Put on some Wagner and strap yourself in! Review

Put on some Wagner and strap yourself in!

If you’re looking for a great flight simulator that won’t put you to sleep

with 3D accelerated renditions of the Golden Gate Bridge, then this is the game

for you. Team Apache captures the look and feel of a real Apache attack

helicopter. (Well, I thought so … not that I’ve ever really been in one. But

if you watch enough documentaries on U.S. air power, then it’s just like being

there, right?!?)

The game flows smoothly

and doesn’t leave you bored. Usually, when I pick up a flight sim, I dread having

to read the 300 page flight manual in order to learn how to play. I hate having

to get an university degree just to play a video game. For some reason, that

wasn’t the case with this game. Even without reading the entire flight manual,

I was able to play the game simply from the training missions and cheat-sheets

they give you.

The graphics are awesome, especially with a good 3D accelerator. The 3D engine

showcases the terrain detail, weather effects, and numerous ground objects.

The physics and flight modeling are also great. I felt I was actually learning

how helicopters fly and maneuver in real life and how wind resistance can impair

flight or be used to complement it.

The frame rates are lightning fast, and no detail seems to be overlooked when

it came to the battle damage you inflict on enemies or you sustain yourself

in battle. You are allowed to blow everything up, from enemy tanks, boats, bases,

and infantry to churches and buildings. Even structures and units on your own

side! The explosions are first rate, and the shock waves and lightning strikes

leave you reeling. The multiple views are not only pretty to look at, they are

actually useful in the heat of battle.

Team Apache didn’t skimp

on the variety of gameplay either. After your training missions, you can go right

into ‘Instant Action’, which is a fast-paced arcade-style option. You can go into

‘Combat Missions’ which are stand-alone missions where you can choose between

a variety of mission profiles ranging from search-and-destroy to recon-and-rescue.

You can start a campaign where you play in a real-time scenario and your performance

on a series of missions determines the outcome of the game. In the campaign option,

you’re allowed to choose pilots with varying degrees of skill and different personalities,

all of which affect how they act in battle. So it’s never the same game twice.

The controls work like a charm, and respond as quickly as you can press the

buttons. They may not have quite enough depth for really hard-core flight sim

gamers, but can be learned quickly enough by the average gamer to have a wide

appeal, even for novices in this genre. This is an important element in simulation

style games. All too often, sims can bog a player down in so many details that

even getting started is a chore. That wasn’t the case here. The realistic graphics,

gameplay, and controls made me want to read the 108 page flight manual. This

says a lot about the game.

Like a good book, this game gave you just enough of the initial taste of what

it had to offer, to draw you further into its world. The job of a simulation

is to mimic reality as close as possible, and bring you, the gamer, into a realistic

environment where you wouldn’t normally find yourself. That being the objective

here, Team Apache delivers.