Other reviews (excepting that one El Bizarro reviewer who says not to get this one, but to get Comanche vs. Hokum instead - that series doesn't let you fly a Hind, so exactly how is it 'better'?!) have hit the nail on the head as to how fun this sim is, I'll just fill in some of the gaps. If you're hesitant about buying a sim about ugly-looking Russian hardware: Don't. The Hind is like the ugly Russian A-10 gunship of the East. The sucker flies up to 300kts, getting as close as 50' to the ground - a scary thing in real life that is just exhilarating in this sim. Couple this with a nasty turreted cannon, streams of rockets slamming into targets ahead of it, and capable anti-tank missiles (and air-to-air combat), and this sucker is a nasty battlefield presence. It flies, at times, contrary to what US gunships would. For instance, you can hide behind hills, taking out AAA and SAMs at an airfield, and then go straight towards the field at 250kts and blast everything down to ruins with the gun and rockets - something an Apache just wasn't really designed to do. It's a very unique experience. Couple this with the fact that the Hind has a large bay in the midsection that can offload troops, or take on wounded from the field, and the sim delivers a very diverse, challenging, and unique set of missions. You can even taxi to a runway and do a semi-normal rolling takeoff! It features a very functional and extensive mission planner (for anybody who remembers, it is basically the same thing from the old DI Tornado sim). Has a full suite of training missions, single missions, and then campaigns. For the cost of this game you are more than getting your money's worth! And the graphics are very clean, crisp, and highly detailed! The airfields are alive with other helos flying, jets landing and taking off, troops walking around, etc. You can also play it with, or without a joystick - just a matter of tuning the flight model to your method of flying. An exceptional purchase.
It's fairly obvious that all but a single reviewer on here have never actually purchased and played the game that GOG is offering here, and for a simple reason: They mention Dani Bunten and 'their dad played this in his childhood'. Dani Bunten had *zero* to do with this version. This game was designed by SEGA, and unless your dad is just now turning 21 then he most certainly did not play it in his childhood. This is a re-imagining of an old 8-bit Atari and Commodore 64 game of the same name, but the gameplay is significantly changed in this version - for the better in some cases, but for the worse in most others. Certainly the graphics and sound are improved, but outside of that ... The original game that Dani Bunten designed was rather lacking on any clear goals in the gameplay: You just sailed around, marched over the land, and explored the map. You could slaughter entire native tribes, plundering them of their gold and food, and basically have no penalty for doing so. After a while you retired from explorations. This version has a totally different gameplay dynamic: The Spanish crown gives you objectives, and if you fail to meet them within the allotted time, they basically consider your voyage a failure and withdraw support. You can't slaughter enemy tribes anymore without severe punishment. Exploring the map is tougher, and with less fanfare (in the original 8-bit a little ditty would play and announce thing such as "You have discovered the mouth of a major river!" In this version absolutely nothing happens: You're just mapping endlessly). I've yet to even discover a lost city of gold - whilst the original game always had 2 hidden-away on the map. The random world generator of the original game, which logically placed mountain ranges and rivers, is kinda not as good in this version. I've seen quite a few rivers running through the deserts! GOG should reset the reviews on this tedious, lackluster game. People are basically reviewing a whole other game!
