http://www.mobygames.com/game/pacific-strike

Excerpt from PC Gamer (although Computer Gaming World is more critical):

Poor frame rate; touchy controls; and confusing setup instructions.

The user reviewers did not rate the game highly, either.

I played Wing Commander then Strike Commander to death in the '90s. I wasn't really interested by Pacific Strike when it got out, but found it for half price a few months after the release in a games shop. I remember installing it, playing it for 10mins and thinking "meh". I stored the box and never played it again.

Thanks for the replies. Nonetheless, Wings of Glory generally has positive reviews, yet the reviews also complain about difficult control. Yet, it seems there is hope. Well at least for Wings of Glory.

Virgil wrote:

Many people may not like the clunky controls of the WWI fighters. All of the planes are difficult to control by even WWII standards, and one has to worry about realistic problems such as gun jams, engine stalling, and wind shear which was not problematic with metal wings. The planes become easier to control and more forgiving as the game progresses, but you are forced to start with a humble Sopwith Pup which makes you realize why so many of them were shot down. This is the one aspect of the game which could ruin it for many.

Well I hope the same applies for Pacific Strike, though I should cope with very low kill scores at early missions - at least lower than what I expect from a typical Origin's flight sim. Of course, certain part of me keeps telling me that if I want to struggle with such realistically low kills, I'd rather play 1942: Pacific Air War or IL-2 Sturmovik instead. 😊

The topic is WW2 prop sims/games, but the WW1 era has attracted much attention, particularly in the slower combat pace. It's a shame because Pacific Strike had potential to become a classic, especially given the theater of operation and the ability of Origin to innovate on the visual end. The only other title I see mentioned a lot is Aces over the Pacific.

So, on with the game. I've just finished mission 5 (Coral Sea 2), which is about bombing. In fact, anything from mission 3 to 5 is all about bombing, don't know about the next mission.

Precise bombing is almost impossible due to sluggish control, and it becomes much much worse with bombers like SBD Devastator or TBD Dauntless. Tail guns is next to useless, because unlike, say, Their Finest Hour, the tail gun only moves horizontally. So in bombing missions, all you can do is concentrate on enemy ships and pray that your wingmen can protect you from enemy fighters. I eventually use the unlimited ammo cheat. That is, enabling unlimited ammo before releasing your bomb, and quickly disabling it before the bombs hit the target. With such kind of cheat, I managed to get Congressional Medal of Honor after mission 5, as well as getting impossibly high score.

However, the missions themselves are far from exciting. In typical Origin games like Wing Commander, the mission is protracted but exciting. In Pacific Strike, each mission is short, and it seems to depends more on luck, either of yourself or your wingmen. Spotting target - either air target or ground target - is very hard due to sucky-sucky targeting scheme (bright dot illuminating the target), and you don't feel you're in control of the mission. You just bomb whatever target you're lucky enough to spot, go to the next, and then you got the message "Mission Accomplished" without knowing why.

An example is mission 4, where you are supposed to destroy all troop transports. And indeed, the troop transports are the only target "lockable" by the lousy targeting system. Yet, I completed the mission without destroying a single transport. You see, there are enemy destroyers that are "unlockable" by the lousy targeting system (you can press CTRL-T like crazy and they're never illuminated by the bright dot). Yet, the destroyers were firing at you and your wingmen nonetheless, so I destroyed them all using "unlimited ammo cheat", and didn't destroy any of the transports. Yet I got "Mission Accomplished" message, so apparently my wing has finished the transports. When I was back in the carrier, the animated debriefing said that my wing only managed to destroy one troop transport, so the mission was only half-successful I guess.

I can't speak of Pacific Strike, as I have never played it, so I'll take your word for it. 😀
Wings of Glory is phenomenal though, easily one of the most underrated games from Origin (I'm looking at you System Shock) and I found it much better than Strike Commander although its anti-war message can be a bit too much.

Procyon wrote:

I can't speak of Pacific Strike, as I have never played it, so I'll take your word for it. 😀
Wings of Glory is phenomenal though, easily one of the most underrated games from Origin (I'm looking at you System Shock) and I found it much better than Strike Commander although its anti-war message can be a bit too much.

How about its control?

I'm moving from Coral Sea to Midway. Well, actually, Pacific Strike isn't all bad, especially when using stick, throttle, and pedals. However, there are still two lingering weaknesses of the game:

(1) sluggish control, nuff said. It's also very hard to hit enemy planes in IL-2 Sturmovik, but at least the control is fluid and realistic, so when I fail to score a hit, I know it's my fault (need more training), not the game's fault.

(2) anemic targeting system. As I said, when you target an enemy, it is illuminated by a bright dot instead of surrounded by a targeting box. Also, there is no "hud arrow" pointing at the target's direction when the target is off-screen. So you have to use "track target" button (that works like the padlock view in Falcon 3.0) to know where the target is when it is off screen. Well it is disorienting at first, especially since the track target function is nowhere as helpful as that of Falcon 3.0, but eventually I got used to it....

