Previewed June 6, 2002 by Cat91

Developer: Third Wire Productions and Tsuyoshi Kawahito
Publisher: Strategy First Games, Inc.

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First Impressions: Tsuyoshi Kawahito, known as TK to his legions of diehard fans, is a legend in the world of combat flight simulations. His work includes combat-sim icons like Longbow, but his main claim to fame is 1997's European Air War, a game that is the stuff of legend among simmers and is still one of the two standards that all World War Two combat sims are judged against. TK is known for sims that combine attention to detail with unparalleled ease-of-use and accessibility to the player. EAW, thanks to this, was and is a vehicle to draw legions of casual gamers into the sim world, a game to create hardcore simmers out of those who otherwise would play arcade games alone. About eighteen months ago, Kawahito decided to make a follow-on to his classic EAW, and formed his own development studio to take on the challenge. Third Wire Productions is set to turn out this new highly anticipated sim, and in concert with Strategy First, a visionary publisher, has a concept that the Cat thinks is going to win a lot of fickle simmers over.

Kawahito has learned from the past. The phenomenon that gave EAW its legs is the latest crop of third-party modification experts-users who have the skills, talent, and time to create their own freeware games based on the original. TK watched EAW become a cult phenomenon thanks to this, and plans to open his new title to modders from the beginning. Strike Fighters: Project One is set in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Initially, it will only model U.S. fighter aircraft as flyable, including the classic F-4 Phantom, F-100 Super Sabre, F-104 Starfighter, and A-4 Skyhawk. However, its open architecture allows ease of modeling, and several new aircraft are in the works from third parties already! I recently got to fly an alpha build. Let's look at the game.

Graphics: This is going to be a mixed bag, gamers. The resemblance to European Air War is quite obvious when one first looks at the world. P1 is set in a fictional Middle Eastern country, giving the player a chance to play today's war-against-terrorism in a Kennedy-era setting. I think this is innovative, though obviously not historical. The advantage of the setting is that a lot of trees aren't needed-this is the desert, after all. The upside is fast load-times for terrain. The down-side is that the game is somewhat featureless. The city-buildings tend to "Pop" into view as the player approaches the city from low level, and the all-3d buildings themselves appear sort of blocky; I was reminded of Eidos's Joint Strike Fighter. The water terrains are reminiscent of Digital Image Design's Total Air War, and look painted on. Given that P1's competition includes Ubisoft's magnificent IL-2 Sturmovik and Lock On: Modern Air Combat, both of which feature moving water, weather effects, and 3d trees/forests, the terrain is going to cause pundits to howl if it is not updated before release.

Contrast this with TK's incredible attention to detail on the aircraft and vehicles. This game will have T-55 and T-62 tanks that rival UbiSoft's Flanker/Lock On series in their marvelous details. And the aircraft are works of art. The sun glints off the MiG-17's cockpit as your F-100 approaches it from behind. It gleams from the brushed aluminum finish of the American and Soviet aircraft that are game-standards. They have managed the best contrails I've ever seen, eclipsing even the graphically amazing IL-2 Sturmovik in this regard. Dynamic light-sourcing allows your afterburner to light up the cockpit, and as you wheel under the hot desert sun different parts of the fully-active instrument panel catch the sunlight as it moves. The cockpits are full-3d, but not clickable, much like Ubi's Flanker/Lock On series. The 3d aircraft are fully articulated, with moving control surfaces and landing gear. Gun tracers are bright yellow for the American aircraft and green for Soviet, as in real time. And the mirrors work! Missiles flame and trail smoke. Explosions are bright and crisp. Other than the terrain, this game will be on par with its competition, graphically.

Sound: I can't comment on sound-the sounds were all placekeepers. However, the German firm of Meatwater is doing the sound pack. Simmers will take note of this-the Meartwater sounds are regarded as the best in the business, and MW packs for European Air War and Falcon 4.0 revolutionized those particular sims. Expect excellent sounds.

