Game Review of:
Red Baron II 
From the November, 1999 issue of PC Alamode Magazine 

OK.  In the June issue you got to read all about games.  In the whole issue, there was only ONE, count ‘em, ONE flight sim type of game.  And that one didn’t even have any guns in it!?  I’ve done a little flying myself, and it is a thoroughly enjoyable activity, but after a while, flying patterns around the field or trying to line up for that perfect landing can become,… oh,… a bit ho hum.  So any good pilot’s thoughts tend to drift a wee bit (while maintaining exceptional situational awareness, mind you) to the realm of what if…  What if you didn’t have to stay in the pattern while waiting for that twin engine Cessna to land?  What if it was really a German bomber coming to wreak havoc on your aerodrome! (‘er field…)  What if you could just line up from behind and below for a nice clean low deflection shot that would send the Kaisers henchmen spinning into the French countryside!!!  Enough "what ifs"!  Lets climb into the open cockpits of our flight of French Nieuport 17’s and take to the skies in search of the enemy! 

As his flight approached their target, Pepe’s thoughts ran back to his earlier days as a private.  Slogging mud, day in and day out in the trenches was something he’d never forget.  The shear terror of the battles and endless boredom in between had convinced him that the trenches were not the place to be in this war!  He wondered if his Hun counterparts thought likewise as they commenced their dive toward them.  Black and orange puffs appeared as the enemy saw them approach.  More adrenaline!  Wait… are those fighters?  Fokkers…, hiding in the sun, protecting their boys.  Pepe forgot the infantry below for the moment as he pointed his Nieuport at the closest Hun.  "They don’t know we’re here,"  Pepe thought as he closed the distance.  "We will slaughter them!  There are only three after all," Pepe said to no one.  One turned toward him.  "So much for total surprise," he thought.  Just as Cpl. LePieu engaged the first Fokker he noticed the other two enemy planes seem to hesitate, and then head toward him to join the fray.  "Good," thought Pepe, "my first fight won’t be against cowards at least."  Then an odd feeling came over him.  Something didn’t seem quite right about how those other two Fokkers were approaching.  They were coming straight for him!  He couldn’t believe those fools!  "My comrades will make mince meat of them if they all go for me!" he mused.  Then Pepe looked over his shoulder to see how his fellow airmen would handle such a tactical blunder by the enemy.  Air!…  Nothing but air was behind him!  

The Game
In Red Baron II, all your "what ifs" can finally be answered!  This game will put you in the thick of World War I aerial combat.  It will inspire you (to write stories about your pilots).  It will excite you.  It will keep you on the edge of your seat.  It will frustrate you to no end (when the enemy knocks down the balloon you were trying desperately to defend).  It will sadden you (as your wingman of the last 8 months augers in, filled with enemy lead).  You may find yourself mounting a fan just behind your monitor and slipping on a pair of old ski goggles just to eak out a bit more atmosphere.  You can fly for one of the four major nationalities that fought the Great War in one of 22 flyable planes.  There are 40 aircraft portrayed in the game.  Red Baron II is available at all the local software retailers.  It can be yours for between $30.00 and $55.00 so it pays to check around. 

Explosions from below told him all that he needed to know.  The rest of his flight hadn’t seen the Fokkers. The attack had begun!  No doubt, the other two Huns had hesitated only long enough to decide if one easy French kill was worth waiting to help their brothers below.  "At least YOU’LL pay for your mates indecision, Fritzie," Pepe screamed as he let go a fatal burst into his first foe.  "One down, maybe I have a chance," he thought. 

Red Baron II has several different modes of play for you to enjoy.  When you’re just starting out, you’ll probably want to try the training missions under the single mission option.  You can start out in the "easy" flight mode until you get the feel of the aircraft.  Once you get some proficiency under your flight cap, you’ll want to try the campaign.  In the campaign, you can start at almost any point during World War I.  After a hard day at work or school, you may want to jump right into the fly now mode and just shoot.  This pits you one on one with the victim, er… challenger, of your choice.  It is also very easily edited so you can choose the plane you and your challenger fly.  You can also pick the enemy’s skill level or let the computer pick all the settings randomly.  Once you find yourself winning more than loosing you will want to take the ultimate challenge and try fighting on line.  The game is currently supported on the WON and KALI game servers.  Red Baron II also has a mission generator that allows you to create any historical (within the games limits, naturally) or imaginative scenario that you can think up.  In virtually all areas, this game has a large number of realism, graphics and sound options that you can choose.  This allows for a great deal of customization. 

