I was going to review this, but am on vacation at the moment so didn’t get to it. One nice resource to get a feel for what is included are the downloadable PDF mission briefings and maps here - they are very nice:
I’m going on vacation tomorrow, didn’t play it yet either. Got it with the pre-order, and I’ve read some AARs and tips by @wagmatt and Steve Davies on the ED Forums.
Seen the first spoilers too.
Personally, I’d like to wait for a bit so the bugs get ironed out. Not just the campaign, but remember NTTR and 2.0 are still in alpha too. I just want the full experience and am prepared to wait.
An example: Wags said something along the lines of: as it stands now, you should wait for permission to taxi to runway, but don’t worry about take-off permission.
I don’t want to have to think about what’s working and what isn’t, so I’ll wait but I’m very thankful to all those people who are already playing the campaign and reporting any bugs they find.
So please, go fly the Red Flag campaign everyone!
Honestly though, I’ve read only positive impressions.
This just looks awesome. I’ll dig in to pages 60-70 of the BelSimTek F-15 manual yet again to see if I can ever kill an AI Mig or Su without getting destroyed first.
I just finished flying, replaying, and editing the videos for mission 3 and I am blown away. This campaign has to be Wags’ magnum opus as a mission designer. The participants, call signs, weapons loadouts, air defense locations, routing, are all just perfect. It is as if I were playing a Command: Modern Air Naval Operations scenario in real-time. So far, it has been difficult but not overly difficult if I paid attention during the briefing.
(Whether I paid attention like I should have or not is another story. )
Yeah, dynamic campaigns would be nice but I don’t see any way for a game engine to reproduce something like this.
I absolutely agree with you about the campaign. Like many others I consider the dynamic to be an important factor in creating “immersion”. However after completing the fifth mission of the red flag campaign I absolutely believe that a well done “story line” like this one can be just as immursive. Maybe just without some of the replayabilty of a DC.
I have been printing the briefings before work, then reading through them while on break. By the time I get home I am ready to do my part.
After completing the campaign, I can see coming back to this every so often like a good book.