Enemy Engaged RAH66 Comanche vs Ka52 Hokum Review

"Enemy Engaged RAH66 Comanche Vs Ka52 Hokum" is technically a software module that can be installed in the same directory as its senior brother "Apache Vs Havoc", but it can function on its own as well. If you install it into the same directory you will have the opportunity to fly two more choppers: Apache and Havoc (AH64D I Mi28). The programmers intended to make a game with the same engine and 100% compatible with its predecessor so that you can choose one of four instead of two choppers, making it more interesting for multiplay. This is an original flight simulation hybrid with elements of strategy.

Heading over city.

So many buttons, I just need chaff or flares...

After a simple and quick installation (of about 200MB) the game may begin. Simple synoptic menus are easy to navigate, and the given options are quite typical for flight simulations (you can determine how realistic the aerodynamic model will be, set the commands and enable/disable the weather effects and their influence on the craft). The game concept is very original: once you have selected one of the three campaigns (Saudi Arabia, Libya and Taiwan) you go strait to the HQ in the selected theatre of war. You can also choose if you want to play on American or Russian side. In the command center, you will be presented with the already vivid situation on field and available forces to command. The situation on the battlefield keeps changing, some groups enter combat while some retreat for repair. You can choose to command any of them, meaning that there are several types of missions you can get, like: scouting, transport, escort, destroying a particular target and patrolling. The command center will enable you to overview the whole situation and change choppers you command personally. Navigating the choppers will prove easy if you select the NOVICE mode, but it may turn out to be quite tricky if you enable the realistic influence of wind.

The only challenging mode for real players is the REALISTIC mode, where only a joystick with a throttle and trimmers (and as many buttons as possible) can make playing any easier. The aerodynamic model is true to life, letting you perform a variety of maneuvers. The weapons are automatically selected for each mission so you don't have to worry about that, but it might come in handy to know what type of weapon is used for which targets. RAH66 also has an automatic targeting and weapon selection option if you wish to use all the advantages of modern technology... "Razorworks" also gave us some help in form of various cheat modes. (CTRL+R) will let you choose the quantity of weapons that will appear on your chopper instantly, and (SHIFT+F7, F8, F9), will let you repair and reload the entire squadron. The interesting thing is that the campaign isn't composed out of smaller missions - it is continuous and it keeps unraveling weather you take any part in it or not, which is in concept very true to life and it makes you act. What counts is the time you spent in air, the number of missions, combat efficiency and spent resources, which give your overall rating that actually means medals and promotions. You will deserve your first medal after five hours of air combat, five REAL hours...

Finally, the game has decent software support for all potentially troublesome hardware. The disk contains latest joystick (QickShot, Saitek, etc.), and display adapter (ATI, nVidia, 3Dfx etc.) drivers. How thoughtful...

So much about the good sides of the game. There is more to it, but I'll leave it for you to discover.

About the "dirty laundry"...
First things first, the game environment (your cockpit and the terrain) are on the edge of being sufficiently vivid. The terrain textures are good, but there are not enough objects, which may seem appropriate for the deserts of Jordan and Saudi Arabia yet it seems highly inappropriate for the forests of Taiwan. The objects are extremely simple and the apparent complexity has been achieved by combining several typical objects. All this does not affect the game dynamics, but it does start to bother you after some time. There are no rivers in the game, even if they are drawn on the map. All you get to see is an empty riverbed. The sea is completely flat and the waves have been unsuccessfully represented with some shading. The hotkey layout is intuitive enough, but there are some commands that don't seem that logical. Those of you, who played Havoc, may rely on your experience.

I'm not going to swim...

Two choppers having fun.

The next thing that comes to my mind is that it highly resembles Flanker 2.0: when you load a campaign, the game will load the terrain, all possible objects, and the combat situation, meaning that you will have to wait for quite some time before the game actually loads. Once it has loaded, though, you can have fun or the next ten hours without having to load anything from the hard drive. This is not too surprising considering the fact that the game is both a simulation and a strategy at the same time. Regardless of this peculiarity, the campaigns are mostly linear, so either you beat "them", or "they" will beat you. The situation cannot get too complicated nor take place outside the provided space. The rebuilding of torn down buildings is the same weather it is performed by your or enemy troops. Destroying targets, verification and land conquest missions are basically always same. Razorworks resolved the "long loading" problem by creating "Skirmish" missions. Loading them only loads a part of the virtual map, the models of objects and crafts and the simple mission. When you complete the mission you finish the game. If you are quick about it, some of these missions last no more than three minutes.

This is where I would like to stop, because each player should bring further judgment according to his own experience and affinity...

Multiplayer Support:
The concept of the multiplayer mode is a bit avant-garde. For bearably quick play, the host has to be equipped with a cable or ISDN modem whilst the others can "survive" with a 28.8kbps connection (they al say that, don't they... Razorworks claims that hosts with slow connections should choose the "Skirmish" missions because their hardware and software requirements (less objects, less CPU usage, smaller data packages, greater ping tolerance) are lower. The programmers claim that it is possible to play on the web if your connection is better 44Kbps. If you are interested in all this, you better read "Comanche Vs Hokum Strategy Guide" file for more in-depth information.

What you get for your money?
"RAH66 Vs Ka52" is a good and relaxing combat simulation that can be played both by people who are less than enthusiastic about flying and true pilots, for it has more gunpowder and blood and less VOR and DMEs than the technically perfect and utterly boring flight simulator.