FlightSim.Com Reviews: Air Warrior III

Air Warrior III

by Michael Hewitt (6 Apr 1998)

early 10 years ago, Kesmai introduced Air Warrior, the first online multiplayer air combat simulation that would enable simmer's to fly to the skies and test their skills against real players. Now they have released Air Warrior III (published by Interactive Magic), which has incorporated the use of 3D hardware and Direct 3D to improve the graphics and game play. Kesmai used photos from actual war planes to display accurate cockpit designs and aircraft features. The flight models for these planes have been developed from test flight data in order to deliver a realistic flight model.

The airplane graphics are good and the sunglare really adds to the visual effects.
As an offline game, it provides you with over 450 missions to play, either in campaigns or independent missions. The campaigns are set in WWI, WWII (Pacific and European) and the Korean War. Although most of the missions consist of dogfighting, there are times in which you may be called to perform a bomb or torpedo attack, transport troops to a designated area, or to capture a enemy building. These missions give a bit of variety to the game and help to keep the player from getting bored of just dogfighting all of the time.

Playing it online offers you countless missions and enables you to fly 40 different planes and fight against players all over the world. You can also drive tanks, jeeps, and trucks to assist the battle from the land. The AI in the game can be somewhat predictable after a while, but a human player can be erratic and do unexpected things. Online playing requires a team effort in order to accomplish the objective and everyone who plays are instrumental, no matter what vehicle you are in. Online playing also offers network speech that supports up to 16 players in the air, which eliminates the use of numerous key commands to communicate to other players. This is a great feature because it doesn't require constant key punching for commands, you can discuss strategies during flight, or just have a friendly chat with someone.

Gameplay

If you have never played a flight sim you would be well advised to test fly some of the planes available to get the feel of how the planes maneuver. Each plane is different in their own way: one plane is able to turn faster than another, or it might be able to climb at a faster rate. Getting to know the different flight characteristics of several planes will benefit both beginner and veteran players. If you just want to jump into a plane and shoot down some airplanes, choose the instant action at the main screen. A word of advice, use the view keys often because an enemy can quickly fly by, get on your six and shoot you down. This happened to me more than once before I started to use them.

Chalk up another kill. Notice the big black and orange ball that appears when the plane explodes.
The graphics are good, but not great. When I first played Air Warrior III, the view from the cockpit brought back memories from one of the first flight sims I ever bought: Chuck Yeagers Air Combat®. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, its just that it doesn't seem that there is anything unique or game breaking about the design. The graphics for airplanes, buildings, and land features are pretty good with the Direct 3D acceleration, if you have the system to utilize it. The graphics for the explosions and smoke are out dated and are not very realistic. When a plane is hit, it starts to smoke and the smoke looks like black circles plotted behind the plane in smaller sizes. When a plane explodes, it blows up in a big black and orange ball, and there are no remnants of the plane left.

When I first looked at the keyboard reference card, I wished that I had a programmable throttle and joystick. The reference card contains nearly 120 different key commands and some of them require you to punch in long strings of text like this one to have your flight form up with you: 'flight form. Keep this card handy at all times and use the pause button regularly until you can remember what the commands are.

The game also comes with a mission editor in which you can create your own single missions. You can set things such as the era (WWI, WWII, or Korean War), flight groups, aircraft and vehicle types, waypoints, and targets for mission objectives.

System Requirements

The minimum requirements for this game are a P133, 24 MB RAM, 60 MB HD space, Windows 95, 2X CD-ROM, DirectX 5 compatible video card, keyboard and mouse. Recommended requirements are a P200 or faster, 150 MB HD space, 8X CD-ROM, DirectX 5 compatible sound card, joystick, and a 3D accelerated video card.

I played this game on a P166 MMX, 32 MB RAM, CH F-16 Combat Stick, Yamaha OPL3 sound card, and 4 MB ATI All-in-Wonder video card with Rage II chip. The game played pretty smooth with all of the features turned on, with the occasional pause while panning views. The joystick tended to drift while playing but this was fixed by increasing the deadbands and damping through the setup in the main menu.

Conclusions

This plane is going down in flames, but not for long.

This game offers a different game style than those of advanced military combat aircraft sims in that it relies on your skill as a pilot, not the technology and weapons of the aircraft, to determine your success or failure in a mission. Although the graphics and visual effects are not amazing, that is not what defines how good a game is. The realistic flight models of the planes really adds to the gameplay because it requires you to study and learn the fine points of each plane, and this will make you an even better player.

I enjoyed playing Air Warrior III because it gives you the opportunity to fly airplanes from some of the greatest eras and fly in some historical battles, like the attack on Pearl Harbor or Battle of the Bulge. I have not yet played Air Warrior III online, but I can assume that it would be a great experience to fly as a pilot, bomber, gunner, or even a truck driver. I would recommend Air Warrior III to anyone who is interested in playing this either online or offline. But if you are looking for a flight sim with stunning graphics and visual effects, I would recommend that you invest into another game other than Air Warrior III.

You and your opponent are one. There is a coexisting relationship between you. You coexist with your opponent and become his complement, absorbing his attack and using his force to overcome him.

--Bruce Lee

Michael Hewitt
Email: michael.hewitt@mailexcite.com

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