Wings Over Israel
Wings Over Israel is a great combat flight simulator with a bit of an easy going realism but definitely well made from the creators of Strike Fighters and the Wings Over series of games.
Ratings:
Graphics & Audio: 21/25,
Gameplay: 25/25,
Creativity 24/25,
Fun 25/25
Total: 95/100
Wings Over Israel is a great combat flight simulator from the same creators of Strike Fighter: Project 1 and the other Wings Over series of games that recreates combat flying over intense war torn locations. Wings Over Israel places you right in the action of three Israeli conflicts from 1964 to 1982 in one of the not so modern aircraft such as the Mirage IIICJ Shahak, Nesher, Kfir C2, A-4 Ahit, F-4 Kurnass, F-15 Baz, and the F-16 Netz.
Other reviews have declared this a “lite” combat simulator but I found nothing to even come close to being lite about it, while they may say the are referring to the amount of realism I think they are way off. I would consider this a lite game due to the use of the older combat flight systems and not so modern aircraft systems for ground targeting. The late 1960’s and early 1970’s saw a lot of innovations into modern combat flying, especially in the area of ground target bombing and using electronics and computers to help pilots hit targets by dropping things.
Up until the early 1970’s pilots were still using techniques developed and perfected in World War II to hit stationary targets on the ground with bombs. A simple physics problem of dropping an object from a moving aircraft and actually hitting the target with the bomb did not change much until modern computers using targeting ballistics was developed and installed in aircraft. This left the pilot with less to worry about in actual bombing as well as making bombing more foolproof and less costly.
Wings over Israel brings the very first of these targeting systems to aircraft but still in the infancy of computers for airplanes as they were not fully automatic like today’s more modern jets are. Targeting was still difficult as you still had to do some pretty quick maneuvering to keep your sights on the target while letting the computer do the actual work of were to release according to speed, altitude and range.
Wings Over Israel is a unique game that uses both aircraft types before and after automatic targeting and creates a unique and diverse modern combat scenario for combat fighter fans. I really enjoy the modern aircraft but have a hard time figuring out bomb dropping at those higher speeds but in Wings Over Israel it makes up for my lack of skill in the easier gameplay available from the AI and difficulty settings.
Wings Over Israel has three campaigns sections with several missions in each campaign totaling 39 missions in all over the several years period. These missions will range from simple air patrol to strikes against aircraft, ships and ground targets like tanks and anti aircraft guns using a wide assortment of planes.
You have the first modern jets like the F-15 and F-16 backwards to the first jets with air to air capability like the Mirage IIICJ to choose from. You can also download and install other aircraft from mod sites and this adds to the value of Wings Over Israel a lot for many.