It has been a couple years since we had an outbreak of WWII Flight Combat Simulations and one thing that has been made known by the prop sim community is the need for a game set in the pacific theater.  The fact of the matter is we haven't had a pacific era sim in the 3D age so it's long overdue.  Microsoft with its successful Flight Sim 2000 and Combat Flight Sim comes back with the answer to the sim communities request with Combat Flight Sim 2: Pacific Theatre.

Combat Flight Sim 2 is a major improvement to the original CFS with better looking aircraft, better AI, the addition of wingmen, better mission/campaign system, and of course the whole thing is set in the pacific.

Planes
CFS 2 features 7 of the most sought after and requested aircraft in any WWII Sim to date. There are also 11 other planes in the game that are not flyable out of the box, though just a week after the game hit store shelves, are now flyable due to unsupported add-ons by some creative minds in the CFS 2 community.  You can see most of these here.

Player Flyable Aircraft

• Mitsubishi A6M2 (Model 21) Reisen (Zero Fighter) or "Zeke" (JNAF)
• Mitsubishi A6M5 (Model 52) Reisen (Zero Fighter) or "Zeke" (JNAF)
• Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden (Violet Lightning) or "George" (JNAF)
• Lockheed P-38F Lightning (USAAF)
• Vought F4U-1A Corsair (USMC)
• Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat (USN)
• Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat (USN)

Other (Non-Player-Flyable) aircraft

• Nakajima Ki-43-Iib Hayabusa (Peregrine) or "Oscar" (JAAF)
• Nakajima B5N2 or "Kate" (JNAF)
• Douglas TBD-1 Devastator (USN)
• Aichi D3A1 or "Val" (JNAF)
• Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless (USN)
• Grumman TBF Avenger (USN)
• Mitsubishi G4M2 or "Betty" (JNAF)
• North American B-25D Mitchell (JNAF)
• Douglas C-47 Skytrain (USAAF)
• Bell P-39D Airacobra (USAAF)
• Consolidated B-24D Liberator (USAAF)

2D cockpit
Each of the flyable planes features its own 2D Cockpit with working gauges and controls that can be manipulated with the mouse. Hovering your mouse over any control also invokes tool tips, which pop up and let you know what each control or gauge is. Below are images of each of the 2d cockpits for the flyable aircraft.

3D Virtual Cockpit
The flyable planes also feature a 3D Virtual cockpit which is where I spend most of my time in the sim.  I dislike the ability to turn off the panel and have a view with just the gun sight and have grown quite fond of the 3D view both in plain and padlock modes. In 3D view the top row of gauges work however they aren't very readable.  Here again are images of each of the virtual cockpits.

Details
One of the most notable improvements of CFS 2 is the amazing amount of detail that has been added to the FS/CFS engine.  From landing gear animations, moving control surfaces, tail hooks, and realistic damage modeling it seems that no detail was left unturned.  Realistically a lot of these details are non functional and purely for cosmetic reasons but with today's graphic accelerators I doubt gamers will complain about the added eye candy.

The graphics in CFS 2 are the most visually appealing of any flight sim I have witnessed to date.  The planes look so detailed some of the screenshots look like actual photos. The planes are weathered quite well also, which gives them that battle proven look as opposed to so many Sims where the planes are in just-from-the-factory pristine condition.

Damage modeling is done very well with very realistic bullet hole decals that give the appearance of metal punctures with the shiny aluminum showing around the edge of anywhere bullets hit your airframe.  When you get hit the damage report also scrolls across the top of the screen to let you know what plane hit you where. Get damaged too much and your plane with smoke or even worse catch fire.  Here are a few shots showing off the damage:

Besides bullet holes other forms of damage are modeled such as smoke, fire, and leaks.  The smoke and fire effects are very nicely done.  There is nothing like watching your bandits smoke trail off into the distance and disappear into the waves. Leaks such as hydraulic fluid are basically modeled by a different color of smoke but still to a long way to showing your planes current state.

