To begin with, I'd like to share some tips about the game I found useful: 1) Use a gamepad or joystick; at least I found controlling the planes and turrets with keys alone hopelessly clumsy 2) Print the manual; you'll most likely need to consult it an awful lot in the beginning 3) Realize that this game is complex; it'll take more than playing through the tutorials to know how to truly handle the B-17 That said, B-17: The Mighty 8th is the worthy successor to my all-time favourite flying sim on the Amiga; a successor that retains most of the good in the original, and adds many new things that are mostly good. Compared to the predecessor, The Migthy 8th ups the complexity factor to the second power, but at the same time makes the AI a whole lot smarter, thus balancing things out. And a good AI is a necessity in a game like this: instead of commanding a single-pilot fighter, the focus on the game is on commanding the 10-man crew of perhaps the most legendary bomber of WW2. Your crew, with you being able to jump into any position at any time, must man the guns, navigate, drop the bombs and fly the plane. Naturally, you can obviously man only one position at a time, so the AI handles the rest, including the flying; the only thing it seems to suck totally at is dropping the bombs on target. In fact, like the first game, The Mighty 8th is an interesting flight simulator in the sense that you'll probably end up doing very little actual flying if any because, frankly, flying the heavy B-17 bomber is tedious. The only semi-interesting things are take-offs and landings, but they get repetitive quickly. The interesting bit is operating the Norden bomb sight to drop the bombs and man the guns when enemy fighters attack, and crew management when things go wrong. Apart from the gunnery, which the AI can handle adequately but is just something that's fun to do, the player's main responsibility is seeing to that the bombs go where they need to go, and manage the crew when things go wrong: sending men to extinguish fires, tend to the wounded and repair equipment. Sounds simple enough, but when you're attacked by vicious fighters, a fire breaks out and someone is wounded, it's hectic: you need to get someone away from their positions to deal with the problems, meaning less guns to shoot down the Jerries; you can't damn well command the navigator away from his position lest you get lost, and sending away either pilot is risky because if the other one goes down, who's to fly the plane? It is situations like this that are the best moments in the game: the ability to make tough decisions under pressure and see to it that the plane and its crew get home safe. But The Mighty 8th has an important lesson to teach: in war, no matter how good you are, a single moment of bad luck may be your doom. Even if you manage to avoid flak, shoot down fighters and drop the bombs on target, your friends may for example shoot down a fighter that comes crashing into you, or a falling B-17 may tear off your wing, or a nazi fighter may get in a lucky shot and cripple you. In this sense The Mighty 8th is both frustrating and realistic: there is no surefire recipe for success. In addition to the B-17 bombers, the game allows you to fly fighter jets of both sides, which I frankly don't enjoy half as much as flying a bomber, and play a full-scale squadron commander campaign. All in all, with interesting gameplay and (for its time) very nice and cinematic visuals (Memphis Belle fans take heed!), The Mighty 8th is very highly recommended to everyone into a challenging, complex and tough war game/flight sim. Be aware that it has its share of bugs, though: sometimes it seems to "forget" the customized controls, and occasionally a wounded crew member may get stuck in a position where he cannot be tended to. Despite these bugs, The Mighty 8th is an excellent game.
