Strike Commander

Strike Commander went the extra mile by including a story with animated cutscenes- as far as I know, the only flight sim to do so. They look pretty good even today. This is the CD-ROM version, so it also includes voice acting, which isn't fantastic but is reasonable for this game's era. I classify Strike Commander as "simcade," which is exactly what it sounds like- the middle area between the 500 page manual you need for Falcon on one end and the over the top arcade action of Ace Combat on the other. That said, SC does lean somewhat more towards sim. You will not need to learn how to actually fly the F-16 in real life to play this game, but you will need to manage your radar, weapons systems, energy, fuel, and avoid high G's to prevent blackouts. It's not completely pick up and play- it took me a couple of hours to fully acquaint myself with flying the F-16. I can only rate this game 3 stars, and it's not because of poor gameplay but because of technical issues. I wanted to finish this game, but I hit a mission that stopped me dead in my tracks and I could not complete no matter what. I wondered if it was because I wasn't skilled enough at the game. As it turns out, the CD version of the game breaks when played at higher CPU speeds. Enemy pilots gain superhuman reaction speeds and launch flares which destroy every missile you fire. You're forced to use your cannon instead. That's not so bad, but I could not finish a ground attack mission because my air to ground missiles did not track targets at all. They flew in a straight line into empty dirt. I found a patch on the forums that fixed air-to-air missiles, but it didn't fix AGMs. The only way to avoid this is to reduce DOSBox cycles to around 10,000, but you're playing at nearly single digit FPS at that point. That might have been acceptable in the 90s, but it's a bad experience nowadays. Verdict: SC is not a bad game at all, but the technical issues get in the way of it being experienced as intended.

I remember playing this on my mom's 386 because the guy who built it gave us a copy, we're talking early 90s. This was a game that wasn't like anything I had played on a console and I can honestly say it had me hooked for an absurd amount of time. No other game I had played let me manage an F-16 merc squadron in the future. None! Controls were terrible! Had to use the arrow keys to pitch and roll, I forget what I had to go through to yaw back and forth... The story and mechanics had me hook line and sinker. I love this game. This game makes me believe that Chris Roberts will deliver on Star Citizen, eventually...

This is an automatic buy for most Origin/Roberts fans. For newer folks...This is basically an upgraded form of Privateer but on Earth. It has the same type of story trees, and missions. Ironically the story still holds up well in today's world.

My reasons why you *need* to play this game: -outstanding story -great graphics (for that time) -awesome setting -best. game manual. ever. Really. If you haven't played this yet, do it - it's like a blend of RPG, adventure and flight sim.

One of my personal top 3 games of all time. Flying was a pure adrenaline shot and the storyline second to none. Player immersion was greater than in most RPG games. I think Strike Commander owed that to very well made , deep characters that you immediately got very attached to and the level of personal interaction with squadron mates. This game aspect has never been picked up by later flight sims, something I miss terribly. 20 years later I am still crying on the inside, hoping for a sequel. The game also featured, in my opinion, the best manual book ever made for a computer game. Absolute classic!