PREVIEW
For a lot of oldtimey hardcore dogfight simmers, the Korean War is either the last of the Good Old Days or The Beginning of the End. Sure, you had jets, but you didn’t have radar-guided missiles that locked onto enemy planes from miles away; nosiree, if you wanted to shoot down an enemy plane during the Korean War, you had to do it the old-fashioned way—by getting into a down-and-dirty dogfight. And doing that in a Sabre jet is an entirely different proposition than doing it in a Spitfire.
Empire Interactive’s MiG Alley promises to let you simulate one of the most fascinating and most neglected aerial campaigns ever—the air war over Korea from 1950 to 1952. It will allow you to pilot some of the most advanced prop-driven fighters ever, as well as some of the most rudimentary jets. And since it’s being produced by Rowan, the creators of the terrific Flying Corps World War I air combat sims, you just know that the flight models will be spot-on and the history accurate. And in fact–at least from what we’ve seen on the beta we’ve been playing–this game could be not just the finest Korean War sim, but one of the finest sims we’ve ever played.
First of all, MiG Alley’s got a boatload of great features, including the ability to play configurable quick missions that will permit you to fly as either the Communist or Allied side. You can also fly (but only from the Allied side) small campaigns that cover specific periods of the war—the push to the Yalu, the Chinese Intervention—as well as a full-blown entire war campaign. The campaigns are scalable enough to allow you to command the entire air war, or just worry about flying your own mission. They’re also dynamic; fail to take out that essential bridge in the Communist suppy line, and it’ll make a difference in the ground war. The campaign looks awfully deep, along the same sort of lines of Falcon 4.0’s, only 50 years earlier, and will let you fly a variety of missions, from CAP to ground attack. For all its complexity, however, the campaign interface looks very intuitive and informative, and was a snap to use.
We’ve also been very impressed with the graphics, which are not only attractive but somehow convey the gritty atmosphere of the Korean War—planes look great, and the cockpits are very nicely modeled. The game claims to allow dogfights with up to 200 planes in the air at the same time, and while checking out the beta we got in a couple of furballs with a couple dozen enemy planes. There was no slowdown, and man, it was cool—like EAW, only with much faster planes. Even more impressive are the landscapes—the barren hills of Korea look extremely realistic, even when you’re on a very low altitude bombing run. Jets leave dirty exhaust trails, and contrails appear at high altitudes; clouds are some of the best I’ve seen. As terrific as the graphics are, the sound is just as awesome. Fly near an enemy jet, and the roar of the plane hits you like a wave; your own engine’s whoosh sounds remarkably authentic as well, as do weapons effects. The game’s also got great radio chatter; your wingmen will let you know if you’ve wandered off, and they’ll keep you apprised of any situations that develop.
But all this detail and eye candy goes for naught if the flight models aren’t there; fortunately, as in Flying Corps, Rowan delivers. One of my first tests with any flight sim is to try to get into a stall or a spin. Very often, that’s one of the most difficult things to do in mainstream sims, but it’s not in MiG Alley. The first time out in a Sabre jet, I got it into a flat spin in no time; it was even easier to do (and historically accurate) in a MiG. Multiplayer will also be supported, with up 12 players dogfighting over network and up to eight over the internet.
MiG Alley looks to be an aficionado’s dream. It’s deep, beautiful, and full of the sort of small, realistic touches that demanding simmers drool over. If the ambitious campaign design doesn’t fall apart because of a rushed release (like Falcon 4.0’s) and if it can be melded with incredible flight models, this could be the sim to beat. We can’t wait to get our hands on it when it appears later this fall.