Campaign Promises                                                   Page 3 of 5

The physics modeling extends down to the landing gear - you'll see the struts compress as you land.

The sim will start you out with a series of Longbow 2-style training missions, where an instructor pilot will guide you through the basic flight and weapons handling. The first campaign, Operation Restless Tiger, is a Korean-based "ramp-up" campaign designed to familiarize you with the plane's systems. You'll fly about 30 missions over the course of the campaign, and by the time you reach the end of the campaign you should have the aircraft and its systems mastered. These will be real combat missions, not training ones, but the mission objectives and the threats present will allow you to build your skills gradually, rather than forcing you to use every available weapons system to take out the first couple of targets.

A flare illuminates a target during a campaign cinematic sequence.

The second campaign, Operation Valiant Hunter, takes place during a hypothetical East German/Russian invasion in the Fulda Gap region of Germany during the mid-1980s. At first glance, some similarities to the Longbow 2 campaign will be evident in the Valiant Hunter campaign. For instance, when presented with a mission, you'll be able to choose between four flights, giving you a limited choice of what kind of target you want to attack. Along with pure tank busting, other mission types will include search and rescue, close air support, suppression of enemy air defenses, and joint attacks with helicopters. In addition, Forward Air Control (FAC) missions will have you searching for targets and then calling in helicopters and "fast-movers" to take them out.

One big difference between A-10 Warthog and Longbow 2 is that A-10's campaign won't be dynamic. Instead, the sim will feature a scripted branching mission structure. Replayability shouldn't be a problem, however, due to the nature of the campaign. While victory - or defeat - will usually come after 20 to 30 missions, these will be drawn from a pool of about 200 missions. Random elements will keep missions from being predictable even on replay. While the campaign is scripted, the world isn't static. When you pass over a building or bridge you took out in a previous mission, you'll see its wreckage.

In addition to the campaigns, you'll also find about 15 single missions in each combat theater. There's no mission editor included, but the team hopes to work with a third party to make one available after the product ships, as it did with Longbow 2.

You'll also be able to fly with human wingmen in multiplayer. In addition to deathmatch mode, you'll also be able to fly single and campaign missions with human wingmen.