Wings

1991 KevätOnce modern jet fighters had been milked dry, the software houses had to turn their gaze elsewhere. The Second World War has already been covered in passing in a few flight simulators, but the slow, clumsy propeller planes of the first Big Rumble are still practically untouched. First to the rescue is Cinemaware with its latest game.

In typical Cinemaware style, Wings throws role-playing elements, simulator and action game into the mix. At the start of the game the player picks a character, names it and hands out 'power points' to whichever attributes they like. There are twenty-odd points to share between flying skill, gunnery, engine repair and stamina. Having created the character, the player has to earn their wings, that is, prove their competence. Then comes a combat flight on which you have to pop a single hot-air balloon. Beginners normally burst the balloon by flying straight into it.

With your wings earned, the pilot's career then gets under way. The game has three kinds of mission: dogfights, bombing runs and ground-attack runs, in which you fly right down at ground level and stitch the enemy full of holes with your machine guns. The dogfights are done in vector graphics, with the pilot's head visible in the foreground of the picture. The way the face is turned shows where the enemies are. The bombing runs are shown from directly above the plane, and the strafing runs from slightly above and behind the plane, off to the left.

Cinemaware's programmers are clearly not used to vector graphics, since the dogfight sequences are rather slow. It doesn't bother you much, though, so the slowness can't be counted as a big minus. What does give cause for grumbling is that, at least at first, most of your flying time goes on looking for the enemy. Some kind of 'radar' showing the enemy's position would have been in order.

Once you've found the enemy, it's great fun to hold the fire button down and stitch the blighter full of holes. In the thick of the fight you have to be careful the whole time not to collide with other planes. Every now and then it's also worth glancing behind you, in case the enemy has managed to sneak up on your tail.

Despite all precautions, death strikes sooner or later. The game then shows a fine, cinematic sequence in which the plane spins smoking towards the ground. To heighten the effect, the view then switches to the cockpit, where you find the pilot slumped over the instrument panel. The howl of the engine, the trickle of blood running down the pilot's neck and the ground rushing wildly up towards you create a strong urge to get out of the plane right here and now.

The bombing and strafing runs are fairly ordinary sub-games of the kind found in middling action games; you'll play them all right, since they beat a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. The role-playing elements are forgotten after the initial character creation, and there's no character building to speak of beyond leafing through a diary.

Graphically Wings is up to Cinemaware's usual high standard. On the sound side, all one can say is that the Americans still haven't learned to make decent music or sound effects on the Amiga. With a few exceptions, you might as well switch the sound off altogether. There's no complaining about the playability; the joystick and mouse controls work flawlessly. There's perhaps a smidgen more to hold your interest than in Cinemaware's earlier 'movie games'.

All in all, Wings is a perfectly pleasant simulator/action mix that will keep you entertained for a few evenings.