F-16 Combat Pilot

Copyright : Digital Integration | Reviewed by : Mark Weaver

Another of one of the most talked about simulators ever hits your CPC this time from Digital Integration, a not so well known but very worthy software house.

As with most sims the idea is pretty much the same, fly an F-16 while shooting down bogies - not the things that come out of your nose either.

Graphics

F-16 Combat Pilot is one of the greatest flight simulators on the CPC, in fact I have yet to find any other flight sim that even comes close. The makers of this particular game are still in business today producing flight simulators for the PC market.

The basic concept of the game is carry out a varied array of missions such as destroying tanks, airfields, SAM sites, other aircraft and even recon missions taking pictures of secret military installations.

To complete the different missions you will need to carefully select your weapons at the start because you can only carry a certain number of missiles at one given time. So if you are on a tank buster mission then you need to make sure you are carrying the appropriate air to ground missiles.

The graphics in this game are spot on. The menu systems are colourful and use great pictures to illustrate menu options. The in game graphics really amazed me all those years ago when I first saw them because all the objects (Buildings, tanks etc) are in glorious 3D and without the aid of a dedicated 3D graphics card.

Sound

Music in the game is non-existent but to be honest the last thing you want is music playing when you are in a dogfight. The sound does consist of engine noise (which is glorious) and various other sounds such as warning sounds that indicate to you that you need to start deploying those flares and chaff damn quick or you are gonna get blown out of the sky.

Gameplay

I?m no pilot but the features that this game has are amazingly detailed for a CPC game. Realistic ILS (Instrument Landing System), autopilot, waypoint navigation and jettison of fuel and payload options to mention a few.

Your progress in the game is determined by how well you complete each mission i.e. how many missiles you fired, how many targets you took out and how many planes you have lost. This is used to then determine your ranking which is initially rookie.

This game has so much depth it will take a very long time to master it. (Emulator Users: You WILL need to locate the game manual). Even when you have eventually completed the game you will still keep coming back for more, even if it is just flying around shooting anything you can find.