RED BARON 3D 
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WWI mayhem for everyone

By WILLIAM BARKER

The complex flight sim is quite an enigma really. You spend more time with these games than you can ever confess to and lately I’ve begun to see why. Enter Red Baron 3D.

Ze Baron is back. Ja! And this time he’s packing more than the average triplane's payload worth of ammo. That’s right, 3D acceleration out of the box. Where this may seem trivial to the casual gamer, fans of awesome WWI sims have been quite literally begging for some sort of 3D support for years now.

I believe the WWI flight sims are better, way better, than today’s modern jet sims, such as Falcon 4 for example (great game nevertheless). The reason for this is because instead of firing a missile at an unseen enemy fourteen miles away, you need to be right up the proverbial pipe of your foe, and visually identify them as the enemy. Red Baron does this so well and the first time I riddled an enemy with gunfire, blowing his left wings clean off, I went into a frenzy. All in anti-alaised 3D – chocks away!

Imagine taking off from an airfield with little more than a barn for a hangar and very gravelly runway to boot.

You clear the low-lying cloud layer to emerge smack bang right in the middle of an enemy squadron. The ensuing battles can be won, not to say the enemy AI is lacking, it's just that once you get into your groove everything will fall into place and the flight model and interface really shine.

Speaking of dogfighting, the resulting damage sustained from a scuffle with some bogeys can often leave you with a slight limp, or in other words a bent tail, smashed landing gear and a whole host of other engine and fuselage related dents. It's all very authentic and looks smashing too.

The gameplay is spot on, and you really get a feel for flying in windy, ever changing conditions, what with sitting in a flimsy plane made from wood and canvas.

The visuals are superb, and initially this my only quibble with the original. The sound effects are also of a very high quality with the grunty prop engines chugging away like the work-horses they were. Add some really deep gameplay that fans of the series will know and love and Red Baron 3D will be a lasting addition to any discerning gamer's library. Tally-ho!

ORIGINALITY 75%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 85%
PLAYABILITY 90%
ADDICTION 80%
ENJOYMENT 90%