"BATTLE OF BRITAIN" BY LUCASFILMS
                       Game Review By Paul Varn

Those familiar with the Lucasfilm game Battlehawks, will have a good 
idea what this WW II re-creation is like.  Based on the battle for 
conquest of the sky over southern England early in the war, German and 
British forces are represented by the most famous and numerous craft 
used in that battle.  Again, historical and mechanical detail are 
given minute attention with several added in addition to those in 
Battlehawks.

First, there are more types of craft with custom gauges and controls 
for each type of craft.  In addition to the flight characteristics and 
armament for each, you have to learn the instrumentation that 
is unique to the aircraft.  For the RAF, there is the Spitfire and 
Hurricane fighters which did 95% of the fighting for the British 
during that battle.  The German forces are represented by six craft 
and their variations.  One of the treats here is that three of them 
are medium bombers that have multiple gun turrets.  You can toggle 
between these guns while your plane is in auto-pilot and take pot 
shots at the attacking fighters.  Or, place any or all of the turrets 
in auto-fire so you can concentrate on piloting or bombing (with 
appropriate level bombsight included of course).   Affects such as 
flack, explosions, and air frame hits are even more detailed than 
before, enhancing the realism.  The 3-D camera re-play feature is 
retained and enhanced with full control given over to the mouse and 
well placed, implemented icon controls.  I have to give the programmer 
extra credit as this kind of interface has been the failing of many 
would-be good games, but works very well here.   Dramatic "films" can 
be saved to disk and played at will, even on other machines.

GAME PLAY

There are four basic modes of play.  Pre-programmed historical 
situations re-enact a particular battle.  There are many to choose 
from.  There are also non-destructive training scenarios.   The meat 
of the game is in the campaign area.  Here, using a map of the region 
you re-create the whole three to four month conflict and try to 
duplicate the successes and correct the historical errors.  As a 
guide, the nearly 200 page manual is half devoted to an entertaining 
overview packed with photos, quotes, and eye witness accounts.  In 
addition, you can create your own battles with a builder program that 
puts every detail at your control.  This may be a creative way for 
friends to challenge one another and provide increased variety (of 
which there is no lack).

An aspect of roll playing exists as well.  You create pilots and crews 
which you select for the various planes in the group you are flying 
with.  Not only the pilot/crew in your plane, but the others you've 
chosen for the planes flying with you benefit (and possibly 
advance) from current mission successes.  As these crews gain 
experience and promotion, they can be relied on to fulfill combat 
objectives (and are missed more when lost to enemy action).  

Air and ground targets abound which include radar, factories, 
airfields, ships, and more.  Some missions may involve ground strikes 
and escort for bombers.  You can direct the flight paths of the craft 
from take-off, mission objective, to landing by setting up way points 
that include altitude.  Up to four mission objectives can be pursued 
simultaneously.  In the campaign game, other similar targets are 
attacked by friendly aircraft who's success is dependant upon yours.  
A successful mission will not only promote the surviving pilot 
crews but inflict damage far beyond what your one strike would.

INTERFACE AND DISKS

As in Battlehawks, complex action can greatly reduce the scrolling 
smoothness and response.  Possibly even more so here.  A useful 
addition is the ability to select the amount of ground detail (which 
really isn't much to begin with) and speed things up when the going 
gets real rough.  Mouse and joystick are implemented.  I liked the 
mouse better although like most games of this kind, it's a little too 
sensitive.  The joystick is way too sluggish.  The manual mentions a 
joystick adjustment feature which doesn't seem to exist in the 
European ST version I own.  The controls are easy to learn and most 
are identical to Battlehawks.  Unlike Battlehawks, take off and 
landing is implemented adding realism although not always necessary to 
accomplish for successful game play.   The game comes on two double 
sided disks labeled 1,2 and 3,4 respectively.  They are not copy 
protected and will install on hard drives.  When played from floppies, 
(as I have to do) swapping disks is frequent and tedious (not to 
mention SLOWWWW).  In addition, the file search and sorting routines 
associated with pilot/crew management cause up to 30 second additional 
delays when there are more than 15 or so created.  A possible solution 
for floppy users might be to keep smaller numbers of pilots on 
separate disks.

GRAPHICS AND FINAL COMMENTS

Again, as in Battlehawks, the aircraft images (I assume digitized from 
photos of models) are superb.  Computer adversaries are intelligent 
and crafty, the battles fast and furious.   Time can be accelerated to 
absorb lapsing moments.  Alternate views containing your own aircraft 
details are held in ram but may take up to 4 seconds to display which 
has caused some impatience for me.

Price at the time of this writing hovers around the $50 mark which now 
seems typical for the current run of the highest quality simulation 
games.  Although I tend to view this as getting close to the limit of 
what I'm willing to pay for games, this one has done well to justify 
its cost with authentic detail, intellegent adversaries, variety, and 
excellent manual.  There is a protection code wheel that is better 
done than others I've seen and is cleverly integrated into the game 
design.  Better yet, unlike Battlehawks, you are most likely to have 
to enter the code only once during play.  

If historical air combat simulation appeals to you, this game packs a 
lot of entertainment power.

Re-print without permission is granted 11/29/90