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Nations

WW II Fighter Command

(Reviewed by Lynnon Bullman-Beowolff29)

This game review is about Nations, a WW 2 fighter sim from a company called Psygnosis, out of San Mateo, CA. I know this web-site is mainly about Microsoft's Flight Sims---but, I didn't think knowing about some of the newer games coming into the stores and how they stack up to CFS would hurt anything…Might even save you a few hard-earned bucks!

	I've been involved with flight sims for many years <back when the original Red Baron was the hottest flight sim going! > and I've never heard of Psygnosis before, therefore I'm assuming they are fairly new to the gaming market or at least to flight simulations. New companies come into existence every day and old ones take new marketing directions---so I suppose me never hearing of it means little if anything.
Packaging of the game is okay; it sort of reminded me of a comic book cover with the always-present Mustang and ME109 duking it out. The game has a fairly thick manual, it does cover most of the basics of how to install and play the game, though much of its content is filled with WW2 history lessons and how to be a combat pilot <as a lot of them are now days>. I've seen worse, I've seen better---the Nation's manual is about middle of the road.
The game installed from the CD without a hitch---now why is that such a miracle these days? Well, games are coming out so buggy that having installation problems is almost par for the course. This one installed flawlessly on my Gateway 450. I did the minimum install <about a hundred or so megs > where it pulled a lot of gaming info from the CD player---I've got a 48 speed so that's not too much of a slow down during game play for me, guys with older CD's might want to do the full install on the hard-drive to speed up play.

The main menu is a little dark and clunky, almost makes you think you're about to start an original game of Quake! It is quickly and easily understood though; simple enough for even a novice player to figure out in a few moments. It offers "Settings, Campaigns, Training and Single Missions." Alas, no game or mission builder or editor---what you see is all there is. Settings were easy to work as was going into the training missions and single missions, and of course there is realism and other settings in the pre-flight orientation. The pre-flight clues you in to what you will be doing when the missions load and then a big fighter plane comes on screen with this bodacious spinning prop to show you how fast the game is loading into memory! That prop thing is cool---at first, then it starts to wear on you. The plane's spinner is painted with a swirling design and after a few mission loads, I swear I thought it was beginning to hypnotize me!

Most missions jump you straight into some sort of flight <few actual include take-offs and landings from airfields> and well into your actual mission with your fellow squadron mates all around you. At first you can't fly the darned plane and you wonder what the frig is wrong, then you remember that you have to press the J key to enable the joystick in the game---the flights always start with keyboard and mouse control….duh? What's this? I know most action games have reverted to mouse and key control---that does make aiming a M-16 or grenade launcher easier---but flight sims starting with mouse and keyboard??? Hmmm, not too common.

Anyway, pressing the J key will get the joystick going, and surprisingly, the planes all handle fairly well. As most games do these days, your joystick, throttle and foot pedal settings are taken from your windows game control, and if they are correct there, then they will be correct in the game. I had no controller problems at all in this game. It auto-sensed all of my flight controls, CHS foot pedals, Sun F-15E Talon joystick and Sun twin-grip throttle. I also tried it with a Thrustmaster Top-Gun stick and it did fine too.

There are several planes to fly, Axis and Allied, and they are all fighters though several different bombers are flown by AI pilots in the game. I saw no easy way to convert AI planes to be user flown <as in CFS>, and no way to put in add-on planes. <darn-it!>

The planes handle good, even the low-powered Curtiss P-40 fighters, maybe too good in many cases. In other words, I think the flight models are way too perfect! I never went into a spin or tore a wing off in spite of very violent combat flying. The P-40 does handle sloppy in climbs---true to real life, turns are too easy and too slow though---you can't jerk your plane around in a blazing turn nor do a brutal snap roll. It just won't happen. Some of the missions are very graphic intensive, one---a ground attack single mission, has so many enemy tanks and trucks in a convoy that it even slowed my 450 Pentium down to a stuttering crawl, at least with all of the settings maxed out. Turning the clouds to a lower setting did help though.

And getting to the graphics. The game has an older feel to it, which is strange because a lot of the effects in it are obviously new 3-D type stuff. This game STRONGLY reminded me of Screamin' Demons Over Europe! The planes, the sky, the clouds and the terrain. It just felt like SDOE!

