Strike Commander

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs

GAME DESIGNER:Chris Roberts
GAME DEVELOPER:Origin Systems
GAME PUBLISHER:Origin Systems
Copyright 1993, Origin Systems

This sim is unique due to the fact that you are not playing a the role of a military pilot like in other combat flight sims. Instead, you play as the commander of the Wildcats, a struggling mercenary squadron operating out of Turkey, flying F-16 fighters. Although you are based in Turkey, your mission will take you to almost every part of the world. You fly, like the name suggests, mostly ground strike missions. However, you can always count of some air-to-air encounters in your missions. This adds another twist to the sim, because if you are intercepted in your way to the target, you will have to fight in a disadvantaged position (you’re carrying all kinds of bombs, while your opponents don’t). You are paid for completing your missions, and use the money to finance your group (i.e., buying more weapons). It is therefore advantageous to become adept at destroying targets using cheap weapons to maximize your profits (e.g. using Mk 82s instead of GBU 15s). Graphically, Strike Commander was a generation ahead compared to its peers. Like all Chris Roberts’ sims, Strike Commander also have a rather interesting story, although might not be as deep as the Wing Commander series. All these aspects are blended together to give a very pleasant gaming experience.

Strike Commander is not the “purist’s” sim like Falcon 3.0. The flight, avionics and weapons modelling is not that convincing. However, it still offers a unique twist to combat simulations, and will give you a lot of intense dogfighting action. If you want to experience a sim that “dared to be different”, you cannot go wrong with Strike Commander.