F15 Strike Eagle II changed my life.
I was only seven, but I knew even then that it had everything you could ever ask for in a computer-related experience.
The graphics were great for the time, and the game basically revolved around shooting bad things, not shooting good things, and occasionally blasting buildings and boats to smithereens. This led to promotion and medals.
The missions break down into the avoidance and destruction of enemy aircraft, the taking out of major land targets (there is always a primary and secondary target, the annihilation of which dictates your mission score and how many medals you get), and sometimes the protection of allied sites.
F15 Strike Eagle II changed my life.
I was only seven, but I knew even then that it had everything you could ever ask for in a computer-related experience.
The graphics were great for the time, and the game basically revolved around shooting bad things, not shooting good things, and occasionally blasting buildings and boats to smithereens. This led to promotion and medals.
The missions break down into the avoidance and destruction of enemy aircraft, the taking out of major land targets (there is always a primary and secondary target, the annihilation of which dictates your mission score and how many medals you get), and sometimes the protection of allied sites. Targets invariably seem to consist of some sort of satellite and some sort of missile silo.
You are armed with three types of missile
that will forever be engrained on my consciousness:
The sidewinder - weak, short range air-to-air missile
AMRAAM - strong, long range air to air missile
Maverick - air-to-ground missile.
You also get a machine gun which is nearly impossible to use unless you play the game all day every day for most of your youth.
The areas of conflict are as follows: Libya, The Persian Gulf, Vietnam and the somewhat unclearly named 'Middle East'. The only real difference is the difficulty level, and the basic colors of the ground (varying versions of desert, usually). That is largely irrelevant. The whole experience is worth it solely for the feeling of plunging through a swarm of enemy planes, punching two mavericks through the roof of one of their satellite compounds, then corkscrewing back up through them, guns ablaze, before you are shot down in a blaze of glory, by about forty people at once.
The genius of the game revolves around the simplicity and completely cartoon-like handling of the plane itself. Though it pretends to offer a realistic experience, it is far more exciting than the more recent, actually realistic simulators, because it's far easier to handle and still grips you to the edge of your seat. It is by no means an easy game, but one which offers endless and endlessly different games every time you turn it on. You WILL be utterly absorbed.
