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Even if you’re not a study of history, fans of the David Puttnam-produced film Memphis Belle mustapply here as you take on not one, but ten roles on the legendary B-17 bomber. Strap yourself in, wearyour headphones and blast out Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries as you relive World War II.The Mighty Eighth were the US Army Air Force 8th Bomber Command. They had the unlucky taskof running daylight bomber runs over the specified areas of occupied Europe, striking military targetswith pin-point precision. Missing the target during the game won’t kill anyone real, but for those whoflew about the clouds it was a matter of life and death. Here, you’ll take on all ten roles – Bombardier,Navigator, Cheekgunner, Pilot, Co-Pilot, Engineer/Top Turret Gunner, Radio Operator, Bail TurretGunner, Left and Right Waist and Tail Gunners – aboard the plane from managing the campaign,through shooting down the German Luftwaffe intent on stopping your mission, to dropping the bigones themselves.
The options available to you include Quick Start, which drops you right in the thick of the action forthose who just want a brief blast, training missions which sharpen the skills of your team and to addrealism, Historic missions – those that the brave men actually went on to help win the war, with mapsof the actual terrain on which they fought including England, the Netherlands, France, Germany andBelgium.
There are also two campaign modes: Historical – this is the main game mode which provides you witha single plane and the crew with which to complete your tour of duty should you succeed. Do well hereand you must consider the Squadron Commander campaign – controlling an entire squadron of twelveB-17s and 120 crew members with over 200 targets to plan and demolish.
In addition to piloting the “Flying Fortress”, you can take on the role of an escort fighter in the P38Lightning, P47 Thunderbolt and the P51 Mustang, or for a change of pace, Stan Boardman’sfavourites, the Germans, in the form of the FW-190, BF-109, ME-262 Schwalbe and the ME-163Komet.
With a fully-working cockpit, there’s great attention to detail, but it can get overbearing if you’re notused to flight simulators. On a final note, my namesake, Dominic Robinson, was the Project Leaderand Programmer of this game. I was asked in the 80s if I had written the ZX Spectrum classic,Uridium. Sadly, I’m not him, I didn’t write that game and I wish I had his bank balance…
Overall: 3½/5
This review used to be on Freeloader.com but they have since closed.
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.