Sequel to Aces of the Pacific, Aces over Europe takes place in the Western Theater of Operations during WW2. Fly fighters and fighter-bombers for either England, Germany, or the United States, escorting heavy bombers, attacking ground troops, or just taking control of the skies over Europe.
Aces over Europe features improved graphics over its predecessor, including smoother models and individual squadron markings on planes. Terrain graphics have also been slightly enhanced to aid in navigation. AOE features campaign modes for all three sides. Although not truly dynamic, the campaigns feature random missions based on your plane type and squadron, making each campaign different.
Player controlled planes include American Lightnings, Thunderbolts, and Mustangs, British Spitfires, Tempests, and Typhoons, and German Bf-109's, Fw-190's, and Me-262's.
Aces Over Europe is the third and best game in the Aces series, which also includes Red Baron and Aces of the Pacific. AOE is also the best game in the series in terms of graphics, offering Gouraud shading and a higher resolution mode.
The Aces series of games was basically Dynamix/Sierra's answer to LucasArts' Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe series. Though I never played SWotL, I LOVED the Aces series, especially Aces over Europe.
The premise of this game is that you are a pilot flying for either the US Army Air Forces or the RAF in World War II. You can play the game in career mode, in which you're given random missions such as intercepting bombers, scrambling as your airfield is attacked or bombing V2 rocket sites. Occasionally, as the war progresses, you'll get to fly in a historic battle. If you do well, you'll be awarded medals which you can view in your profile.
If you don't feel like delving into the campaign mode, there are many 'pick-up' missions you can fly. For example, you can choose to dogfight a famous ace from any of the three air forces in the game, and you can mix and match planes. You can, for example, have a German fighter ace flying a Spitfire, while you attack him in a Focke-Wulf. And that brings me to the planes. There are twenty different planes, all with different flight characteristics and cockpit graphics.
When this game came out in 1993, the level of detail was excellent. Obviously it looks very dated now, with no texture maps and mostly just Gouraud shaded polygons, but it still plays very well. It's not realistic either, but they did the best they could on the hardware available back then (mostly 386/486 computers without 3D accelerators). There are blackouts, sun blindness, and each aircraft has unique flight characteristics, but that's about it. There are various difficulty settings as well, allowing you to customize the game to be slightly more realistic (making it possible for ammo/fuel to run out and for your guns to jam). If you like flight simulations, you really shouldn't miss this pioneer.
Aces over Europe is a great follow-up to Dynamix' first World War II combat flight sim Aces of the Pacific. Playing in the European theater of war, you have the option to fly either for the German or British air forces. Yet again many different planes made it into the game, which boasts even better graphics, more varied missions, and a more comprehensive career mode than Aces of The Pacific. Recommended for WWII flight sim fans. :) For similar games take a look at Rowan's Reach for the Skies or Microprose's 1942: Pacific Air War, if you prefer the Pacific theater. Aces over Europe requires heaps of conventional memory, so make sure you read the FAQ for pointers on memory management for DOS games.
How to run this game on modern Windows PC?
People who downloaded Aces over Europe have also downloaded:
Aces of The Pacific, Aces of The Deep, 1942: The Pacific Air War, B-17 Flying Fortress, Command Aces of The Deep, A-10 Tank Killer v1.5, Red Baron 3D, European Air War
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