In Air Force Commander you take control of the air forces of a middle-eastern country in order to defeat your enemies. The whole game consists of strategy “attack and defend,” and while there is little actual campaigning involved, it gives you many options in strategy forming. There are sixteen missions to choose from (including Syria v. Lebanon and the Gulf War). There is no resource management involved, which makes for easier game play, but for someone who likes the challenge AFC might not be the best choice.
In Air Force Commander you take control of the air forces of a middle-eastern country in order to defeat your enemies. The whole game consists of strategy “attack and defend,” and while there is little actual campaigning involved, it gives you many options in strategy forming. There are sixteen missions to choose from (including Syria v. Lebanon and the Gulf War). There is no resource management involved, which makes for easier game play, but for someone who likes the challenge AFC might not be the best choice. The game play is relatively simple to learn but takes little time getting use to whether or not you use keyboard or joystick controls. The great thing about AFC, as well, is the manual. It consists of 43 pages that outline history of the
Middle East, including other wars, the history of Israel, and technical comments on various aircraft.
This game provides excellent real-time air war scenarios. There is an ultimate challenge in how the player recreates historical events and situations to your liking. You can fight in a variety of units from ancient SU-17 fighter bombers to ultra modern F-117A Stealth Fighters. The choice of fighters gives balance to the game, especially in the large scenarios where the battles are typically one sided.
One negative side of AFC is that the interface can be somewhat complex and some areas of the battles can be tricky to see. The scenarios usually are pretty average as far as difficulty ranges, but some other ones can be near impossible to beat without a little advantage (i.e. cheat codes). Another slight down side to the game is that it doesn’t provide with recent historical events, such as Desert Storm or Kuwait. Having played this game for years as a child, I found it again and realized what a classic it is and how much fun it is. AFC is also a great game for building strategy techniques, which can be useful whether or not you are planning on going into army training or just playing chess later in life. So whether or not you are a fan of middle-east air battles and middle-eastern history or you just enjoy blowing stuff up within a real time strategy games, then Air Force Commander is definitely the game for you!
