Apache Combat Zone (PC CD Jewel Case)

Discount Price: $49.99

Features:

• 3D visual effects and 60 play levels to appeal to hard-core simulation fanatics as well as newcomers.
• Contains all the REAL weapons systems, specialized Black Box avionics, radar & infrared guided missile systems just like the real Apache!
• Jump right in with arcade action and blow up enemy tanks and ground vehicles or take command of this lethal simulator in realistic campaigns around the world.
• PC: DOS, Windows 95/8 DOS Mode

Customer Reviews:

Excellent, Even Today [Posted on 2006-03-30]
While overshadowed by Jane's Longbow and Longbow 2, this game has them beat in a few areas. For one: this game is one of the only helicopter simulations to have trees. While newer games may sport trees, they lack the feel of a simulation. They're more like arcade games.

PROS:

Great AI - both ground units and air units react intelligently and aggressively at the higher difficulty levels. Aircraft make high-speed passes at your chopper then break to avoid you engaging them on egress. Helicopters may or may not engage you, depending on their advantage. Ground units engage you at maximum range and coordinate to bring you down.

Carrier Landings - while the Apache doesn't perform these in real life, it's nevertheless entertaining to assume the role of a Marine aviator and try to place your chopper on the deck of the U.S.S Tarawa (a helicopter carrier) while it's in motion and wind is blowing you around. Sometimes you're even under attack, with destroyer escorts launching SAMs at incoming MiGs!

Fly Wing - you don't have command of your flight. You go it alone or fly wing to the rest of your flight. Sometimes the canned missions have flight-paths that are suicide missions and you'll want to break off from the flight and head into the hills, but in other instances, at the higher difficulty levels, it pays to stick with your flight. They're good and sometimes they can complete the mission without you. Othertimes, they require your escort, but I've flown many a mission where all I do is blast incoming aircraft and SAMs/AAA, letting my lead or other elements take care of the mission objective.

Campaigns - while not up to Falcon 4.0's dynamic campaign, the canned missions in the campaign nevertheless are well thought-out and are pseudo-random in the sense that sometimes you'll run into particular enemy elements and othertimes it's clean-sailing. The most interesting aspect is that you're flying in little-used scenarios. Sure, there's a Korean campaign, but there's also Yemen and Cyprus.

The World - There's a lot of stuff going on in this game that's not related to your flight. Longbow is relatively boring when it comes to this aspect. MiGs will attack your carrier group, destroyers launch SAMs, F-14s and F-18s will dogfight with them, other Apaches are on missions, ground units battle each other with artillery and cannon fire, Mi-24 Hinds patrol advancing units in support of them...

CONS:

Graphics - This came came of age when DOS games and SVGA 640x480 resolution were at their maturity. Only 2 years later, the world witnessed Longbow 2 with full 3DFX support. Sure, there's no texture to the terrain, but there are trees and bushes to help you fly by looking out the window. However, just a little texture would be nice, especially when things get busy and you forget to check the altimeter. I've cruised into the ground many a time simply because I was out over flat barren land (not where you should be in a helicopter, anyways) and not paying attention to my altimeter.

Campaigns - Ha! A PRO and a CON... The campaign progresses through stages with the possibility of 2 missions for each stage. If you lose a mission, you fall back a stage and have to fly the mission you didn't fly the first time. However, if you win, then fall back again, you'll be flying one of the two missions you've flown previously again. Winning, losing, winning, losing, and winning and losing again happen frequently enough at higher difficulty levels to make reflying the same mission 3 or 4 times VERY BORING.

No Flight Control - By this, I mean, you have no say over what the other members of your flight do. Flying wing is fun and your lead is usually pretty good, but it'd be nice on some of the obvious suicide missions to tell your lead to fly wing and follow you. Yemen is full of vast desert plains and it pays to stay in the hills. Who wants to fight through the miles of SAMs/AAA that populate the desert plains? Furthermore, the MiG-27s that are usually up will have an easy time finding and killing you out there.

Flight Model - The flight model lacks quite a lot. I'm not sure what it's SUPPOSED to feel like to fly an Apache, but I can guess what it's NOT like to fly one. There's an over-whelming sense of flying on a rail and a real gap in the flight model under high bank-angle. I'm sure some of the things I've done, like bank at 90 degrees and pull for a full 180 degrees without losing much altitude, aren't possible. The turn rate during such maneuvers seems excessive, as well.

In conclusion, this game is oft-overlooked, even by people that like helo sims. The AI, obscure campaign theaters, carrier landings, and feeling of being part of a real war with lots of stuff going on around you, make this game worthwile. The relatively (RELATIVELY, mind you) poor flight model compared to say, Hind, or Longbow, and the canned missions are only minor nuissances. And in the real military, you don't have say when it comes to flight planning and tactical control of a formation if you're not the lead. So the other CONs ought to thought of as adding a level of 'hyper-realism'. For $5, why not? Just know that you need DOS or Win 95/98. I haven't tried it on other systems, such as Win 2000/ME/NT/XP.

Note: Some early versions only contain a DOS version. This game came out nearly simulateously with Windows 95 and a later release, while appearing identical, sports "Windows 95/DOS" on the box. Make sure you know what you're getting as the Windows 95 version is mature and doesn't suffer from some bugs such as occasional crashes that happen when commands are issued, etc. If you get the DOS only version, you'll need to download and apply some patches.

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