Gameplay: Most of what I did were fighter-sweep missions, primarily in the F-100 Super Sabre. I can tell you that TK's attention to aircraft detail will extend to the flight model. Spins and stalls were present in the F-100, and if you think you're going to be able to yank & bank with impunity think again. This flight model won't be arcadey...unless you want it to be. TK is providing scaleability options for the user that allow basically anything from UFO to full-real. Padlocking is very similar to EAW, with several toggleable pilot aids. At present, snap views are not available, but this is going to be added before the game releases and the user will be able to map these to the joystick thumb-hat. The avionics have been greatly simplified-think EA/Jane's USAF here-but the rendering of the radar screens is very well done. You can see them in pop-up windows that remind me of the map view in MiG Alley, in a way, or the old Jane's Fighters Anthology. However, the all-3d cockpits remain on screen, with realistic view constraints and incredible detailing. Think Fighters Anthology with great cockpits and availability of user modification, and you'll be close to the Project One concept.

Weapons in the alpha include the AIM-9B, E, and E2 Sidewinders and guns. I'm personally 7-of-9 with the AIM-9E2, and have found that the game models realistic weapons constraints very well indeed. I had one miss with the Sidewinder take off into the sun, and the other miss was a successful defeat by the bandit. My kills were all visual-range no-escape tailpipe shots. Have you ever heard the clip from the Gulf of Sidra incident where two F-14s took on two Libyan MiG-23s? There is one point where the F-14 flight lead is telling his wingie "shoot him!" The wingie replies "I can't! I can't get a (bleep!) tone!!" This is how I felt a LOT in my F-100 against MiG-17s. I'd be right on top of him, and the Sidewinder wouldn't pick up! You have to be RIGHT in the cone to get him, and if there's others are around you might not have locked up the one you think you have. Suddenly, the Sidewinder's whine ratchets up in pitch, and you know you've got him! Fire! It makes for tense moments.

In one interesting pass I was flying the Rocket with a Woman Inside-the F-104G Starfighter. I lined up on an evil Ilyushin IL-28 and caressed the firing stud. The horrific "Zipper"-the M61A1 20mm multibarrelled Vulcan cannon-coughed for less than a second, and the IL-28's wing disintegrated under a hail of yellow tracers! It's obvious that TK's gang is still tuning the flight models on the AI-the Beagle didn't crash, but lazily arced into a turn with no wing. But the effects were spectacular! In the F-100, the sight is a gyro-stabilized lead computing World War II type sight. But in the F-104, if you lock on your radar the sight does a much better job of helping you track and zap the bad guy.

The campaign system is going to be dynamic, and believe it or not, female wingmen will be present about 20% of the time. Though not historical, it is a welcome addition to this game for me and fits in with the alternative-reality setting very well. Women simmers should be attracted to this game, and it is shaping up to be a great deal of fun.

Enjoyment: I really had fun with the alpha copy and it's still in development! It was remarkably easy to install and configure, and the bugs encountered were the type one expects in an early alpha copy.

Multiplay: This is planned for the release.

Overall Impression: This will be on the surface a game for the casual simmer. However, its accessibility to modders will ensure historical campaigns and aircraft of other nations in short order. Its only weakness is the terrain graphics, and I believe its accessibility and overall fun factor will overcome that weakness.

Marketing Efforts Toward Women: A-plus. We're going to be in the game. TK is aware that women constitute a large and active part of the gaming public, and we're not being ignored, unlike other recent releases. This is one women should watch, and buy when it hits the shelves.

Pros: European Air War-like ease of use; easy to use interface, dynamic campaign system, interesting and little-simulated aircraft

Cons: Dated terrain-graphics; U.S.-centric out of the box

Hardware

(Recommended) P-II 400 or AMD K-6/3 400 (P-3 600+ for best performance) 128 Mb RAM minimum, 256+ recommended DirectX 8-compatible video with at least 16Mb video RAM DirectX 8-compatible sound Internet Connection or LAN for multiplay

(Test) Authentic AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1400 MHz processor Soyo SY-K7ADA motherboard with ALi chipset & latest drivers PNY Technologies Verto GeForce 3 Ti 500/Detonator 21.83 512 Mb DDR SDRAM Aureal AC-97 sound (onboard the motherboard) Thrustmaster Fox-2 Pro joystick 40 Gb Maxtor main drive Koss TM-602 headphones with extension cord IBM 10/100 Etherjet network adapter Windows 2000 Professional Edition with SP2