As a child, when I first got my hands on F-19 Stealth Fighter, I simply couldn't appreciate its true depth. Now, three decades later, I've had the pleasure of fully immersing myself in its brilliance. If you're a fan of stealth games, this is an absolute must-play, just with a state-of-the-art aircraft as your protagonist.
The core gameplay loop is ingenious for its time: you set various parameters like location, enemy AI difficulty, and landing realism, and the game generates a unique mission with primary and secondary objectives. After poring over the briefing, you meticulously craft your flight plan and select your loadout. Once airborne, you're equipped with a suite of techniques and aircraft subsystems designed to keep you invisible. But beware: if you're detected on a high difficulty setting, good luck! As a bomber, your F-19 is slow and cumbersome, making it a poor match for the various fighters and interceptors that will swarm you.
Visually, the graphics were impressive for their era, and today, let's just say they're perfectly playable. On the control front, there's no rudder support, and disappointingly, no dedicated throttle axis on your joystick, which requires some adaptation. Nevertheless, the game remains perfect for picking up and playing an occasional mission. For the best audio experience, be sure to seek out the Roland patch – using a CM32L or MT32 will drastically improve the sound design.
My main critique revolves around the campaign's lack of depth. It's essentially an endless grind of accumulating points and medals without dying until you eventually grow bored, which prevents me from giving it a perfect 5-star rating. I also wished for more night missions to truly leverage the stealth aspect.
However, these are minor quibbles. F-19 Stealth Fighter is a fantastic game, and at its sale price, it's absolutely worth every penny – especially if, like me, you enjoy diving deep into the mechanics of the games you play.
