In depth review (Spoilers)

[AMEDooley]

I’ve gotten all the way to Mission 15 but for some reason the campaign was reset to Mission 3, so this isn’t a campaign complete review as I had planned. But Spoilers ahead! (Full disclosure: I have worked with Ground Pounder Sims as a voice actor, but not on this campaign.)

Overall thoughts: An excellent campaign with a good variety in mission design. The voice acting was well done, to the point I thought Poodle was a bit of dick. If I’m thinking someone’s a dick, or any emotion at all really, it means the writing and acting were done well.

I liked that it tied in to the Persian campaign a little bit, but was glad you didn’t need to have flown it to get any understanding. There really isn’t much criticism I can give to the campaign, which is mostly personal preferences, because it was done very well. These critiques will seem, to some, very nit-picky. And maybe they are, but if the only criticism I have is this small in detail, it means the designer did one hell of a job. 
 

CRITIQUES:

My biggest criticism was the fuel loads and loadouts. This drove me nuts. I understand why he did it, so that people didn’t need to do any AAR in the campaign and to keep things symmetrical. They wouldn’t double bubble a jet with a TGP on the cheek. Just move the pod to the centerline station (very Marine like) or go double ugly and call it a day. And there were times I was triple bubbled and that just wouldn’t be a thing. I’d rather see the requirement to hit a tanker than this again (Yes I know I can change it, but let’s face it most of us don’t, cause why?). There was one mission that I had to do AAR on the way back which I enjoyed immensely. I would have liked the tanker tracks slightly more south than they were, but if I could have hit the tanker after we enter the gold corridor I think that would have been the best solution. So maybe an option to hit the tanker in the F-10 menu?

This lack of tanking leads me to the next critique, part A and B missions. I very much dislike these. I understand the reason behind them (to avoid AAR, and a “save” spot) so I’m not super upset with it, but I personally dislike getting everything set up the way I like it only to have to redo everything again when I get to part B. Just make people hit the tanker or shorten the missions. Just not my favorite.

One smaller thing was with the emergency procedure. I love it when stuff breaks (wether scripted or random), but I wish designers talk with someone about emergency procedures when it’s scripted moment. In this case, a pilot will never discharge the fire bottle unless there is an actual engine fire. The system is a one shot only kind of system so if there isn’t a fire, they blow it, and then a fire starts the pilot will be forced to eject. The emergency procedures for this particular one even says not to discharge the fire bottle unless there is a fire (I was an AME on the jet and this was my system so I tend to notice small stuff like this).

There were some moments where the scoring was wonky. The attack on the city being, to me, the most egregious. After taking out my quadrant of the building, we were tasked to take out some tents as a secondary target with a battalion of tanks as a tertiary target. With Devil 1-1 and 1-2 RTB due to damage, I destroyed Poodle’s and my secondary target, my wing man called out the tanks and didn’t attack his secondary targets. I don’t mind missing points for the tertiary target, but they should only have been 5 points together not 5 points each tank. It’s a tertiary target for a reason. 

FAVORITES:

I really enjoyed the extra missions we could accept or not. I felt this gave me a bit ownership of the missions and gave me that sense of being a flight lead. Hearing the pilot was rescued with no injuries was especially gratifying.

The voice acting was top notch. Even though some of the roles were done by the same actor, they delivered the lines well. (I have to blame myself for part of this as I was supposed to be in this one, but my life was very crazy and I was unable to get the lines to GP. To which I cannot apologize enough to him).

Poodle’s voice actor was an absolute beast. I thought he was a dick a lot of the time and found that I didn’t like him very much. But when he gets shot down and dies, I was very sad. This is a testament to both the writing and acting for Poodle. Well done!

Overall this was a great campaign. It was engaging, frustrating, and ultimately satisfying. If anyone is looking for a great story driven campaign, you can’t do much better than this. Ground Pounder did a fantastic job on this one, and I can’t wait for his next Hornet campaign (I don’t fly anything else really ever). Between Baltic Dragon, Reflected, and Ground Pounder the story driven campaigns are just getting better and better.

Edited July 31, 2023 by AMEDooley
Grammar

[Sparviero1978]

I think it is a great campaign, very immersive, full of details.

[Kuna]

Just finished this campaign today. Absolute blast!