Red Baron 3D (PC)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 4.5 stars Outstanding
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 9.0 (4.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Denny Atkin
• Reviewed on: 11/25/1998
• Updated on: 05/05/2000
• Released on: 10/31/1998
• Originally published on GameSpot: Red Baron 3D (PC) Review

Few things are more disappointing than a sequel that doesn't live up to its predecessor. You're looking for another Jurassic Park and you end up with The Lost World (or Trespasser, for that matter). Such was the case with Red Baron II, last year's sequel to 1990's hit World War I sim. Its promising dynamic campaign environment was hobbled by poor graphics performance, nonfunctional multiplayer modes, crippled flight models, and more bugs than a North Carolina picnic.

To its credit, Sierra's Dynamix division didn't take its money and run, promising to do better next time, but rather spent the last year working on a series of patches to bring the program up to speed and add 3D support. The result is Red Baron 3D, a program that's a worthy successor to the original. Best of all, Red Baron 3D is available at absolutely no cost to purchasers of Red Baron II.

Other than the fixes, the addition of 3D support, and multiplayer enhancements, Red Baron 3D is essentially the same program as last year's release. That's not a criticism, however, as its feature set more than holds its own against more recent designs. The simulation features 22 different flyable World War I aircraft, along with 18 other types flown by AI pilots. These planes can be flown in a dynamic campaign, on a variety of scripted single missions, and in an instant-action mode. The campaign is especially well done, with more atmosphere and less repetition than the dynamic campaigns found in recent jet sims. You're likely to encounter other flights and targets of opportunity - friendly and enemy - en route to and from the target. The missions are better balanced than in the original release. For instance, waypoints don't take you over every enemy antiaircraft gun in the country anymore.

Flight models have seen dramatic improvement in Red Baron 3D. The original simplified flight model is intact for beginners, but new intermediate and authentic settings will give more experienced sim players a more convincing experience, with features such as torque, spins, gyroscopic effects, and deadly spins. The overall model is very convincing, and it would take quite a bit of test-flying to find the few performance differences between the models and their real-life counterparts.

Cockpits have been given an overhaul as well. The virtual cockpit is now as readable as the standard cockpit, making for improved situational awareness while tracking enemies with padlock views. One innovative feature in 3Dfx mode is a toggle to make the cockpit and wings transparent. While this is obviously not realistic (real flight sim fans know it didn't come around until Wonder Woman's invisible plane was built during World War II), it does make tracking enemies much easier, while still maintaining the ability to use your plane's fuselage to keep track of the direction you're looking.

As you'd expect from the sim's name, Red Baron 3D has undergone a major graphics overhaul. Running on a 3Dfx card, you'll find that the formerly blocky terrain graphics have been smoothed out with bilinear filtering. At low altitudes, trees pop up to give you a better reference as to your height above the ground. Explosions and other effects have been tuned as well, and the sim now supports up to 1024x768 resolution.

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