Another one of the fine details portrayed in CFS2 is the ejecting brass as you fire your weapons. Admittedly this is a novelty inclusion though it is neat to switch to an external view and see the brass eject.  The gun firing sounds also includes the sound of the brass rattling and ejecting which helps add to the realism a lot more as you will notice this in real playing.

The clouds in CFS 2 are a love hate relationship.  Some love the thick clouds that are so easy to lose a pursuing attacker in while others can't stand the sometimes blotchy and dithered look to them.  I have to say there are times they don't look all that great but for the most part I am not doing an analytical examination of them, I am flying and trying to lose or pursue a bandit and for that they are quite functional.

Another detail that has sparked a lot of controversy on the boards is the spinning prop animation in 3D view and the lack of prop animation in 2D.  This is another quite nitpicky subject as far as I am concerned, as I do not intend on calling people over to show them how nice my prop is spinning.  I typically spend most of my time in the aircraft looking past the prop so the quality of the animation isn't that big of a deal to me.  I am however glad that it is there due to the fact that it does semi obstruct your view and adds to the immersion of the sim.

Another welcome addition to CFS 2 is the fact that you now have wingmen that you can communicate and work as a team with. You are automatically assigned wingmen in Campaign mode, which you can command and will help you in tight spots. Wingman commands include:

• Attack
• Help Me
• Rejoin
• Split

Seeing as you are the Squad Leader you have to tell your wingmen to attack and its quite handy to be able to call out for help when you get a bandit on your six.

Seeing as CFS 2 uses the same code base as the Flight Simulator 2 Engine there are several added realism features that you can either use or just skip such as the engine starting sequence.  You can simply press the E key to start your engine or you could chose to bring up the checklist and follow the actual start up sequence.  All of the controls on your dash work.  Other details include cowl flaps, dive breaks and fuel management.

Game Types
There are six game types in Combat Flight Sim including Free Flight, Instant Action, Single Mission, Campaign, Multiplayer, and Training.  I will go over the highlights of each in the following paragraphs.

Free Flight
If you just want to take a plane up for some relaxing non-combat flight to get a feel for the planes or just want to do some pacific sight seeing then Free Flight is just that. In Free Flight you can select the aircraft, location, time of day, and weather and fly till your hearts content. You can practice landing and taking off and work on your combat maneuvers to hone your skills.

Quick Combat
No sim could be complete without the instant action mode and this will probably be the first place veteran simmers will visit. In instant action you can set up quick combat missions that put you directly in the action.  You have the option of Dogfight, Escort, and Bomber Interception.  After selecting the game type you can select the enemy type, level of experience and how many planes per wave as well as weather new waves should re-spawn after you have dispatched the previous wave.  Just like Free Flight you can also select your aircraft, starting location, time of day and weather.

Single Missions
In single mission mode there are 10 missions each for both Japan and America, which mostly re-enact various historic missions.  Several of the missions recreate high points in various pacific Aces careers such as when Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and the Black Sheep Squadron faked out the Japanese on October 17, 1943 by flying in a V formation making themselves look like an unescorted squadron of bombers.

Singe missions are also where your homemade missions you create with he mission editor will show up in the game as well. Just a few days after the release of CFS2 custom missions created by end users started hitting the net and before long there will be so many you won't be able to keep up.  You can check our sister site SimFiles for custom add-ons and missions for CFS 2 and sign up to receive email notices whenever new add-ons are uploaded.

Training
If you are not an experienced fighter pilot the first thing you may want to do in CFS 2 is to take advantage of the training provided. In the training section you have a flight instructor that will talk you through 10 training exercises as either American or Japanese covering everything from the basics of Taking off, Landing and Loops, to basic combat maneuvers such as the immelman and split-s and finishing off with the long awaited carrier approach and landing.

Campaign
The two campaigns modes allow you to fly as either an American or Japanese pilot through a branching series of missions that combined can number as many as 130 missions. Most missions start on either the deck of a carrier or the runway and typically require you to fly to the action or you have the option of pressing X and skipping directly to the action after take off. At the end of the missions you can chose to land at your base or carrier or simply press x to skip that.

