Recent reviews by alex

CITIZENS RISE. LIBERTY RIDES. SUPER EARTH RISE UP TO THE SKIES

One of the best campaigns in DCS, pushing the mission editor's capabilities to it's absolute limits and providing a storytelling experience I'd never thought I would see in a simulator. There are drawbacks; there are a few bugs with triggers here and there since this is absolutely NOT what DCS was designed to do, so make sure you follow your flight plan very closely. This is mostly a scripted experience outside of the actual combat sections, but I only had maybe two or three points where I accidentally broke a mission by not sticking to my briefed flight plan. Even so, Baltic Dragon has provided a lot of wiggle room and there are alternate triggers in some missions to make sure the mission still flows smoothly.

For example, in one of the missions you are supposed to defend oil rigs in the Persian Gulf. In the mission, you are supposed to wait for your AWACS to order you to commit to engage a bandit group approaching the rig, but if you choose to defy orders and engage them early, the mission will account for that.

Since this is based on a novel with full support from the author, briefings are extremely fleshed out and you have pages of kneeboard data to assist you in completing the mission. Since this aims to present authentic carrier operations in the Gulf, the first few missions are routine with no combat involved, and might seem boring to the average pilot (dogfight training with wingmen, simple intercept/escort missions, etc.). I enjoyed these as a naval aviation nut, but it might not be for everyone.

The campaign is fully voice acted, and although the VAs are certainly not professionals (most of them are actual YouTubers in the DCS community), they still do a fairly decent job and it's easy to get immersed into the campaign. One final note, although Baltic Dragon added a very rudimentary checkpoint system for three missions that require this in the campaign, air to air refuel IMO is a required skill if you're going to play this. The Hornet by it's very nature is not a long range aircraft, and it's a very real possibility that if you pushed your afterburner too hard in a mission you'll be completely running on fumes landing on the boat. Even if it wasn't required in a mission, I often would link up with a tanker before returning to the carrier most missions just in case it wasn't my day and I had consecutive bolters on landing.

All that said, this is a terrific campaign based on a terrific book, and it's by far one of the best DCS campaigns on the market right now. At times, I felt like I was playing a CoD campaign except in an authentic simulator environment.

sure why not