- Historical references and modern computer graphics were combined to render 125,000 square kilometers of French countryside that is disfigured by a terribly cratered battlefield. Fluffy clouds fill the sky which you can fly into for cover.
- Rain and fog are also modeled in realistic detail making flying even more of a challenge as water drops cover your windscreen or goggles. Advanced graphics featuring moving shadows, depth of field, light bloom and reflections.
- Fly several Single-Player combat missions against a computer opponent. If you feel you have mastered the art of aerial combat you can embark on a Pilot Career and fly a historically accurate Campaign for the French, British, German or American air forces.
- Also included is a very powerful Mission Editor that allows players to design custom missions. The Mission Editor is included on the disk and is accompanied by 150 page instruction guide! There will never be a shortage of missions to fly.
- So hurry! Grab your goggles and silk scarf. Enemy airplanes are approaching. Who will emerge as the next Baron von Richtoven or Eddie Rickenbacker? Is it you?
Product Description
The year 1917 and all is not quiet on the Western Front… high above the trenches and scarred No Man’s Land the sound of piston engines can be heard, the chatter of machine guns fill the air and the bark of flak bursts echo across the countryside. During the First World War a new breed of warrior emerged, reminiscent of the Knights of old, inspired by chivalry and pushed to their limits by modern technology, they fought a new kind of war… an air war. Welcome to… More >>
Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War
I got Rise of Flight about a week ago and I liked it just fine, but now they released two additional planes for FREE, the Albatros D.5 and the Nieuport 28! Now I really like this simulation and the developer posted a very nice statement about future plans and I like what I see. Plus they recently rolled out a patch that fixed issues with joystick inversion and TrackIR. Also, I’ve never seen a product like this generate such passionate and harsh comments amongst us flight-simmers. Weird.
Anyways, here’s what I like and dislike about it.
Likes
- Very pretty visuals. 3D Models, lighting, explosions, clouds, weather are all top notch.
- Awesome damage model. Canvass did not stop bullets very well. The best damage model in the genre by far in my opinion.
- Fantastic Flight Model.
- Good sounds.
- Animated pilot with hand signals.
- Once in cockpit a very high level of immersion.
- Dogfights are a ton of fun. You’re sweating by the end.
- Flexible view system with TrackIR 6DOF support.
- Many tweakable settings and cheats to make it a little easier.
All these positives combine to make the flying and fighting experience in ROF one of the best I have ever had.
Dislikes
- Activation scheme. Seems excessive, but I see why they did it. Hope they lighten up a bit.
- Multi-play is not that popular yet. Maybe now that they added more planes it will pick up.
- Hard to hit targets. Maybe the flight model is too real?
- Can’t adjust stick sensitivity.
- GUI needs tweaking.
- Missing good mission de-briefs.
The negatives make some of the outside the cockpit experiences not as fun or as polished as it could be, but all this can be fixed.
Overall I really like flying ROF. Most of the complaints I see are about things outside of the cockpit. I do most of my flying in the cockpit not in the GUI, so personally I am happy with my purchase of ROF and recommend it to my simmer friends. It’s not perfect by any stretch, but I like the direction the developer is going. Just like many other flight-sims the best is yet to come, but this one should get there pretty quick. I respect those that disagree though.
Rating: 4 / 5
Rise of Flight is not a perfect game. Far from it. However, what it offers is some of the best flight modeling and most exhilarating dogfighting you’re likely to experience this side of an LCD screen. I’ve seen a lot of complaints and while some have footing, others do not.
To address some of the common complaints and my take on them:
-Yes, there are “only” 4 planes to fly out of the box (more on the way).
Yes, you have to pay ~7 bucks to download more. However, there is a reason the mona lisa is worth millions and yet I can also buy a cd of 35,000 pieces of crappy clipart for 5 bucks. These planes are so exquisitely modeled as to take a considerable amount of time to fully master each individual plane’s quirky characteristics and idiosyncrasies. To complain about quantity and ignore quality is to announce oneself a fool.
