As a kid I was an adventure game and flight simulation addict. My first attack helicopter simulator was LHX Attack Chopper which I bought for $5.00 at Wal-Mart. It was one of my favorite games.
Gunship 2000 was easily the most fun I ever had with a simulator. One of my friends and I probably logged in excess of 500 hours playing the game and still talk about it today. The graphics (VGA) for the time (early '90's) were great. It was one of the few flight sims we had where the visuals were truly engaging.
The sound was very good for its time. I actually hooked my old SoundBlaster up to my stereo system so we could shake the room with the explosions.
There are two theaters of war: Central Europe and Middle East. Both are quite fun.
The game was very difficult for us at first. My friend and I would take turns, one flying with a joystick and the other operating the keyboard. Eventually we were able to perform both tasks at the same time. The difficulty settings allowed us to bring new challenges into the game as our skills improved. We actually learned a bit about how helicopters work.
The missions were fairly well thought out, but we often found ourselves just flying around and blowing things up at random (unfortunate
for a few innocent animals and a lot of free-standing structures). One of the coolest elements that we had never encountered before involved the ability to command a squadron of helicopters. At first we would lay out a plan on the map and fight with the squadron members. Later, when the squad members could hold their own fairly well, we began to send them on one of the three (as I recall) mission objectives and race through the other two on our own.
Gunship 2000 takes the player through an entire pilot's career. I can't remember how many pilots we retired before we lost interest in the game. In years and discussions following we have often wondered what has happened in the gaming industry and why we cannot seem to find games with such replayability or games that are just so much fun.
Microprose made a number of great action-based flight sims in the late 80's early 90's. This was probably the best. As another reviewer stated, however, Jane's Longbow 2 is a better sim. If you prefer actual aircraft simulation, the Jane's series is probably the way to go. If you like to fly around and "blow stuff up" with a little bit of simulation, this is a great game. Another suggestion would be the Commanche series.