Missions vary from Air-to-ground, air-to-ship, and air-to-air missions each one portraying either actual historical missions or something approximated.  Many of the missions require close nit teamwork from your squad mates to accomplish your mission goals. The campaign in my opinion is by far the best campaign I have ever seen in a combat flight sim.  It is so easy to become totally engrossed in the campaign that you will probably have war flash backs from years to come.

Flight Model
One of the biggest controversies of any sim is the flight model and its accuracy or inaccuracy as the case may be.  Keep in mind I have not flown a real airplane before in my life so I only have the knowledge that I have obtained from listening to other pilots and reading accounts of real WWII pilots to go by.  I do however have several friends that do fly which have been quite happy with the flight model in CFS 2 and in my opinion it feels good.

Spins
Another of the best additions to CFS 2 that was very obviously missing in the first Combat Flight Sims flight model was spins. A spin occurs when one wing stalls (loses lift) before the other causing a corkscrew "spin" towards the earth.  Recovering from a spin is as simple as centering your stick and countering with opposite rudder and building enough airspeed to level off.  However spins can be fatal at lower altitudes where there isn't enough time to recover before hitting the ground.

Scalability
If accurate flight model isn't that important to you and you just want to play have no fear, as the realism in CFS 2 is very scalable and you can turn off or turn down several of the realism characteristics. There are 3 levels of flight model: Easy, Medium, and Hard as well as the ability to turn on or off sun effects, g-force effects, unlimited fuel and ammo.  You can also set 3 different degrees of weapon effectiveness to help you get quicker kills.

Graphics
As I have said before in several earlier sections the graphics in CFS 2 are outstanding.  The other thing is like the flight model they are very scalable and there are tons of options to adjust to get maximum performance out of just about any Processor/video card combination.  There is a basic slider for 6 different levels of graphics or you can go into the advanced graphic properties and find tune it even further.

I tested CFS 2 with both a Voodoo5 5500 and a 32 MB GeForce 2 GTS both of which gave very satisfactory results.  My preference would have to go to the Voodoo5 with 2X or 4X FSAA (full scene anti-aliasing) enabled, as the visual quality is simply stunning.

There is however a problem with CFS 2 on the Voodoo5 in where if your mouse hovers over a control or gauge on the 2D cockpit, invoking the tool tips to pop up a description of the control, you suffer an substantial drop in frame rate.  The readme file states as much as 90% decrease in frame rate and their solution is to replace the video card. I probably don't have to tell you I am not about to replace my Voodoo5 so this is quite unacceptable and I hope it is address with a patch in the near future.  In the meantime I just keep my mouse away from the cockpit controls when in 2D mode.

On the GeForce 2 GTS the graphics are equally as stunning though I didn't notice any advantage over the Voodoo5.  When I attempted to enable FSAA on the GeForce however the game became a slideshow and was very jerky.  I was also surprised to see that the T&L option in the advanced graphics options didn't have as significant of an effect on the frame rate as I had expected and it actually improved my frame rate on the Voodoo5 as well which doesn't even support T&L.

Sounds
The sound in CFS 2 is a vast and welcome improvement over the original game. Each plane has its own unique engine sound just like its real life counterparts and they sound fabulous.  Though I can't judge how authentic they are I do know they are among the best I have heard in a flight sim. When in a close quarters dogfight you can almost forget it's a game the engines sound so real and then there is the sound of the guns.

Machine guns and cannons on the planes are incredibly realistic sounding with just the right blend of bang with just a hint of that metallic tone of ejecting brass. These are in my opinion the best sounding guns of any flight sim that I have ever owned and they add to the immersion factor more than you could imagine.  The sounds from inside the plane are much different than the sounds from the outside view as well.

One disappointment, though easy to overcome, is that lack of any sign of in game music.  Though this is more a matter of preference and music of past sims haven't appealed to all it would have been nice to have a simple CD player option or better yet and in game MP3 player (hint to all future sims). As I said this was easy to overcome by simply minimizing CFS 2 and firing up WinAmp and then switching back.  I often found myself totally immersed in the campaign while jamming away to the latest Fear Factory and Slipknot and literally losing track of hours.