The problem is, the track target button doesn't always work. Many times I press the button, and the view does not pan to the enemy's bearing. It gets worse with ground target, but at least ground target is slow moving (or not moving at all) so it's easier to find. Enemy aircraft, on the other hand, is another story. Many times I press the track target button to find enemy aircraft, and fail to find them because of the non-working track target button.

And that's how I lost the Lexington, by the way. I couldn't spot the damned Japanese bombers until it's too late. Way too late. 😵

It's quite bad because otherwise, Pacific Strike is an okay game. In fact, it's probably the first Origin's flight sim where wingman command matters. Even in the much newer Privateer 2, wingman command doesn't really matter (and wingman doesn't matter either - even the vaunted Liston Sativa dies easily), but in Pacific Strike, wingman command quite makes a difference.

So how about Wings of Glory? Does it suffer from two problems above?

Did you install the patch?
It fixes a few issues with the game, available at ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/origin/patches/pacific/

The tracking system is the same in Wings Of Glory as far as I remember, you're flying a WW2 plane (or WW1 in the case of WoG), not a fighter jet with enhanced target locking mechanism after all...

lolo799 wrote:

Did you install the patch?
It fixes a few issues with the game, available at ftp://ftp.ea.com/pub/origin/patches/pacific/

Yup, I have. There are no pauses between voices, for example. The control is still sluggish anyway.

lolo799 wrote:

The tracking system is the same in Wings Of Glory as far as I remember, you're flying a WW2 plane (or WW1 in the case of WoG), not a fighter jet with enhanced target locking mechanism after all...

I know, but a game like Pacific Strike isn't supposed to burden the player with "realism". Just like Strike Commander, I expect the game to be about fast and furious action. Besides, the bright dot just doesn't cut it, since the background is heavily pixelated anyway, so it's still hard to find the target even though it's illuminated with the bright dot. Even Chuck Yeager's Air Combat still has targeting box despite it has WW2 planes.

So okay, at least I can still use the "track target" button (the padlock function) to find the target. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work so many times. So often my view stays fixed ahead despite the message "track target view on". Then it's turned out that the target is at my nine o' clock, flying straight ahead.

Nonetheless, I'm going to fly the first Midway mission tonight. I hope the mission is enjoyable. The game is not without merit though; wingmen are useful, and - unlike in Wing Commander where I can do everything solo - wingmen management is actually important to ensure the success of a mission.

Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman wrote:

How about its control? […]
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Procyon wrote:

I can't speak of Pacific Strike, as I have never played it, so I'll take your word for it. 😀
Wings of Glory is phenomenal though, easily one of the most underrated games from Origin (I'm looking at you System Shock) and I found it much better than Strike Commander although its anti-war message can be a bit too much.

How about its control?

I'm moving from Coral Sea to Midway. Well, actually, Pacific Strike isn't all bad, especially when using stick, throttle, and pedals. However, there are still two lingering weaknesses of the game:

(1) sluggish control, nuff said. It's also very hard to hit enemy planes in IL-2 Sturmovik, but at least the control is fluid and realistic, so when I fail to score a hit, I know it's my fault (need more training), not the game's fault.

(2) anemic targeting system. As I said, when you target an enemy, it is illuminated by a bright dot instead of surrounded by a targeting box. Also, there is no "hud arrow" pointing at the target's direction when the target is off-screen. So you have to use "track target" button (that works like the padlock view in Falcon 3.0) to know where the target is when it is off screen. Well it is disorienting at first, especially since the track target function is nowhere as helpful as that of Falcon 3.0, but eventually I got used to it....

The problem is, the track target button doesn't always work. Many times I press the button, and the view does not pan to the enemy's bearing. It gets worse with ground target, but at least ground target is slow moving (or not moving at all) so it's easier to find. Enemy aircraft, on the other hand, is another story. Many times I press the track target button to find enemy aircraft, and fail to find them because of the non-working track target button.

And that's how I lost the Lexington, by the way. I couldn't spot the damned Japanese bombers until it's too late. Way too late. 😵

It's quite bad because otherwise, Pacific Strike is an okay game. In fact, it's probably the first Origin's flight sim where wingman command matters. Even in the much newer Privateer 2, wingman command doesn't really matter (and wingman doesn't matter either - even the vaunted Liston Sativa dies easily), but in Pacific Strike, wingman command quite makes a difference.

So how about Wings of Glory? Does it suffer from two problems above?

With all features on Wings of Glories planes are quite sluggish and difficult to control but I got used to it at some point and could fly the planes quite wel. To the game's credit WW1 planes were not the easiest planes to fly and the programmers wanted to reflect that, I really liked nice touches like the creeking sound the airframe made under stress and the Vickers machineguns really sound like they pack a punch.

As for targeting, it sounds like the targeting works the same as in Strike Commander and in Wings of Glory it's the same. Personally I don't like targetboxes anyway, especially in historic combat simulators, that they don't always work in Pacific Strike maybe that's because they programmed some restrictions into it like the target has to be in visual range and viewing arc.

