After spending some time with the full release version of Red Baron 2 I finally feel like I can write up what I think about this game. Bear in mind that this game is expected to change substantially with the release of several patches over the next few months. As new features are added I'll try to update this page to reflect the current build.

Who I Am

My name is Ron Griffith, and I have been an avid computer gamer since the days of the first IBM PC's and Apple II's. I especially enjoy multiplayer games. My favorite era for flight sims is World War I. I've spent some time playing Confirmed Kill/Warbirds, Air Warrior, Flying Circus and of course Red Baron on the now defunct TSN/INN game network.

My System

Recommended System

Red Baron 2 will run on a Pentium 90, but the minimum recommended system is a Pentium 133, with 16MB RAM, 130 MB HD space, Mouse, 4X CD-ROM, SVGA 256 colors video.

For premium performance a Pentium 200 MHz+, 32MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM, Windows compatible soundcard, and a joystick is suggested.

Users have reported that frame rates are very acceptable on a Pentium 166. There is no documented frame rate counter in Red Baron 2 as of this writing.

Installation

Red Baron 2 comes on one CD-ROM disc. You have the choice between 45, 128, and 213 MB Hard Drive install sizes. Sierra also recommends that you have at least 80 MB of virtual memory in order to run the game at it's best. Virtual memory is space on your HD that is used as a temporary swap area when you run out of RAM.

Setup did have a few hiccups. I run my desktop in 1024x768 mode, and when I enlarged the installation screen window to full screen I found I could not select any menu items. Once the window was resized I was back in business.

I then found out that I didn't have enough free space on my HD in order to do the large install. I tried to click on the <back button, but it kept on giving me a message that "the selected drive did not have enough space." I have 3 partitions on my HD, each about 2 GB in size. I canceled the setup routine, freed up about 600 MB, and went back to the setup routine.

From there things went very smoothly. One user has reported a problem with not being able to do the install - perhaps related to his Mitsumi CD-ROM drive. Sierra has acknowledged that some of their previous products have had problems with Mitsumi's, and is trying to work things out for him.

A few other users have experienced General Protection Faults and crashes to the desktop on installation. Most people have not experienced these problems in a wide range of systems. It does suggest that a wider beta test would have greatly enhanced the game's stability.

Introduction Movie

Upon running the game for the first time you are treated to a gorgeous introduction movie. It starts out with an Allied plane being chased by what looks like the Red Baron in his red Fokker Triplane. I won't spoil the rest of it for any of you, but it is quite a visual treat.

Main Menu

Once the main menu pops up you are given the option to Fly Now, Single Mission, Campaign, Object preview, Ace preview, and Preferences. For a look at most of the games screen and menus take a look at the screenshots Gallery 2 page. The screens are all done in a very nice period look sepia black and white format. There are also some animations in the middle of the screen showing two planes diving and swooping on each other.

Graphics

Sierra/Dynamix has been working on Red Baron for over two years. Unfortunately they were unable to make the 3D accelerator transition in time for the shipping version of Red Baron 2. In a time that most new games offer this feature Red Baron's graphics do look very dated. Currently Red Baron runs at either 320x200 or 640x480 mode with 256 colors from a custom pallet.

There is a firm commitment from Dynamix to offer 3D support in a future patch within the next two months or so. There will be at least generic Direct 3D support, and hopefully support for specific cards like the 3Dfx.

Reaction to RB's graphics have ranged from pleasant surprise to virulent disapproval. There is no doubt that Red Baron provides an excellent sense of where you are in relation to the ground and other objects. There is a full featured rolling terrain engine at work, and you can fly under bridges and buzz an incredible array of buildings and other terrain features. It can be difficult to pick out planes even at fairly close range because of the speckled pixel look of the terrain, and other objects which detracts from the over all feel of the game.

Fly Now

The first mission I tried was set in a series of small hills and valleys resplendent in bright orange, green, and brown autumn colors. As the enemy crested over a hill I shoved my throttle all the way forward and pushed the nose down in order to gain some speed. Rushing towards him the sense of speed was exhilarating. I was surprised to see him dive even lower below me. As I pressed down to meet him I was impressed by how he angled away and back again in response to my attempts to set up a favorable merge. As he roared past I quickly switched to the padlock view in order to follow him through the pass. Next followed a series of twisting and turning acrobatics as we each strove to gain the advantage. It was impressive to see him use the vertical as I followed him through a run of swooping and diving turns. This sure was an improvement over the AI in the original Red Baron. Alas, a short burst of guns from me and he fell to the earth. As he impacted I could see and hear his plane cartwheeling across the ground and explode into a number of pieces. Very nice, I could get used to this I thought.

But wait, there was another enemy plane, and then another. Where were they all coming from. Intent on my single foe I hadn't realized that his squad mates were pouring over the hills after me. After three or four angry Fokker's pursued me I ungallantly followed my victim into the hillside. Ouch!

As I was later checking out the preferences menu, I found out that you can set in minutes how often enemies are generated in the Fly Now missions. It seems that there was an inexhaustible supply of the heathen churning out at the rate of one every few minutes. I decided that future excursions would be done with a little more of a respite between foes.

Flight Models

It immediately became obvious and was confirmed after many other flights that something was terribly wrong with the flight model. Having logged hundreds of hours in Red Baron I knew a little of what to expect from the different planes. I was quite surprised then when all of the planes seemed to zip around and turn with surprising agility.

In relationship to each other, there are some obvious differences in performance. The Airco DH 2 is slower then a Camel Sopwith. But both the Camel and the Airco are very docile compared to the original Red Baron. Stalls are gentle and easily recovered from by pushing the nose down. The resulting nasty spins I am used to from Warbirds and even Red Baron I are impossible to recreate. This is all on the hardest flight model settings.