-Yes, the flight controls are sensitive.
I don’t have a lot of respect for anyone who sees this as a barrier for entry. All sims require learning. This one is no different. Find ways to adjust it or learn to be gentle with your aircraft.
Rather than making wild and drastic inputs (like I assume many who complain about “sensitivity” issues are doing), take some time to learn how the aircraft behaves. Learn to expect and anticipate its reactions to speed, pitch, roll rates, etc. Make the smallest inputs necessary to get the plane where you need it to go. I’ve found doing this greatly decreases the perceived “instability” of the old planes and has increased my lethality in combat greatly.
-Yes, the activation scheme does suck.
No excuses for that, however, as a developer myself, I can respect that a small developer wishes to keep piracy low and see return on their huge investment of blood, sweat, tears and money. I can put up with a minor inconvenience if it means they are rewarded for their time and efforts.
-Yes, the missions can be fairly banal.
Sometimes on patrol, you never encounter an enemy. While this is as it should be in something considering itself a sim, it doesn’t always make for exciting flights. This isn’t Over Flanders Field, however I don’t expect it to be. The developers obviously did not spend as much time on the campaigns as they did on the single most important thing in a sim and the very reason Rise of Flight is worth every penny:
- THE FLIGHT IMMERSION IS AMAZING -
Pure and simple.
This sim digs deep into that primal sense of awe and wonder that flight has inspired in man for the last 110 years. Nothing else comes close to eliciting the feelings of glee and fear while pulling a reversement with a damaged engine and praying that you won’t loose too much altitude and splash into the treetops all the while wondering if the enemy has the turning radius to come around again after the last strafe of fire tore into your wing fabric. Of flying in formation on a blistering day and straining to see the aerodrome after a particularly nasty sortie, knowing full well that just landing in the rain and gusts is just as dangerous as the flack you’ve been dodging all afternoon.
Rise of Flight is full of strenuous moments of heroism and perilous decisions that remain memorable long after you’ve shut your computer down. If you are looking for a history lesson, look elsewhere. In that Rise of Flight sheds a glimpse into the mindsets and skillsets necessary to be a WW1 fighter pilot, it is worth every penny.
Rating: 4 / 5
Ok, I have been flying this sim now for a couple of weeks. I will be as objective as possible.
First the bad items.
The game has the potential to be one of, if not the greatest flight sim so far. In my opinion it was released to early. It basically has no manual, the one included with the game can be read in 5 minutes. It does have a good map of the flying area that comes with it though. It has a mission editor that allows you to make your own missions however it has no documentation with it and it is not user friendly. The game only comes with 4 flyable airplanes. Originally it was 2 but so many people were upset that they provided 2 more. There are several others that you can purchase for a nominal 7-8 bucks. The interface to the game is clunky. In order to make any changes to the graphics, etc. you must go out of the game, start it back up and make them before the game starts. The flight model is that of an advanced sim. If you are looking for a game for your 7 year old kid, this is probably not it. You must fly these planes, they don’t fly themselves. That is another issue with the game. The flight models, while realistic to a point, are rough. The SE-5 which seems to suffer from this the most of any plane, requires that you constantly hold the joystick forward quite a bit just to fly level. This is at low, medium or high power settings. Of course this makes dog fighting hard. There are other things as well such as buggy game play, crashes, etc. The multiplayer mode in my opinion needs work. You can enter a multiplayer mission but you must wait until the current mission is over. I have waited 10-15 minutes at a time just to enter a mission. At present there are no dogfight missions where you can just enter, take off and go find a fight.
Now the good stuff.
As I said above, this sim has the potential to be one of if not the best flight sims so far. They have released a patch or two so far that addresses issues and from all indications the developers are working hard to fix the bugs and add new planes and features to the sim. I very much enjoy (other than the flight model issues mentioned above) taking one of these plans out for a spin. I bought Track IR 5 just after I bought this product and together rock.
