fly and shoot (and if possible not even land), stay clear of
this one. If you're interested in something more substancial go for this,
it will give you enough to discover for a very long time. Be aware though,
it is a ONE MEGABYTE product, and some functions will not be available on 
a 512K machine (no sound and no switching between planes are two of them).


Total score :


              GRAPHICS     85 %
              SOUND        83 %
              PLAYABILITY  84 %
              LASTABILITY  90 %
              
              TOTAL MARK   86 %


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  Flight of the intruder                                  Spectrum Holobyte  
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