One of the most exciting changes is the addition of the Balkan theatre; this is in addition to the Korean theatre. So you get two theatres to fly and fight in. There are 18 different campaigns to fly within the two theatres, spanning several years and eras of flight. For example, picking the earlier years, you’ll see Mig 21s and in the later campaigns, you’ll see SU-27s and Mig 29s. It’s really quite amazing. We haven’t seen multiple campaigns in an official Falcon title since Falcon 3.0; this is not including unofficial add-ons.



The flying is incredible, aircraft use realistic doctrine. You hear the chirps of enemy radar locking trying to get a lock on you while you’re maneuvering to get a shot, while trying to evade enemy SAMs, it’s really quite immersive. This is the sim that you’ll most likely fire up after watching something on the Military Channel. There is really an electronic environment, that you must take advantage of and exploit in order to survive.

You study your briefings, take note of enemy radar positions, plot your course to take you through valleys, execute your approach and strike your target, and pray you don’t get shot down. In Falcon 4.0, you could make multiple passes on a target. Not in AF, you might get one pass then the enemy will react. In some missions, such as airfield denial missions you can even assign your wingman to hit different targets from multiple angles. It is clear that a lot of work went into the AI. The latest patch also tightens up the multiplayer mode. There is almost no pause or stuttering or lag in MP. This is great for folks who love to fly in on-line squadrons. In multiplayer, one can even choose to fly as an AWACS, to coordinate the action between his teammates and to select targets.



Some gamers will flinch at the graphics, which are not quite on the level with more modern games like Lock-On and IL-2, for that matter even Wings Over Europe. However, they are serviceable and they do the job quite effectively. No flight sim can hold a candle to the dynamic gameplay of AF, and I doubt that anything ever will. If you want the most realistic combat simulation on the market, I suggest you pick up this game as fast as you can!

Review by Gus Lane.