FLYING CORPS is (sort of) a sequel to Dawn Patrol. Both are World War I flight combat simulations, but Flying Corps has the campaign structure that Dawn Patrol sadly lacked.
You’ll be flying one of six warplanes, all dating from the later part of the war. Surrounded by a plane made of canvas and wood, and armed with one or two machine guns, your job is to clear the skies of the enemy. Sometimes even harder are the other missions you might be given: strafing enemy infantry positions, destroying observation balloons, and bombing vital bridges.
Flying Corps (Empire)
The six planes you can fly include the Nieuport 28, Spad XIII, SE5a, and the famous Sopwith Camel for the Allies. Flying for the Germans lets you pilot the Albatross DIII and the Fokker DrI Triplane, made famous by the Red Baron, Manfred von Richtofen.
There are lots of other types of planes in the sky, including bombers, reconnaissance craft, and two-seater fighters. In fact, sometimes there are so many planes in the air at once that the hardest job is knowing who NOT to shoot at!
There are four campaigns within Flying Corps, as well as a sprinkling of single missions. In Spring Offensive you fly for the British in 1918, and your main task is to support the ground troops in their offensive. In The Flying Circus you fly as Lothar von Richtofen, the Red Baron’s younger brother. Your mission is to overtake his tally of enemy kills. You also fly for the Germans in the Battle of Cambrai in 1917. You must delay the British advance at all costs. The Hat in the Ring campaign sees you flying as Eddie Rickenbacker for the United States. Can you equal his historical total, and win the Medal of Honour?
These campaigns add a huge amount to the game. In Dawn Patrol the graphics were lovely, the flight model felt nice, but the game was just a bit dull. With campaigns you really get into the swing of things. Once you achieve command rank you have to decide on how many planes and squadrons will go on particular missions. If morale falls too low due to high losses, you might be replaced, regardless of your personal tally. You also get to choose your plane, and paint to your own design.
FA -18 Hornet Flying Corps (Empire)
In any flight simulation, it’s the graphics that can really count. In Flying Corps these are great. On a fast Pentium, with lots of Ram and a good graphics card they are superb. There seem to be dozens of planes in the air at once, the clouds are hazy, and the ground detail is brilliant. There are lots of options for graphics, so you should be able to get just the right balance between clarity and frame rate.
Sound effects are neat too, with the throaty roar of your engine, and clatter of the machine guns hammering away. You can hear planes swooping close by, and sometimes the sound of your plane being riddled with bullet holes. There are cut-scenes for each campaign, as well as animations for funerals and medals.
You can play Flying Corps as a real simulation, with all the difficult options turned on, including adverse yaw, gyroscopic torque, blackouts, bomb drag, slipstream effects, or you can have unlimited ammunition and invulnerability. Flying with all the hard options certainly makes you respect those aviation pioneers – these things are hard enough to fly, let alone shoot at anything!
Flying Corps requires a Pentium 90 PC, 16 megabytes of Ram, quad-speed CD-Rom drive, soundcard, and mouse. It recommends a Pentium 133 and joystick. It can run under Dos or Windows 95. Empire say they will bring out a free Windows 95 upgrade allowing multi-player fun. Watch the Web site at
http://www.empire.co.uk
The box includes navigation maps for the various campaigns, and a reprint of a manual entitled Practical Flying, written in 1918.
Flying Corps is a good solid flight combat game. It’s the best World War I game out at the moment, but it is going to face real competition when Red Baron II from Sierra is released in a few months. Of the two of them, I suspect that Red Baron II will prove to be the real ace.
Visit the Flying Corps home page
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