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THIS LATEST OFFERING FROM DID (Digital Image Design) and Rage, has been creeping up on the flight sim community, promising a fully dynamic campaign and elements of simulation and strategy, with a whole heap of action using an updated graphics engine from one of their previous games Wargasm. Typhoon is actually the latest in a line of well respected (and selling) flight sims by DID, including EF2000, F-22 and Total Air War.
Since its release in Europe 2 weeks ago, Typhoon has torn up the message boards, and created some debate about its status as a Simulation from the hard-core sim community. Those who are playing it are in general agreement, that although it's not hard-core in the sense of being able to control all facets of the aircraft, it does have some hard-core components, and taken for what it is (rather than what some would like it to be) it presents a huge amount of entertainment.
At the heart of Eurofighter Typhoon, is a full dynamic campaign. In fact, the whole game revolves around the campaign engine. With no single or training missions, or quick combat available, and no mission builder included, you are left to just dive straight into the campaign. You do however have the choice to start in wartime, or pre war where you get two missions to familiarise yourself with the plane. Once the war starts though, there is plenty of opportunity to use the typhoon and most people shouldn't have a problem logging on. One feature which helps throughout the campaign is the save function. Similar to many console games you can save your progress at any point including mid flight, and the game allows for multiple saves. This means you can jump back in time if you don't like how things are progressing, or replay some of the big battles at any stage without interfering with your latest campaign progress.
Set in Iceland in 2015, Russia is again the bad boy, and after a quick move through northern Europe, the invasion of Iceland begins. You are in control over 6 Royal Air Force pilots, who you choose from a list which displays their health, strengths and weaknesses, and other information such as their survival skills and personality. These choices are important as the campaign progresses. Your pilots can be shot down over enemy territory, and their survival skills could be the difference between capture or escape. If you are captured, personality counts to how you are treated, and you may die in custody, or even be rescued by the SAS.
Your pilots are placed in different locations in Iceland, and you are able to ferry them to different air bases at any stage, which you need to do for tactical advantage, when the huge Russian assault starts, and you need to get your pilots out of harms way. These pilots are your life. You lose 1, you are a little weaker, but not too badly off. You start losing more, and you really start to feel it. Less pilots means more workload for the others. They can even be injured and spend time in hospital, taking them out of the equation till they get better.
Your pilots are assigned missions, and you can jump into the pilot seat at any time during the mission. As the campaign progresses, it is not unusual to have 4 or five flying at one time, so while you are at the controls of one plane, AI takes care of the other pilots. The bottom of your screen has a pop-up pilots menu giving info on each pilots status and will jump up when something happens to your pilots. You don't have control over what mission is assigned to each pilot, and while they are waiting for missions, they chill out in the Officers Mess. throughout this you receive war reports via news bulletins. These provide very useful information about what is happening in the war, and warn of impending attack. There is also an overview map which can be accessed at any time and gives location of your pilots as well as being a tactical map of enemy advancement and territory. Another excellent feature which gives you information of the war in progress is the Smart view. A cinematic camera that roams the battle field show the unfolding action and jumping to the most important events. This is great to watch while waiting for your pilots to be assigned missions.
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