Now the big question. Is it worth it? Would you buy it again if you had the choice. The answer is YES. It does have its bugs and it is very frustrating at times but I have already spent several hours playing it and when you compare the cost of other forms of entertainment (movies, etc.) it is a pretty good investment. I very much anticipate the next year of development in the life of ROF.
Rating: 3 / 5
If you’re looking for a real flying experience which draws you back to seat of the pants flying, then Rise of Flight is for you.
As an immersive simulator the game delivers a staggeringly realstic flight model and physics engine, which meticulously recreates the perils of flying a largely canvas and wood framed aircraft.
You begin with a career mode and have, out of the box, four different aircraft to chose from: the Spad 13.C1, the Fokker D.VII, the Albatros D. Va and the Nieuport 28.C1. Each of which is faithfully and accurately recreated in every perceivable detail. How real does it get? Well, how real do you want your simulator? In all honesty, this is the most acurate flight model and physics system I’ve ever had the good fortune to purchase.
Each of the aforementioned planes, and there are others to fly and purchase separately from the developers, has it’s own characteristics. There are strengths weaknesses and quirks to get used to and it takes time to learn to fly each one, as you’d expect.
The game has six training missions to complete before you can access other aircraft in missions and the campaigns, and forces you to learn the craft of flying a bi-plane from the latter war period. Even experienced veterans will find there is something to learn and of course be wowed by the simply stunning graphics.
The Russian developers have spent a lot of time recreating more than 125,000sq kms of authentic landscape and it is quite breathtaking. Trees, grass, bridges and rivers can make it difficult to distinguish between a video game or actually being on board, which massively increases the immersion experiences. The more powerful your system, the more the game will deliver in terms of realism, but you can tone down the full effects. My system hovers on the lower end of the recommended specs, more RAM would be nice and I had to reduce some of the settings to prevent lagging inputs and an overall poorer flight experience.
The wind will buffet your plane around and you can skirt around fluffy clouds or get lost in them to evade enemy air threats or even AA attacks. The aircraft themselves are highly detailed too and you’ll hear and see the damage from hostile bullets tearing into your aircraft. One minute you’re in full control, then suddenly wooden struts have been shot away, and there are holes in the wings and your beautiful bi-plane is a shuddering, spluttering death trap. It’s all you can do to avoid being shot out of the sky by the enemy and bring the thing back to earth.
It is really amazing to hear the wind and the gurgle of the old engines as they spew smoke and oil. Flying is fairly straight forward, but dog-fighting, I confess, is still something I’m getting my head around. It didn’t take long to get my first kill and unlike the modern F16′s or similar simulators, this one was up close and personal and bloody difficult to execute, bringing an even greater degree of satisfaction. The detail and damage model is outstanding and I wrecked several times making stupid mistakes or overstressing the airframe, where wires will even ping under high g-loads.
Some people have complained about landings and take-offs, I really don’t see what the fuss is about. There are some useful tips on the website from community members, oh, and it pays to push the stick forward on take off to reduce the tails drag and give you more vertical speed before gentling pulling back. You do need to put corrective yaw input, especially with the rotary aircraft which have more torque, but it’s all part of the realism.
In short the game is a lot of fun, but it is more challenging than many other flight sims I’ve played. In full simulation mode you can expect to warm the engine, fiddle with the fuel mixture and radiator openings almost constantly and have to keep track of your enemy and find your way home. In terms of realism, I haven’t seen an equivalent on the market. Otlichnaya robota, neoqb(I think this is the correct Russian spelling!)
There is a small fly in the ointment and some have identified it as the registration and start up software. I had no problems installing the game, I should stress. But, if you don’t have high speed internet, you’ll be waiting a long time to download the updates. The game says 256K modem, I have a pocket in my area and decided to risk buying the game even though my home dial-up is less than adequate. It was several days of downloading…but I am a patient man, muaha ha ha. Still…hopefully the developers will eventually loosen up this area and allow one to down-load patches at one’s discretion in the future.
