Review:

Red Baron was arguably the undisputed king of WWI simulations nearly ten years ago. While the graphics are quite primitive by today's standards, the flight model has been praised as one of the best in the business. Now, with great anticipation, comes the long-awaited sequel to that game, Red Baron II. Featuring a superior graphics engine, multiplayer support, and some incredibly well-rendered cockpit art, the Baron is back.

The graphics in Red Baron II are quite attractive. the game supports both 640x480 and 320x200 screen resolutions. In the higher res mode, the game looks superb. No hardware acceleration support is provided, but the game looks just fine without it. The planes are modeled very well and look quite authentic. Throughout the game, the terrain texture mapping looks very good. For some reason, at higher altitudes, the hills suddenly lose detail and look more like abstract geometric shapes. The cockpit art is outstanding, but there are some problems with resolution in the virtual cockpit. Terrain objects are polygon-based and have a realistic look to them. Sound effects are well done, and the music sounds good and is consistent with the time reference.

You have three choices when it comes to playing the game. A "fly now" option allows you to jump instantly into a battle and simply dogfight your heart out. This is a welcome option for those adrenaline jockeys out there who want to be able to jump into a fight and get a quick fix. I admit that I am that type of sim pilot myself, and always appreciate an instant action option. For those that prefer a little more intelligence in their combat, single missions are also available. The game includes seven stand-alone tutorial missions, fifteen standard missions, and five "ace" missions. A minor complaint, but for some reason these appear in your choice list in reverse. That is, the ace missions appear at the top of the list, and the tutorials at the bottom. Not a problem, but curious nonetheless. If a career is your forte, then you will be pleased to find campaign modes where you may fly as an American, British, French, or German pilot.

Customizing the game for your particular tastes is quite easy. There are enough options to please just about anyone, including many levels of realism, AI, graphical options, and more. There's even an option to reduce the graphical level when you go into battle, to speed up the frame rate when you need the boost.

The flight model feels very inaccurate for planes of the WWI era. They handle too well and don't shimmy or stall as easily as they should. They feel more like WWII era planes, to be truthful. While most gamers would probably find a totally accurate flight model more annoying than anything else, it should have been implemented for the die hards out there. The game is heavily weighted towards dogfighting, and I must say that aiming and firing a plane in Red Baron II is incredibly difficult. This is where I had the most difficulty with this game. There are no realism options that make hitting planes easier, and it is extremely difficult to take out an enemy. It's a satisfying feeling when you finally do cut off a bogey's wing or riddle his fuselage with bullets, but it is something that you won't see until you've spent a lot of time with the game first. You'll end up being shot down many times before you finally begin to get good at it. It's frustrating, to say the least.

Red Baron II comes with a mission builder, so that you may design and fly your own custom missions. If you have an artistic touch, you can also customize your plane in the plane paintshop. Rearrange the patterns that are included with the planes in the game, or create your own for a totally custom look.

Multiplayer support is included with Red Baron II, including free Internet gameplay on Sierra's Internet Gaming System. Multiplayer options are limited to dogfighting.

Excellent unaccelerated graphics, no hardware acceleration support. "Fly now" option allows you quick access to the action. Many configuration options allow you to tailor the game almost any way you like. Flight model is too forgiving, and the combat model is extremely frustrating.