Let's face it, flight sims are boring: playing a lot of time with a game whose screen is full of clocks and dozens of indicators are not the best way to spend a funny gaming evening. Psion's Flight Simulation was shocking at first, how a little black machine could simulate a real commercial flight! But when it came to gameplay or addictive gaming, these games couldn't compete with arcades, sports or adventure games.
So this kind of games went further in gameplay with programs like Digital Integration's Fighter Pilot, where you control a F15 jet fighter and you must defend some airfields and combat enemy planes.
So it came The Dam Busters, a superb flight sim based on real events, in which you take control of a RAF Lancaster bomber of the 617 squadron from Scampton Airfield, during World War II. Your mission is to destroy a dam in Germany that will change the course of war. You take the role of every member of the flight crew: Pilot, front & tail gunners, bomb aimer, navigator and engineer, each one with his own screen and controls. There are three levels of difficulty: Dam approach, flying starting over the English channel after taking off, and the complete mission.
A really good simulator with touches of strategy and arcade (as a gunner, you must shoot approaching enemy planes). Good graphics and a great loading screen by F. David Thorpe (maybe one of his best works).