By the way the Lexington was lost in the Coral Sea, maybe they scripted it like that so it would be almost impossible to win, Wing Commander also has some of those missions.
And as for Privateer 2, the AI in that was notoriously bad, just watch Spoony's review of it. 😀

Procyon wrote:

With all features on Wings of Glories planes are quite sluggish and difficult to control but I got used to it at some point and […]
Show full quote

With all features on Wings of Glories planes are quite sluggish and difficult to control but I got used to it at some point and could fly the planes quite wel. To the game's credit WW1 planes were not the easiest planes to fly and the programmers wanted to reflect that, I really liked nice touches like the creeking sound the airframe made under stress and the Vickers machineguns really sound like they pack a punch.

As for targeting, it sounds like the targeting works the same as in Strike Commander and in Wings of Glory it's the same. Personally I don't like targetboxes anyway, especially in historic combat simulators, that they don't always work in Pacific Strike maybe that's because they programmed some restrictions into it like the target has to be in visual range and viewing arc.

By the way the Lexington was lost in the Coral Sea, maybe they scripted it like that so it would be almost impossible to win, Wing Commander also has some of those missions.
And as for Privateer 2, the AI in that was notoriously bad, just watch Spoony's review of it. 😀

Well I hope enemy planes are as sluggish as the player's planes in Wings of Glory, because Japanese planes in Pacific Strike is nimble as hell! 🤣

The targeting in Strike Commander is actually similar to that of Jane's ATF and Chuck Yeager's Air Combat: a box surrounding the target, and an HUD arrow pointing to the target's general direction when it's off-screen. As for the Pacific Strike's restriction, I believe the designer screwed it up, because when I go to player -> target view, the target is obviously in the visual arc (ten o'clock or something), yet the padlock view refused to kick in.

I frankly haven't played the first Midway mission because I was too tired last night, but I'll try again today before the New Year's Eve gala dinner.

Anyway, the weird thing about the Lexington is that it actually survived the Pacific War. 😊

Okay, on to the next mission. I mean, Midway mission 1. I just finished it, and much to my surprise, the mission was a success. The Midway airfield is still operational.

Things are getting better since they upgraded my wildcat. More guns, etcetera, but less ammo. And the aircraft is generally slower due to its added armor. However, despite the new Wildcat is less nimble, it feels more precise and actually less sluggish. How to describe it? It turns slower and etcetera, but it feels less sluggish. My shots become more precise.

Back to the mission itself. Alright, it was a successful mission, but I'm not sure why it was a success. Japanese Zeros are nimble as usual, and Japanese bombers are just way too fast that I could only helplessly watch them bombarding Midway as my plane struggled to catch up with them. I thought the mission was going to fail, but I pressed on anyway, and downed quite a lot of Japanese planes while doing so.

After I finished what I believed to be the last wave of enemy planes (because the in-game music changed), I asked the USS Enterprise about their status. Much to my surprise, I got the message, "WARNING, DON'T LAND. WE'RE SINKING!" Huh? What the fuck? I mean, I've downloaded the goddamn official strategy guide from replacementdocs.com, and the book doesn't mention anything about sneak attack on the Enterprise. So I immediately headed back home and....

...and the Enterprise is still there! Not only it's intact, but from the following cutscenes, I believe I won the mission, because my character reported that Midway is still operational, and the admiral complimented me for completing a successful mission. So the sinking of the Enterprise could be a bug or something.

Nonetheless, I feel I was lucky than good. I couldn't help but getting the impression that I won the mission by luck instead of performance.

Hot dog! I sunk all four Japanese carriers! 😁

Well, it was the second mission in Midway. I initially used SBD Dauntless to dive-bomb using "unlimited ammo cheat" (turning on unlimited ammo when releasing the bomb, quickly turning it off before the bombs hit the target to keep a high score). Somehow, the bombs kept missing and I kept dying. I don't know why, dive bomber worked well in a previous mission (when I sunk a Japanese carrier), yet this time it just didn't work.

Then I changed tactics, using TBD Devastator, which is a torpedo bomber, and I still used the unlimited ammo cheat as described above. I also assigned three Dauntlesses led by Jester to help bombarding enemy ships, and two Wildcats, each manned by Squints and Noodles to provide escorts. Then I went once more unto the breach, and patiently torpedoing every ships I spotted.

In the debriefing, my blue hair character said, "we managed to sink at least one of the carriers", so I sighed, because I was sure we sunk at least four carriers and a destroyer back there. But after debriefing....

....we went straight to Guadalcanal, skipping Midway mission 3 and 4. Hot dog!

Since Midway mission 3 and 4 were skipped, I guess it means we sunk all four carriers.

So it means we sunk all four carriers, but I also sunk a destroyer, while my ship kill count only increase by 4 (from 10 to 14), so there is someone out there who actually sunk the remaining carrier. Turned out it was Jester.

Before the mission.

Way to go, Jester!

Well, I start enjoying this game, though I have to set enemy AI to rookie and easy gun hit to on to actually enjoy it. Nonetheless, I think this game is almost like X-Wing, where you have to use the right tactics or fail.