SO MANY KEYSTROKES . . . SO LITTLE TIME

A Review of D-Day Operation Overlord

This flight simulator will appeal mostly to those simmers who have an interest in war history and are not afraid to enter the world of boot up disks and related system files. Virgin claims that this WW II flight simulator is the "most historically accurate of D-DAY available." You will not be involved with the ground forces nor the paratrooper landing, but your job is just as vital. Your purpose is to prepare the ground for invasion by means of aerial missions targeting important enemy land assets. But I should warn you from the start that Virgin's other claim of "Heart-Pounding" fell way short as this sim did not alter my heart rate one beat. Actually, my heart did beat a little faster but it was from disappointment and frustration.

I was frustrated during the video driver installation. D-Day can be played in regular VGA mode (320 x 200) or SVGA mode (640 x 480). Unless you are lucky enough (unlike me) to already own one of the seven supported graphic cards you MUST tweak your config.sys to accommodate the provided slow universal graphic driver. Be prepared to spend some time doing it and don't say that I did not warn you. In order to run in SVGA mode, D-Day requires 622 KB of free RAM plus 3 Mb of expanded memory, and running memmaker will not do. More than likely you will have to install the entire game to your HD and make a dedicated bootup disk for D-Day. Don't panic, you will not have to copy 600 Mb to your already cramped HD, the entire program and related files are only 22 Mb.

Even though Operation Overlord is distributed in CD-ROM format, don't assume that this is a multimedia title. It is not. In times when SVGA graphics, CD storage capacity, video, spoken dialog and stereo sound effects are the gaming standards this title leaves a lot to be desired. Just remember: CD-ROM does not equal multimedia (it is just cheaper to produce in mass quantities !!). The basic sound effects (machine gun fire, explosions, engines, etc.) are there but they lack "heart pounding" quality and there is no spoken dialog whatsoever. The music lacks theme and variation. You will hear the same tune over and over... No animation, no historical video. The manual helped to remind me why I hate reading them: Too many details and no substance. Even after reading it you are left with a thousand questions and starring at a long distance telephone number. The black and white pictures from the photo archives of the Smithsonian Institute and the National Air and Space Museum help to set the ambiance during briefings but when you start seeing the same pictures over and over again you start to wonder why most of the cities look the same. The briefings and mission assignment will change depending on the type of airplane you are flying.

You can choose from three planes: Mustang P-51B, Spitfire IX and the Typhoon 1B to battle against German enemies flying planes such as the Focke-Wulf FW 190A and the Messerschmitt ME 109G. The allied base SVGA graphics are nice and appealing but in order to take to the skies in SVGA you'll need a Pentium 90 or better (my Pentium 60 was really struggling). My frame rate during SVGA flying was very poor so I spent most of my time flying in VGA mode with SVGA during the base ground scenes. The ground action happens in rendered rooms that act as visual menus for the sim's options: Planning Room (Flight control options), CO's Office (Medals and Punishments), Bedroom (Diary and sleep), Gate House (game options), Dispersal (Pilot roster, assignments, etc.), Tower (scramble mission), Ops room (Briefings) and the Flight field (Fly). The VGA graphics during flying (airborne and land based) are rough polygons that pop in and out of view depending on your distance. It reminded me of Microprose's F-117 and had me checking my calendar just to make sure that I was really living in 1995. If you are flying in SVGA mode, however, you will be treated to a very nice and "accurately" detailed rendering of the airplane's instrumentation. A good overall visual reference for this title is to imagine Red Baron with a WW II theme. Control response in VGA mode is quick and smooth but flying WW II planes will take a little getting used to (Where is jet propulsion when you need it ?) For those of you who worship freedom of choice and have a photographic memory: 121 different keystrokes to learn and choose from !!! The different internal and external view points are too many to mention but I found most of them to be useless during actual combat flight. The ability to record a video of your flight is a good idea that has now become a standard.

All in all, if you have thirty bucks to spare, the time to mess with installation, a Pentium 90Mhz + and a supported graphics card then I guess it'll do. But, if you are a serious flight simulator fan who has been waiting for a "heart pounding" WW II sim then the undocumented uninstall option may come in handy (it did for me).

Copyright © 1995 Istvan Urcuyo for infoMedia. All rights reserved worldwide.

DOS 5.0 or greater
386SX 33Mhz
4MB RAM
3-22MB HD
CD-ROM

Overall Score:

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Copyright © 1997 InfoMedia, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.