Icky from Sierra offered this explanation, and a promise of a patch. Apparently some of the beta testers thought that the flight model was to difficult on the hard settings. It was tuned down but not completely checked out before the game was shipped. It will be fixed, and input from the users is appreciated and encouraged.

While I am happy to see Dynamix take that approach it once again shows that the game was not adequately beta tested. After ads that boasted of "the most advanced flight models ever brought to the home computer" it was quite a let down. Stunning actually, since I know that there are Red Baron team members who fly other sims like Warbirds.

Cool Effects

There are a lot of little special touches that make Red Baron II really stand out. Enemy pilots will at times jump from their plane screaming as it catches on fire. When I first heard this I almost died laughing. Ok, maybe it's not politically correct, but it sure was a neat effect.

You can also hear church bells ringing alarms, and air raid sirens. There is an ambulance that will come out and pick you up if you crash and survive the injuries.

Airplanes disintigrate when they crash into many different parts. Frequently you can see the fuselage rolling along sans wings. Red Baron 2 has undoubtedly the best death scenes of any WW I flight sim.

When you hit an enemy plane with your machine gun fire you do damage to the exact part of the plane you were aiming at. It's a lot of fun to chew apart the left or right wing of your enemy with the guns at your discretion.

View Systems

Which brings me to another strong disappointment. The view system only has lockdown views, not snap views. That means that when you press a view key it stays in that view until you press another view key. My preference, and the standard set by Air Warrior and Warbirds is the snap view system. In a snap view system the view stays until the key is released, and then you are snapped back to your original view - usually straight ahead. Those with programmable sticks can mimic this effect by using the /press and /release options, but I frequently found that the system had a difficult time processing the button presses when there was a lot going on. You also have to have the Num Lock key on in order to get the correct views, another large irritation.

The only fixed views currently supported are Forward, Forward Up 45 degrees, Left Wing, Right Wing, and Left and Right Rear. There are also several padlock and slewable view modes to choose from.

Incredibly enough, despite being told ahead of time that at least the option for a Air Warrior/Warbirds type of fixed view system was considered mandatory by most hard core flight sim fans, such a system was left out. Again, this would never have passed a wider beta tester group. Predictably enough there has been a fierce outcry, and Dynamix has decided that the addition of 15 fixed views would be one of the first things patched. The same thing happened when Flying Corps was released, which makes the failure to include even a straight up 90 degree view even more irritating.

Cockpit views are also rather difficult to use. In the padlock view it turns down the res to some truly awful and unreadable setting. In some planes the cockpit provide a very tiny view window. An argument might be made that this is more historically accurate then Flying Circus's nice large views in the Camel and Dr I, but that would be hard to defend in light of the padlock and God's eye/outside panning views that RB 2 has.

Campaigns

But the real heart of the game is the campaign mode for many Red Baron fans. Here Red Baron does not disappoint. You get to create a pilot and go through the entire war as either a British, French, American, or German service member. Missions are not completely scripted, and they rarely turn out the same way even when played over again. Sierra has put a lot of effort into recreating a dynamic battlefield environment, with things going on around you whether or not you intervene.

Some folks have noticed that there are a few bugs yet to squash in this mode. You will occasionally have an ace die, that later reappears in another mission. Undoubtedly this will be addressed in the patch as well.

Some of the missions will even be uneventful, which adds even more of a sense of realism to the war campaign. It's not always an endless sequence of action scenes one right after another.

As I get a chance to explore the campaign mode further, I'll post a longer update relating my experiences. So far I'm impressed. You can tell this is a really polished effort.

Multiplayer

Many of us fondly remember playing Red Baron for endless hours on the old The Sierra Network (TSN) which later became the Imagination Network (INN). It's been over a year since INN vanished along with multiplayer Red Baron. So it's been with a lot of interest that a lot of us have been looking forward to Red Baron II on Sierra's new World Opponent Network.

So far play on WON has been very disappointing. Games crash occasionally, and many times players can't see each other even though they are buzzing and strafing the same town. I have not had one dogfight last more then a few minutes before there was one problem or another.

RB 2 on-line does not support dynamic join. You can not join a game in progress. There is hope that if Red Baron does well enough there may be some kind of massively multiplayer option. Icky from Sierra has hinted that he would like to see something along that line down the road.

Another irritation is that rockets and bombs are included on every plane on every realism setting in multiplayer. The whole multiplayer version feels very cartoony/arcade like, and very unstable.

I suspect that the WON interface may even be active during play, which would really put a drain on bandwidth and latency, especially since there are several rotating animated banners.

Maybe after some work the multiplayer aspects will improve. Right now, in it's current form, Red Baron on WON is hardly worth playing. For those who are interested in WW I on-line play I'd heartily recommend Flying Circus by SimGuild. While not as graphically flashy, it is a heck of a lot of fun, and does quite a few things right.

Conclusions

Red Baron II is definitely a work in progress. If hot graphics are very important to you, wait until the 3D patch comes along in the next few months. If you can't wait to get in to an advanced WW I flight sim campaign, this game is for you.

The various announced patches should dramatically improve the entire game, and don't doubt this will become another classic when it's finished. RB 2 team members have been very active on the boards, and seem to be listening to input from all of us. They have also been honest about some of the games shortcomings, and appear to be working hard at solutions to many of the problems.

Sierra does deserve some criticism for having pushed this game out before it was done. It certainly could have benefitted from more rigorous beta testing. The Christmas rush and financial pressure probably pushed this one out the door a little early.

This one is a keeper for me. There is enough content there to keep me happy for the moment. Let's hope that Dynamix finishes off what can become a great addition to any World War I flight sim fan's collection.