textfiles/games/REVIEWS/jetf2.rev

 JETFIGHTER II

 From the moment you leave the ground in JETFIGHTER II, you can't help 
but be impressed by the smooth frame rate and sensation of speed when 
flying close to the ground. This sequel to the original JETFIGHTER, by 
Velocity Development for the IBM, certainly gets high marks for the frame 
rate and 256-color graphics. Unfortunately the air combat portion of the 
simulation doesn't rate as well.

 JETFIGHTER II simulates 4 different fighters: the F/A-18, F-14, F-16, 
and F-23 Advanced Tactical Fighter. Velocity guessed wrong about the 
AFT...the F-23 lost its bid to be the next next generation fighter for 
the Air Force, but it's still a worthy choice for a simulation. The AFT 
cockpit has state of the art multi-function displays (MFD's). A more 
conventional cockpit is used for the other three planes. The exterior 
appearance is different for all 4 aircraft.

 The 256 color graphics are very good. With the full detail options, you 
get a gradient sky and ground haze effect. The sky cycles through 
different colors, all the way through to a deep violet at night. The sun 
and moon rise and set, depending on the hour. About half the combat 
missions take place at night.

 The forward view covers a very large area of the screen. Many 
simulations reduce the outside view to keep the frame rate high. 
JETFIGHTER II manages to get a very good frame rate and still animate a 
large area of view.

 There isn't much ground detail. You can see a few fields and roads, and 
occasionally, small groups of office buildings or farm buildings. The 
only available area for flying is California, and San Francisco is shown 
in good detail. Windows in the smaller buildings light up at night - a 
neat touch. Dots appear on the ground at low altitude to help you judge 
your height. 

 I was very impressed by the sensation of speed. Most simulations have an 
unrealistically slow motion when near the ground. JETFIGHTER II, while 
still nowhere near the relative speed of the real thing, does much 
better than most flight simulations in conveying a sense of high speed 
near the ground.

 Less attention was paid to the flight model. The plane handles well, and 
there's a good sense of inertia when changing your flight path, but 
that's about it on the positive side. The aircraft does not lose 
altitude in a tight bank at slow speed, and turns are the same radius at 
all airspeeds. When throttling back from afterburner or full throttle, 
the aircraft loses speed much too quickly... it's as if you popped a 
drogue chute every time you chop the throttle. Stalls are unrealistically 
forgiving, but the slow speed performance during landing is good.

 The missions all start at a home air base or aircraft carrier. A free 
flight mode lets you check out the aircraft and practice landings. The 
carrier catapult is good, if a little weak in the sound department. The 
carrier recovery is outstanding... the best I've seen so far in a flight 
sim, mostly do to the impression of speed. An ILS system helps line you 
up on approach, and then disappears from your HUD at the last second so 
you get a clear view of the carrier deck. At night the sea and carrier 
are both very dark, which gives you a realistic adrenaline rush when 
landing. The only thing missing is a "meatball" on the carrier to indicate 
approach angle... you'll have to use the ILS and your eyes on final 
approach. 

 Adlib/Soundblaster effects are hit and miss. The engine sound is muffled. 
It almost sounds like an airliner cabin, but it's not bad. For some reason 
the sound gets quieter when you light the afterburners. The wheel chirp 
when landing sounds realistic. There's a very good explosion sound when you 
auger in, but no sound at all for bombs or enemy plane explosions. 

 The 124 page manual describes the basic operation of the aircraft, but 
does a poor job of explaining the weapon systems. Advanced hyper-velocity 
missiles are available on the AFT but are barely mentioned in the manual. 

 The game includes a joystick calibration routine which you do once, then 
you save the parameters to disk. The joystick control is very good, with 
no tendency to drift. A keyboard control option is available, but a mouse 
may only be used for menu selection, not controlling the plane.

 The scenario for the combat missions is right out of a Dale Brown 
novel. Latin American rebel drug dealers have invaded California, backed 
up by private air force of high-end Soviet aircraft. Maybe this is a 
good excuse for using the San Francisco scenery database from the 
original JETFIGHTER game, but I would have preferred a more realistic 
scenario.

 The game has 120 different missions. You can select them individually 
or play in "Adventure" mode, which simulates the course of a war against 
the rebels. Your success or failure then determines which missions you 
get and how the war progresses, but the game is still selecting from the 
same list of canned missions.

 I was very disappointed in the actual combat missions. They follow 
the same general format - you're usually given three ground targets, 
and there are two or three enemy planes in the air. A single SAM is 
fired at you soon after takeoff, which you can shake easily by dropping 
flares and chaff. That's the last you'll see of enemy ground fire except 
for a decorative but harmless flak burst effect every now and then. 
Ground targets are completely undefended - you waltz right in and bomb 
them without being shot at once. After you take out the two or three 
enemy planes in the air, the program generates no new ones. 

 The enemy planes are not very aggressive in the majority of the 
missions... you can circle lazily and they often won't even shoot at 
you. In the higher numbered missions they are more likely to shoot 
back, but still curiously unaggressive compared to other air combat 
sims. At the highest numbered missions you'll sometimes get one that 
will climb on your tail and be almost impossible to shake. At one point 
I throttled down to 150 KTS, and saw from the target display on the MFD 
that the MiG right behind me was doing 500 KTS but still not passing me 
(or shooting). 

 Some of the missions are very strange from a design standpoint, like the 
one that has you blow away three unarmed, unescorted transport planes. 
That kind of thing may happen in war, but I felt more like a terrorist 
than a combat pilot while flying that mission. All of this is especially 
frustrating because there are no difficulty levels to set. It's all at 
the same easy level.

 Weapons are the usual range of air to air missiles, but the only 
available air to ground ordinance is iron bombs. No Mavericks, no 
Paveways, no Rockeyes... none of the "smart bomb" technology you would 
expect on an advanced fighter. There is no computerized delivery system. 
A target designator lights up on the HUD but there is no other assist 
for bombing - you just eyeball it. 

 JETFIGHTER II lacks any other features that would help sustain interest. 
There is no custom mission builder, and no camera replay. So the main draw 
is the smooth frame rate and slick 256 color graphics. A confirmed flight 
simulation fanatic might want it just for the carrier landing - that part 
really is very good. A beginner at air combat sims might appreciate the low 
threat level of the missions. But most fans of air combat simulations are 
used to being shot at now and then, and having to fight their way in to a 
target. For them, JETFIGHTER II is a pretty shell with no real substance. 

 I experienced lockups on three of the missions. Velocity has released 
a patch to correct these bugs, and it's available for downloading in the 
Compuserve GAMPUB forum. The game will not run under the QEMM memory 
manager, you must boot from a Dos floppy to run it. An update is available 
to correct this too, but it requires contacting Velocity and mailing in 
your original game disk for a replacement.

 There is no copy protection. Velocity deserves credit for helping 
support the trend away from copy protection. 

 JETFIGHTER II is published and distributed by Velocity Development.