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Wings Over Vietnam

Those who will onlysettlefor the best in terms of flight model fidelity and cutting-edge graphics should let this one fly on by.
Review Score: 6.9 | Release Date: Nov 8, 2004

TheVietnam Waris a fascinating and underused setting for air combat simulations. Planes of the era were transitioning from subsonic and transonic fighters that relied mainly on guns to down other aircraft to extremely powerful and fast fighters like the F-4 Phantom that were built as missile-delivery platforms. These fledgling wonder weapons weren’t nearly as effective asplannershad anticipated, and American pilots had to face the dual threats of enemy aircraft that were designed for dogfighting and the most sophisticated network of antiaircraft defenses the world had ever seen. Wings Over Vietnam lets you experience much of the flavor of the conflict, but it’s fraught with problems that can be very difficult to ignore.

A number of fighters and strike planes from the period are flyable, including several variants of the versatile F-4 Phantom II, nimble A-4 Skyhawks, ponderous A-6 Intruders, and the tough F-105 Thunderchief. Players also can climb into the cockpit of the obsolescent F-100 Super Sabre, the A-7 Corsair II, and theF-8E Crusader. Planes from the other side of the conflict sadly are not flyable, and while each plane’s strengths and weaknesses are represented well overall, the flight models aren’t exactly cutting edge. Planes can pull off extreme maneuvers that would turn real pilots into puddles of flesh from sustaining too many Gs, and some of the planes like the F-4 and F-8 are extremely difficult to stall no matter what crazy stick inputs you use. Pulling too many Gs causes a pilot to black out, but the plane still responds to stick input, making it possible to switch to an external view and continue with your extreme maneuvers. The drawback is that the plane bleeds off a lot of energy if you keep this up, but it still makes it possible to cheat by switching to an external view just long enough to line up a tricky shot. Quirks aside, each plane still works best in its intended role, and if you don’t abuse the flight model, there’s plenty of entertainment value in this package.

Three campaigns are included: Operation Rolling Thunder, Linebacker, and Linebacker II. They are dynamic, but the lack of mission variety makes it difficult to sustain interest. Each sortie begins at base, where players can arm their aircraft via an excellent loadout interface. With all of the realism settings enabled, setting up a plane so that it can properly strike its mission target, defend itself, and still have enough fuel to make it home is tricky, since it is often necessaryto tradebombs for external fuel tanks. Air-to-air refueling unfortunately is not implemented.

Mission briefings are absurdly terse, and no information is provided about what weapons are best suited for the assigned task. This won’t be a problem for Vietnam buffs who know better than to take 250-pound bombs to blow up the Dragon’s Jaw bridge. It’s the beginners that face a steep learning curve. Most missions involve multipleflightsof aircraft, with fighters providing top cover for the strike planes. However, the briefings provide no information about the other types of planes involved in the mission.

In the air, dogfighting has its moments of intensity, but the computer-controlled pilots–both friends and foes–routinely make idiotic mistakes. F-4s tend to get into extended turningengagementswith vastly more maneuverable MiGs, and they also tend to close to a very short range instead of engaging targets from miles away using radar-guided missiles. A few of the enemy planes we flew against were tenacious fighters, but most were glad to fly in perfectly straight lines as we fired missile after missile up their tailpipes, regardless of the difficulty settings that were chosen. Sim jockeys that are itching for areal fightwill be relegated to playing inmultiplayermode, which relies on the HyperLobbymatchmakinginterface.