FlightSim.Com Reviews: Su-27 Flanker

Su-27 Flanker v1.2

by Michael Hewitt (6 May 1998)

The instrument panel is very detailed and knowing what they are for can be a bit confusing, the Russian lettering doesn't help either.

inding a realistic military flight simulator that employs airplanes other than those of the U.S. military, is very hard, if not impossible, to find these days. SSI has delivered probably one of the most realistic combat sims on one of the worlds best fighters, the Su-27. The Su-27 was first conceived by the Sukhoi aircraft design bureau in 1969, took its maiden flight in 1977, and entered service in 1985. The Sukhoi Su-27 is unofficially called by Russian personnel "Zhuravlik", which stands for Crane, and is designated by NATO as the Flanker. The Su-27's quadraplex fly-by-wire remote control system and radar with track-while-scan and look-down/shoot-down capability makes it very agile and lethal in combat situations.

The flight model includes all of the parameters that affect the flying of the plane: thrust, drag, lift, induced drag, angle of attack (AOA), altitude, pressure, temperature, weight (which is a function of fuel burn and weapons delivered), inertia, and various other factors. Weapons demonstrate characteristics that would occur in reality: acceleration/deceleration, fuel burn, launch parameters, radius of turn, proximity detonation, size of blast, kill probability, etc.

You can really notice the detail of the ship, right down to the gun turrets. I hope they're not too mad about me shooting at their ship.

The setting for Su-27 Flanker takes place on the Crimea Peninsula, which is rich in mountains, steppes, and lakes. The game includes 12 other airplanes which include bombers (Tu-22, 95 and 142), F-15, F-16, Mig (23, 27 and 29), Su (24 and 25), AWACS (A-50) and a transporter (IL-76). The game also has a mission editor in which you can create a simple or very detailed mission. The game does not come with a campaign or quick flight option. It also has a head to head network play option so that you and your buddies can fly against or with one another.

Instruction Manual

For a complex game comes a complex manual. Some parts of the manual looks like a physics textbook with explanations like "drag is proportional to the square of the airspeed and, hence, drag increases geometrically with increase in airspeed requiring ever greater thrust levels." It also has detailed descriptions of weapons, air combat, surface combat, SAM's, AAA, and missile defense. This manual is aimed toward experts and people who want to learn more about the Su-27. Reading the manual at first can be a bit mind numbing, but if you are a serious flight sim nut, you probably have a basic understanding of what is being described. For those who are just discovering the exciting world of air combat simulations, the game comes with GameBuster's "Su-27 Flanker: Official Secrets and Solutions". This book is half the size of the manual (100 pages) and describes the same things that are in the manual but in a more generalized manner.

Lets see if I can do this the right way without being shot down again. The color of the weapons contrast nicely against the airplane providing a good look at the payload.

Gameplay

Getting started was a bit confusing with the out of place window based interface where you have to open existing missions from menus and toolbars in order to start. There are many training missions which allow you to familiarize yourself with the flight and weapon characteristics of the airplane. If you think that you can do a bank roll for an extended period of time at a constant thrust power, think again. As you initiate a bank turn, lift decreases due to drag , gravity, and too great of an Angle Of Attack (AOA). This causes your airspeed to bleed off dramatically and the thrust must be increased to help compensate. If not, when your airspeed drops below a certain threshold, you lose critical control of the airplane (something which caused me to be blown out of the sky a few times in the beginning) and may cause the airplane to spin. Fortunately, the game comes with training missions on how to perform a spin and how to recover from them.

Pop chaff and flares, turn on the jammers, and pull hard on that stick if you don't want a missile up your tailpipe.

The games graphic engine uses polygons for airplane and object design instead of bitmaps. The polygon shapes are crisp and smooth which makes them less pronounced and the shapes of SAM, AAA, vehicles, and ships are detailed very well. This is an outdated graphic design, but in the newer version, 2.0, it will have improved graphics and incorporate the use of 3D cards. It will not, however, employ the use of Direct X or Direct 3D but will use OpenGL for the 3D API.

The AI of the game is one of the hardest I have seen in a combat sim. In almost every mission there are SAM's and AAA all over the place which require you to either fly at low altitudes (50 m or 168 ft) to reduce detection or fly at high altitude out of their range. The AI of the enemy airplanes really keep you on your toes (well, fingers) and can make you hit the silk more times than you would like to. The AI for the planes, SAM's and AAA can be adjusted at the menu screen. The learning curve for this game is about 3 hours, and can take longer than this to get accustomed to.

This type of interface is an odd occurrence in flight sims but it serves its purpose.

The game is Thrustmaster system compatible and comes with files of standard settings and can be changed for individual preferences. This is all right if you have a Thrustmaster system, but for people like me who don't, we are stuck with using the standard joystick or the CH Flightstick Pro type. These types lack some essential functions (chaff/flare, lock on/off, target selection, and trim controls to name a few). Hopefully, the new version will be compatible with more joystick and throttle types for programmability. The need for H.O.T.A.S (Hands On Throttle And Stick) is highly recommended for Su-27 Flanker.

System Requirements

The minimum requirements for this game are a 486/66, 8 MB RAM, 8 MB HD space, Windows 95 or DOS 6.0 or higher, 2X CD-ROM, 1 MB video card, keyboard and mouse. Recommended requirements are a P100, Windows compatible sound card, and joystick.

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 ran very smoothly with the detail turned up on the highest setting.

This missile will, hopefully, take out the Su-27, but the other one is closing in fast.

Conclusions

Su-27 Flanker is one of the best combat flight simulators that I have ever played. Although the graphics are outdated by today's standards, they are still finely detailed and smooth. The only fault I have with the game is the lack of more joystick types. If you enjoy highly complex and detailed flight sims, this is the game for you. If you don't like reading thick manuals with words you haven't heard before, this may not be the sim for you, but GameBuster's "Su-27 Flanker: Official Secrets and Solutions" can relate the manual in a more simpler description. I would strongly recommend this game to either a beginner or veteran player simply because it is an excellent combat flight simulator and you don't need a monster of a machine to play it.

Michael Hewitt
Email: michael.hewitt@mailexcite.com

[ Back | Main Menu | Logout | Help ]