SU-27

I found this game at Target for $10. After weighing the purchase for about ten minutes, I decided it was worth the risk. After all, I had read about the game and had heard good things. Then again, I had also read good things about Falcon 3.0, and, judging from the screen shots, that game would have found competition from games capable of being played on a 386.

After opening the box I was pleasantly surprised. A thick manual was included, as well as a map of the area to be played in.

As soon as I had the game installed I was shocked to find the initial interface looking like Microsoft Word. To open a mission you went through a file manager of sorts, not a prettily displayed list.

With a bit of a sick feeling in my stomach I started the practice mission. With the manual sitting on my knees I was soon up in the air. The graphics were much better that I had dreaded only seconds before, but what really struck me was the fluidity of the motion.

You see, SU-27 is based on a polygon system instead of a bit mapping graphics engine. The difference in frame rate is astounding. After playing SU-27, an older game, I could not go back to my much more recent games by Janes (ATF, USNF 97).

The amount of detail is also very good. When looking at the plane from an external view, you can watch the flaps deploy slowly, the gear open and lower, and the tailplanes shift. Another example is that, as opposed to the Janes line, when you deploy the airbrake it does not instantaneously extend or retact. Instead, the airbrake slowly deploys to its full extent. Yet another great bow to realism is that the flight characteristics of the plane change when the airbrake is extended, instead of the merely slowing the plane down.

Great frame rate, ultra-realistic flight engine, what more can one ask for? How about avionics and weapons modeling? The avionics model in SU-27 is the best I have ever seen. When you get a radar lock on an enemy plane and send a Semiactive-radar homing (SARH) missile on its way, the enemy plane will do everything in its power to break your lock. When your lock is lost, the missile will self destruct. If the enemy plane turns to a flight path that is 90 degrees to your own, you will likely lose lock. This is due to the nature of pulse doppler radars, and is a very realistic model.

When a missile is fired at a target beyond visual range, your missile will arc up and attack the enemy plane from above. A smoke stream will trail behind the missile until the rocket burns out, then the missile will coast to its target.

Ever wonder why the AIM-9 is called the sidewinder? Because of its flight path. As the missile spins for stability its flight path follows a corkscrew path. The SU-27 has a missile similar to the sidewinder, and it follows a similar flight path.

The only real weakness to SU-27 is that there are only about 25 missions that come with the game, and these are very biased towards ground attack, something the SU-27 was not specifically designed for. Yes, it can drop bombs and fire air-to-ground missiles, but the SU-27 was designed as an air superiority fighter as the Soviet answer to the F-15.

Luckily the game includes a robust mission editor that allows you to create missions to your liking. Personally I find this as a bit of a cop out, allowing the game to get by on limited missions. Also, there is actually a mission disk out as well that not only includes over 100 missons, but also upgrades the game engine to 1.5, improving the graphics and AI.

Finally, I have one last gripe. Although it adds to the realism of the game, all of the instruments and HUD data are in Russian. When the indicators start flashing warnings I have to pause the game and look in a book to discover what happened. The learning curve on SU-27 is made much steeper due to this language barrier. Remember, Russian is not only a set of different words, but they use a different alphabet. This makes learning the words very difficult. Supposedly SU-27 2.0 will include the option to use either Russian or English cockpit instruments/

All told, I would rate SU-27 as the best fighter simulation on the market at the time of this writing.