His first instinct was to dive to his fellow airmen.  Surely they would see the situation and offer some help.  Fortunately his training had taught him to ignore his instincts.  It felt awful, turning right into the stream of tracers emanating from the nearest Fokker.  He knew it was the correct way to fight, though.  His instincts would have gotten him shredded by Shultz’s guns by now.  "Thank God for veteran instructors like Sgt. Pepard," he thought, "All that training may have actually taught me something."  He grinned as he began to turn inside the Fokker.  "This one is for Sgt. Pepard AND his missing leg!", Pepe yelled as his next burst hit the Huns engine.  Pepe sensed hope now.  Where was the last one?  "Surely he is about blast me to kingdom come," he thought.  But what was this?  The fortunes of war?  Hun number three did not seem too sure of himself and was diving away!  Pepe actually felt badly for the fellow, he was only following his instinct after all.  That instinct likely cost him his life when Pepe’s short bursts found their mark. 

System Requirements
There must be a whole generation out there that would be mystified by this part of the article if they were just thumbing through the magazine in a doctor’s office or someplace.  "System requirements?" they would mumble, "why in my day, the only system requirements were a card table, some chairs, a few friends, and the game!"  Ah, how times change…  For this game, your computer needs a minimum of the following specifications.  It must be a Pentium 133MHz-based machine running Windows 95.  A P200 is recommended.  You need 16MB of Ram, with 32MB recommended, a 4X CD-ROM or higher, 130MB of space available on your hard drive, and have an SVGA, 256 color, or better, capable graphics card and monitor.  Unfortunately, at this time, there is no 3D available on this game.  The folks at Dynamix are working on a patch for that though.  Some optional equipment that will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the game would be a Windows compatible sound card, a modem, if you wish to play over the net, and a joystick with throttle and rudder controls.  Red Baron II supports Thrustmaster WCS, FCS and rudder pedals, and MS Force Feedback Joysticks, in addition to the more generic gaming accessories. 

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
I try to be at least a little objective when I write these kind of articles.  My opinion of this game is naturally biased because I like it so much.  That won’t stop me from sharing the dark side of the Red Baron II story though.  This game has received some fairly low ratings in many the ‘Professional’ game magazines.  The main reason for this is the fact that the game was released in a very ‘buggy’ state.  One particularly bad bug is the Dump – To – Desktop (or DTD) problem.  All of the sudden the game just quits and you find yourself back at the Windows desktop.  This can occur in the middle of a mission, but usually it happens at the end of one.  This is particularly frustrating if you just had a great mission.  What’s worse is that you can’t continue on to the next mission until you go into the directory and delete a certain mission file.  That’s the bad and the ugly.  The good is the fact that, after much testing, some done by yours truly, a very good patch was released and can be downloaded from http://www.sierra.com/, then click on ‘support’, then ‘tech support’, then ‘patches and utilities’ and scroll down.  I highly recommend it as it fixes a lot of problems.  Plus, you’ll need it to fly on any of the online servers.  If you enjoy surfing the net to learn about programs, check out this Red Baron II site for even more.  You can even get the patch from Cage.  All the screen shots came from his page as well, with credit given to the person who sent them to him. 

A row of holes was being neatly stitched in the stiff fabric of his lower port wing.  Ah, he remembered, the battle below…  He started a shallow dive toward the source of those bullets.  One burst, then another, then he lost count.  Two, maybe three rockets.  The fierce explosions ripped apart the enemy positions.  The concussions even buffeted Bebe about the sky.  There was no more fire from the ground.  Just as suddenly as it had begun, the battle was over… 

If you’re a fan of combat flight sim games, this is a ‘must have’.  Not only is it a very good physics based flight sim model, it also takes you on adventures using your pilot as the main character.  There is much more to this game than I could ever hope to tell you in this article.  You will be finding new and interesting things for months, years maybe.  You can get VERY involved (just ask my wife!).  If your tired of flying sims that require three masters degrees just to fly level in your ‘F–umpteen’, try this game.  Feel the thrill of a cloth-covered frame, a simple engine, a machinegun or two, and YOU!