The patching software is built into the game’s registration and settings start up screen. It also means you have to get joysticks and other settings established before the game can be launched…which is not uncommon, but a little frustrating when you’re learning and trying to configure your controllers, only to find you’ve buggered all the settings up in the menu and then have to quit the game.
Definitely it takes a little while to become accustomed to the set-up of controllers etc, and the game can really only be enjoyed with a good joystick, throttle and pedals set up. Once you’re up and running it’s only a matter of tweaks and you can save a profile of your configurations. If you have Track IR then you’ll be in heaven panning around the cockpit and save with the messy hassles of pre-programming head snap keys to the joy-stick.
If you love flying then this game is simply beautiful visually, it’s enjoyable just to get into the air and there is hours of game play. If you have a high speed internet connection and enjoy multi-player, I’ll be joining you there in the future…
Rating: 4 / 5
Much antisipated WWI flight simulator, promised to deliver never before seen GFX, damage models, authentic flight models and superior AI. While RoF does deliver much on the first two counts it fails overall to beat soundly at this time any other hardcore current flight simulator availabe. While the graphics are cutting edge the code doesn’t seem to be optimized fully yet as AA doesn’t work well and shimmering of ground tiles at distance is present, even on a good mid to high range PC, expect this to change with futher patching by developer. Lighting and shadows are done exceptionally well as are the aircraft and cockpit renditions, they are the best seen to date. But only two flyables included in the game release, SPAD XIII and Fokker DVII (UPDATE: two more AC released free in patch). Additional aircraft will be made available as paid downloads . No word on cost of add on aircraft yet (UPDATE: Current cost of new AC below $10.00). While the scenery is very good looking at height it is almost devoid of life down low. For a war simulator not much seems to be happening on the ground, again could be fixed with a later patch. Single Player campaign aspect is almost non existant with very scripted missions, but game does include a mission editor, so better SP missions could come later. GUI is clunky and not very intuitive and any adjustments to game peripherals have to be made outside the game. Old hands with simulators should not have a major problems with this but could be intimidating to others, again maybe fixed later in a patch. Game manual is very light reading at best and not overly helpful, look at internet forums for better help and solutions to any game problems. As noted in game requirements, internet connection is required even for Single Play, game will not work if you cannot connect to the internet. This could be very problematic if developer goes OOB, hope this doesn’t happen or at least a statement from neoqb that game will remain playable in this event. AI in the game is so-so, moments of greatness but often predictable in SP, MP should be much better. But a comment on MP. while I have not played this game in MP the word on the forums is it’s spotty at best right now, both issues might be addressed in a later patch and server refinement. Damage models are very well done, but again some problems as aircraft impacting the ground at speed or height or both do not exhibit the catastrophic damage you would expect. The pilot animations are excellent. While RoF does look like a simulator that with time and continued developer involvement could eventually develope into the game that it was hyped to be pre-release, right now it is closer to a WIP (work in progress) then a fully functioning product. Time will tell on this simulator provided the developer can stay afloat to impliment the corrections and progressions needed. I bought this simulator knowing full well it’s shortcomings and risk only because I want to support an already very narrow and niche market on the hope this game will develope over time but like I said it may not. If you want a to wait and see what develops with RoF over the next 6 months to a year, there are other WWI simulators available now that work well out of the box and are not internet dependant to play. But I do encourage anyone who has an interest in this period of aviation history and a decent reliable internet connection to purchase RoF. I do personally feel RoF will develope and mature into a product deserving a much better rating then I gave it here in this review. Expect growing pains as the developer is new but they are responsive.
EDIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I wanted to give ROF a 2 star rating, but it showed up under “FUN”. I did try to change it but apparently cannot. So my review should show a 2 star for overall and a 2 star for fun. I have contacted Amazon to see if a change is possible.
UPDATE: Amazon cannot change rating, will have to write another review to do so. I have updated some of my comments and removed some that were not appropriate in a review of a product. RoF is improving and an updated review is coming soon.
Rating: 1 / 5