Gunship 200 is a great simulation game for the time it was released in 1993. You can go through a campaign or go to a quick fire mission in two theatres of duty, the Persian gulf or eastern Europe. As you complete missions in the campaign mode you will climb in rank and more helicopters will be available to you. It has some nice aspects of wingman control that has not been seen in a simulator before.
Good graphics and sound.
I remember playing this on my PC with the first of the sound blaster cards. It has a pretty challenging enemy AI with true to life enemy armour. Mission objectives vary from search and destroy of enemy armoured columns to rescuing downed pilots. You can adjust difficulty settings and outfit your chopper however you like. Control of your wingmen is done from the map screen as you assign them waypoints and actions at the objective.
Forward arming and refuelling points can be found to keep you armed up in the battlefield. Climbing the ranks can take some time. Your kills and your mission time are key elements to getting promoted. You also have to watch your fuel so you don't
have to ditch your bird out in the battlefield. Some of the missions start you off on a carrier and have you hunting ships which you have to make sure you packed the proper ordnance for the job.
You have to really study your briefing reports to select the right helicopter and weapon combination for the task at hand. Your wingmen get better with rank and you have to be careful not to send them on a suicide run or you will be replacing the on a regular basis and you need your wingmen to gain rank cause they perform better. In the beginning if I get a Search and
Rescue mission which requires there be a Blackhawk in your squad, you are better off piloting it yourself because your wingmen won't be able to get the pilot. But the recon birds can be useful for spotting an ambush before you are sailing in the middle of it and getting hit from all angles. Counter measures are handled by your co pilot.
All in all it is a good simulator and there was nothing like it out at the time. It could benefit from some analogue control. But the keyboard does a pretty good job of making sense of the controls. The cockpits are functional and there are two different flight modes, Easy and realistic.