Oh, the clouds are a 3-D marvel! Nice but a real game-slower in a heavy plane mission! Terrain's not too bad either and textured water looks great. Fog and smoke look good. The planes? Wel-l-l-l, not bad, but not that great either, they are a little clunky looking, though I did like the desert type camo paint on the P-40. Gunfire graphics are a little clunky, though I do like the higher tracer mix that aids in aiming. I like the way the guns smoke when you fire them---looks good and very real. I also like the way your engine will occasionally cough and smoke and make the plane lurch a bit, it scares you a little and makes you wonder if the frigging crate is going to quit on you---something that I'm sure real WW2 pilots must have had on their minds quite often. Except for the P-38 you are always looking through the blur of the plane's nose propeller and it is a tad "too" visible, kind'a nags at ya after awhile. Graphics are acceptable in this game. Explosions are great! They are much more realistic than EAW or CFS, but the enemy planes blow up just a trifle too easy. A few rounds into their guts and "boom!" A massive fireball.

Game sounds are okay, I really like the metallic sounding "rattle!" and "rap!" as bullets strike you and the enemy planes. The radio chatter is sort of dumb sounding, very contrived. Gunfire is cool and explosion noises good. Engine sounds? Eh, okay I guess, but not great. Not up to par with CFS, EAW or even Screamin' Demons.

Cockpit lay-out is okay, with most of the important dials and indicators shown all the time in an upper cockpit view and you having to number-key pad <+> plus key to glance down at the other flight instruments. The flight is very un-realistic from the instruments though…your fuel seldom runs low, nor does your engine run hot after running full bore in a savage dogfight. Only if you take a few rounds in the engine does the dials start telling you that something just might be wrong---doh! As if you didn't know that you'd been shot up already!

Ground fire is heavy and deadly if you come in too slow and low---also on several missions I had trouble keeping my plane from plowing into the ground on strafing runs. A bug! And sort of a bad one, on one occasion my altimeter still showed that I was 2000 feet off the ground <and visually I could see that I was very high above the enemy convoy> yet I still crashed into the ground---huh??? Because of that ground slamming effect, strafing and bombing ground targets are especially hard in this game in most missions.

Another bug <surely it wasn't supposed to be like that> is apparent when you get shot down or crash. Your plane does the lawn dart thing and slams into the ground, but instead of exploding into red hot scrap metal, you slide along the ground intact for what seems an eternity---then it suddenly cuts to a distant screen shot showing a big explosion which I suppose is your plane finally going up!

There is no radar or enemy indicators like EAW or CFS, there is what's called a flag system where distant planes are surrounded by a sort of semi-transparent halo effect showing a star <American>, cross <German>, etc, etc to indicate what nationality the distant airplane is---and that's it. Those halos vanish at gun firing range and you have to visually identify your target before you fire. You also have to keep your eyes on the target till you flame him, and that ain't easy in a swirling dogfight---realistic maybe, but it does make for a sometimes too tough game. There is a pad-lock but it's hard to use. I did notice that your gun-sight ring turns a pale shade of green if you're sighting in on an enemy plane. That gun-sight also widens or narrows, I suppose to indicate a bomber or fighter. Like other parts of the game, it's sort of hokey and clunky, not near as sophisticated as EAW or CFS.

There is an in-flight mission map, but it is hard to read and hard to pinpoint your exact location on. And unlike the Screamin' Demons map---it does not show enemy or friendly planes.

Ratings? Wel-l-l-l, on a one to five scale---I'd have to give Nations a two---two and a half on a good day. It has some good stuff and it has some bad. It's not the best flight sim I ever played and yet is certainly not the worst <Luftwaffe Commander takes that hands down!>. It's not a high-dollar, sophisticated, spit and polished gem, yet neither is it a complete howling dog. Is it for everybody---nope! If your funds are short---don't spend your scarce bucks on it! But if like me, you enjoy collecting all sorts of flight sims and have the spare money to plunk down, then go for it. It really isn't that bad of a game and certainly has its exciting moments and good points. Again I am reminded of Screamin' Demons; if you had that game and liked it---you'll most likely enjoy this one too. CFS it ain't, nor even EAW, but from a company I have never heard of and possibly new to the business, it's a passable sim and maybe they will do even better on their next effort. Actually, with some more programming dollars invested, this sim could do very well indeed.

I checked the Psygnosis's website and they did list the game, but had no patches or add-ons there. Tech support seems a bit clunky <like the game>. Also, they wanted $39.95 for the game by mail order when you can buy it elsewhere for $29.95 or even less. When the game falls to one of those $9.95 specials at Walmart, then I would recommend EVERYONE picking it up just for the heck of it! I just can't resist a bargain flight sim! Can you?

Beowolff29@aol.com

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