Pacific Fighters
Score: 90% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: 1C Company Media: CD/2 Players: 1 - 32 Genre: Flight/ Simulation/ Online
Graphics & Sound: Pacific Fighters is the next step in flight simulation/combat games. This game has a look and feel that makes it authentic and believable from the airborne dogfights to the aircraft carriers. Each location is vast and gives you plenty of room for combat. Another plus shows up in the ground textures. Where other games have the earth as a bland, pixelated patch that just happens to be below you, the ground in Pacific Fighters is diverse enough and with enough detail to make you feel like you are actually making progress as you fly to your next battle area. The models of the vehicles (whether they be aircraft or ship) are also outstanding. Each model looks like their real-world counterpart with enough similarity that you feel like they should be hanging up in a navel air museum. Though the music behind this game isn't outstanding (at least it didn't appeal to me), the sound effects are. The sound of gun-fire and the loud whine of the engines go a long way to making this game feel like you are in the air and in the middle of a battle.
Gameplay: Pacific Fighters has several modes of play; these modes include Single Mission, Pilot Career, Multiplay, Quick Mission Builder, Full Mission Builder and Training. Single Mission Mode is just like it sounds. You get to fly in one mission and then it's over. This is great if you need a quick fix and don't want to get involved in the larger modes like Pilot Career. In this mode, you select a country, then a mission type (dogfight or bomb run) and then finally the mission of your choice. Pilot Career is where you find the bulk of Pacific Fighters. This mode is further broken up into two branch types. The static branching type is a set order of missions. The missions you will be assigned are the same no matter how you perform in each battle. You can define these missions by using the two Mission Builder Modes. The other branch is the Dynamic Campaign. To start this mode off, you select a country, a squadron and the planes that you want to be available to you. Each time you start a mission, almost every feature of that mission is determined dynamically. The weather condition, the opponents, even the time of day are created on the fly to keep each mission different and interesting. In the dynamic branch, Pacific Fighters keeps track of which fighters have been lost or how well they performed in battle. As you progress through the war, you will have wing-men get promoted, replaced or otherwise change depending on the actions of each mission. The multiplay mode allows you to dogfight against 31 other players or go into Cooperative Mode with 15 other pilots. Dogfight Mode is a lot like the Single Mission mode described above, except here you get to personalize your fighter with a wide assortment of camouflages. Cooperative Mode throws you into a lobby with a group of other players. When a mission is handed out, you all work together to accomplish the goal. Along with these modes, you can also add new profiles in the Pilot Roster or play back your adventures in the Play Track Mode. In the View Objects Mode, you can go through a gallery of the models from planes to aircraft carriers to trains.
Difficulty: Pacific Fighters is by no means an easy game, and isn't necessarily for beginners. You will need to learn the ins and outs of all of the planes if you are to master the combat that is ahead of you. Fortunately, there are a lot of options that are tweakable. If you are a more advanced fighter, then you can set the game to give you control over each of the engines separately (provided it is a multi-engine craft). Having this kind of control over your plane can either make or break you in a fight, though. If you are good enough to handle it -- then its a benefit, but if you don't know what you are doing, you are going to have problems.
Game Mechanics: I'm not going to spend this section going over the control scheme for Pacific Fighters because that is just too much to put into a review. Suffice it to say that with a good flight stick (I used the Saitek Cyborg Evo Force) you can keep manage the entire plane without having to jump to the key board too often. What I am going to talk about is the game's AI. I found that a lot of the other fighters in the air had a good handle on their craft and used some good strategies, making them hard (but fair) targets. I was always impressed when I was in the middle of a dog fight and the plane I was chasing managed to swoop behind me. Though the AI is good, after a while you can see the patterns, and if you stick at it long enough -- you will be able to outsmart your opponents. If you already have IL-2: Sturmovik then this is a much needed add on (though it isn't necessary to play Pacific Fighters). Any gamer who is interested in the flight combat/simulation genre should definitely check this game out.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Minimum System Requirements: Windows 98/ME/XP/2000 (only), Pentium III or AMD Athlon 1 GHz Pentium 4 2.4 GHz recommended), 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended), DirectX 9 compliant video card with 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended), DirectX 9 compliant sound card, DirectX 9 or higher (included on disc), 4X CD-ROM or better, 1.1+GB hard drive space, Broadband Internet connection for Multiplay. Supported Video Cards at Time of Release: ATI Radeon 7000/8000/9000/X families NVIDIA GeForce 256/2/3/4/FX/6 families Matrox Parhelia Intel GMA 925X/915P/915G Chipsets Laptop models of these cards not fully supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game. Additional chipsets may be supported after release. For an up-to-date list of supported chipsets, please visit the FAQ for this game at http://support.ubi.com.   Test System: Windows XP Professional Ed., AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 2GHz, 2 GB RAM, DVD-RW, Radeon 9800 Pro, DirectX 9.0b.
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