The Red Baron: The Past and Future of WWI Flight Sims

Rise of Flight

On April 21, 1918 a red Fokker Dr. 1 triplane was shot down over Somme Region of Northern France. The pilot who died, Manfred Von Richthofen, held the record for total number of enemy aircraft downed in World War 1. His 80 victory's in the skies over France guaranteed that he would forever be remembered as the Red Baron.

This April marks the 91 anniversary of the Red Barons death, so to honor him and the other pilots of WWI, I reinstalled my old copy of Red Baron II and started playing. It still plays just as good as I remember, and once I installed all the patches to make it Red Baron 3D I was back in my old stomping grounds. Flying over France in my Newport 17 with my wingmen I spotted a patrol of Albatros D.II's flying below us. So with the sun at my back, I dove in to attack. A swirling dogfight ensued and 3 of the 4 German scouts went down in flames. My group lost one plane. Unfortunately, he was shot down while passing through the wide circles my enemies and I were engaged in. And I'm pretty sure he was shot with my guns. I got my patrol back to base and sure enough the debriefing stated I shot down my own aircraft. We wont talk about what happened next because it really dosen't matter. What I will talk about is what's next for the WWI Flight sim genre, and why we should be excited.

Rise of Flight

As of late, the flight sim genre, in general, has been getting a little light. Microsoft canned the developers of their flight / combat flight simulator series. Ubisoft's IL series saw its last commercial release in 2006 with nothing new except a console re-release on the horizon. And Sierra, the once proud publisher of great flight simulators (Red Baron, Aces of the Pacific, Aces Over Europe) has been reduced to making truly awful games as of late. With Red Baron Arcade, Sierra's parent company, Activision/Blizzard is trying to cash in on a good franchise by dropping this poop bomb onto the public. This game is by far the worst game I have ever played. Some poor bastard will download this game thinking about their childhood memories and how fun the original was. What they will get to play is about as pleasant as being sodomized by a Vickers Machine Gun. Now I know that is not a lovely picture but, I want anyone who thinks they want to download Red Baron Arcade to think about that last quote.

World War I flight simulators are are few and far between these days. I long for the days when we get a umm...modern WWI flight sim. There have been add-ons for Microsofts Combat Flight Simulator. Over Flanders Fields, Is a wonderful mod that is truly something to behold. It is a wonderful addition that should tide anyone over till the next game comes out.

That next game is Rise of Flight by developer Neoqb. This WWI flight sim seems to have the substance to make it the spiritual successor to Sierras Red Baron. Rise of Flight is set during 1917-1918 Europe and features all the major players of the WWI conflict. The games single player campaign has a Red Baron 2 feel with its deep dynamic mission structure. The whole western front, 125,000 square kilometers are there to patrol. The following missions will be available at launch: Correction of artillery fire, battle reconnaissance, bombers convoy or interception, dogfights with WWI top aces. In this game the war is a living thing. While your flying you'll see artillery fire, the worlds first tanks moving across the front line, trains going to and from cities. In the skies, large formations come to life as you swoop in and out of danger firing at the enemy watching his plane break apart all shown off with remarkable graphics and even better physics that makes Rise of Flight a feast for your eyes.

Rise of Flight

All these bells and whistles come at a price. The system requirements alone push this game to the niche area of software. Here is what the Rise of Flight web site states as recommended system specs.

Platform: PC
Operating system: Windows® XP (SP2)/Vista (SP1)
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Quad 2.6 GHz
RAM: 3 Gb
Hard disk: 8 Gb
Videocard: 768 Mb, compatible with DirectX 9.0c, with support of Pixel Shaders v3
Audio: compatible with DirectX 9.0c
Access to the Internet: 256 Kb/s

Joystick: compatible with Direct X 9.0

A beast of a system is going to be required to show off what this baby can do. Here's hoping that work picks back up again so I can afford an upgrade to a new computer. Another point of contention that got some fans fired up is the fact that the game requires you to be online even if your playing single player. I think its just to upload your kills to the website or it could be a form of DRM but some people who only have dial-up or cant get service is S.O.L..

I really haven't seen much on the multiplayer but I'm sure as the beta,which just started, gets further along we'll get some answers on that. Its all coming together nicely. So much so that I'm sure Manfred would be proud.

Rise of Flight Trailer