Multiplayer
The multiplayer in Combat Flight Sim 2 really hasn't changed from the original.  In our interview with CFS 2 Program Manager Tucker Hatfield he stated that only fixes would be added to the multiplayer and some things to prevent cheating.  He also stated that there wouldn't be any new gameplay types added till possibly CFS 3.

Up to 32 players can play either a team game or deathmatch over TCP/IP, IPX, Serial and Modem.  Players over the internet have the option of finding games at the MS Gaming Zone (http://www.zone.com/). You can also join games by ip address so you can set up games over IRC or ICQ and then all meet in the game as well.

In multiplayer the only real options you have for the game are the realism settings and the victory requirements. Unfortunately you can't use clouds, weather, and time of day in multiplayer.  For Victory requirements your options are none, first person with X kills, or last player alive.

Internet play is relatively lag free and seems to be quite solid from a connection standpoint. Rarely did I see any warping and never did I get disconnected. One of the nice things is that you can join a game in progress which means you don't have to wait for everyone to get there before flying.  This is especially nice when trying to find a game on the zone at 3am.

During my multiplayer testing I found several bugs which proved to be quite annoying such as the fact that the game doesn't save your pilots name so you have to enter it each time you play unless you play over the Zone. The lobby interface doesn't seem like it was well tested either as several times a button such as the settings button would take the focus so when you type a line in chat and then hit enter, instead of sending the text to the other players, it registers a click to the settings button and takes me to the settings screen.  This was even worse when kicking a player whom had not responded.  After kicking him I typed is everyone else ready and hit enter and kicked (by accident) the next player in the list. Though these are small bugs they are annoying.

The biggest bug I found had to do with collisions. Collisions occur at distances as much as 50 to 80 feet apart which, really makes you want to avoid a head on attack.  This has been a subject that has come up in every online match I have played in and we saw the same thing over the LAN as well.  If that weren't enough some of the times you seem to spawn and explode instantly leaving and this seems to happen in pairs.

Mission Editor
The biggest and most requested addition over the original CFS is the inclusion of a very comprehensive Mission Editor.  With the editor you can create very complex missions and scenarios, which only adds to the replay value of the game. Within days of the games release a Pearl Harbor mission was uploaded to SimFiles as well as some Japanese carrier operation missions. The beauty of including the tools to create your own missions and campaigns is the incredible amounts of user created add-ons that will make the sim live on for much longer than your typical game.

Support
An unfortunate falls on a lot of Sims is the lack of support after its release. The general reception on the various CFS 2 forums out there are quite positive though there is quite a bit of talk requesting a patch to fix several issues with the game.  Issues include things like the collisions happening from to far away and the loss of roll ability after a few hits are getting a lot of attention. In a recent interview with Program Manager Tucker Hatfield that GameSpy posted, when asked about a possible patch in the works, Tucker suggested that there were no plans for a patch however they would put out a patch if critical issues were found.

Conclusion
Combat Flight Sim 2 is simply leaps and bounds ahead of Microsoft's previous offering.  The improvements and additions are already winning over the favor and respect of hardcore flight sim enthusiasts and with its expandability should keep it there for some time to come. If you've always wanted a Pacific Sim your time has come. Though there is not much to offer in the multiplayer realm the single player experience in CFS 2 is right on target. I know this game will remain on my hard drive for some time to come and for that reason Combat Flight Sim 2 gets our Editor's Choice Award.  Great job Microsoft now how about fixing the little annoying issues and making this the best sim ever.

Review by: William Gall
Date: October 23, 2000

Related Links:

• Interview with Tucker Hatfield
• Interview with Tucker Hatfield Part 2
• SimFiles (User Created Add-ons)
• The Hangar (To get mods to fly non-flyable Aircraft)
• CombatSim CFS 2 Forum