"Hellfire missiles ready, waiting orders....destroy Comanche 3!. Roger."

First of all, if you are a fan of this kind of games (real “vehicle” simulators) please look somewhere else because all the non senses I am going to say here might be dangerous for you, this is a review from someone who has absolutely no idea about what a true simulator is (I say true because have mostly played Arcade simulators), one day a friend of mine lent me the game, I played, and here are my thoughts, that is all.

Graphics and Music:
If I am not wrong this game was made mainly using voxels, in Novalogic (this game’s developers) love to use them and you can find voxels in basically any game they have developed, they say that way less powerful PC’s are able to run games better without using 3D cards, and it is true, but the problem with this voxels is that they lack the definition pixels have, anyway, the graphics are very good, most of the time we will just see the battle ground and a few trees or mountains, but when we fail and our helicopter falls down and explodes for example, we can see that it is very well made, and the same happens when with all the enemy units and buildings.

And for the music, well, there isn’t any during our missions, which is a pity, because they are very slow (I mean the missions, but I will go on that later) and some catchy tunes could have been great to add some thrill to the boring simulation. In the menus there is music as it is usual, but it is the same, it is important during the game not during the intro. The voices are pretty well done, realistic and, that is, well done.

Gameplay:
Like in any other flight simulator, when we are in the hangar, there are so many things to do, so many weapons, mission, objectives, so many gadgets and things that look very sophisticated, to sum up, so many good looking things that you can’t help but to think that this is going to rock very badly, and the same happens inside the helicopter, everything looks cool very realistic, I mean, there are a lot of buttons and lights and stuff, then our mechanical beast have an arsenal so big that even president Bush would feel proud, to sum up again, with all the equipment this thing has there is no need of an army. Also there is a nice video in which we can see what the Comanche has to offer when it comes to blow stuff away; then there is also a lot of fancy looking things to watch and everything but then, the real game begins…

Once our mission beings, no matter which are the objectives, most of the time everything consists on going to a certain area of the map, and to reach that areas we will have to get rid of all the tanks, turrets, and vehicles blocking the way. The way we attack is pretty boring, we have to be very quickly, once we detect an enemy on our radar, we have to aim and shoot without loosing time, because normally the one who hits first wins, if the enemy has already launched a missile or any other projectile, you are dead, because their projectiles are basically impossible to dodge (unless the enemy misses, something that is very unlikely). And that is the way the game proceeds, hitting the button quickly to detect enemies, launching missiles all the time, what is worst is that you will hardly ever see what the hell you are destroying, because we have to attack from a very large distance. Again, this is the way every single mission proceeds, the game gets boring very quickly, because it is the same if we have to stop a train before it reaches a tunnel of if we have to annihilate an enemy base, we will never see what are we doing exactly (excepting for a couple of mission, specially the first ones, that are somehow easy to beat), if our companions say that the objective was destroyed, rejoice!, but, wait, I haven’t seen anything!, it s the same, this how everything works, rejoice!.

I don’t know if what I was doing was ok, this is an old game and my computer is powerful enough to run this game very smoothly, but Comanche 3 (and by the way any other flight simulator I have ever tried) is slow as hell, you see, the old bicycle I used to ride when I was ten years old was faster than this high technology super helicopter.

The controls are very complicated as expected, but it is easier to command a helicopter than an airplane, at least in a video game that is for sure because after some time you will, more or less, get used to the controls. Anyway, as I have been arguing right from the beginning, this is a realistic game, here if you press left your helicopter is not going to just go left, no, here you have to a lot of things before going left, checking the altitude for example, and a lot more things I can’t remember, that is probably why this game is so slow and why it is impossible to dodge missiles and everything, so, am I arguing because a realistic flight simulator is being realistic?, well, not at all, because this is mainly a war game, but we can’t MAKE WAR with such a slow and rough gameplay, that is my opinion.

Then:
Like I said at the beginning, Comanche 3 is another game I shouldn’t be reviewing because I simply suck at flight simulators, and even more when it comes to realistic simulators like this one, so, if your life is so miserable that you ended up reading this cheap review from someone that cannot even speak English properly, I repeat, I have no idea of what I am talking about, so try to find another review, yet, while I am terribly sorry for all Comanche fans out there, I swear I have just given my honest opinion, really.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 04/01/04