COMANCHE: OVER THE EDGE

           Computer      Graphics        Memory      Disk Space
Minimum     386SX          VGA            4Mb           8 Mb

Control:   Keyboard, Joystick, Thrustmaster FCS, CH FlightStick
  Sound:   PC Speaker, Sound Blaster, Adlib, Roland
  Notes:   None

Reviewed on: 486/50, 8 MB RAM, SVGA, Sound Blaster Pro, Gravis PC
             GamePad.

Reviewer recommends:  486, Sound card, Joystick

Comanche: Over the Edge (COTE) is the second mission disk for the very popular Comanche Maximum Overkill. For those of you who have played the original missions or the first set of expansion mission and enjoyed them COTE offers more than just new missions! COTE adds a multitude of new features: Haze and reflections as well as a 3-D weather model have been added to improve the world detail; The CH FlightStick Pro is now fully supported as are rudder pedals; A missile camera has been added; There are 40 new missions to fly, 4 new terrains to fly over, 3 new enemies to engage (including 2 watercraft), and even a friendly M1 Abrams battle tank to help with the massacre! I will discuss these new features and their usefulness in the next sections.

The haze and reflection are magnificent giving an even more realistic feeling world to fly in. Sending your wingman out across the water to wreak havoc is now not only gratifying but beautiful! The reflections are only present in the forty new missions but the haze works throughout the original Comanche and first mission set.

The addition of wind to the game makes controlling your bird a full time job. Having a four button joystick or rudder pedals to use for tail rotor control is essential to keep the Comanche in one place during squalls. Drifting in the wind can cause you to lose lock on during a long range hellfire attack. This tends to frustrate the potential Comanche pilot!

Since I do not own a CH Flightstick Pro or rudder pedals I cannot address the claims of full support for either. My control of choice is the Gravis GamePad which can be configured to use the Thrustmaster settings. With the Thrustmaster setup the Gravis GamePad's two extra buttons will function as the cyclic control.

The missile camera is an interesting addition and was much used by this writer until the second set of missions were reached. Once your airspace becomes target rich surviving for more than 10 seconds requires that you target and fire new ordinance quickly negating the usefulness of the missile cam. After firing a missile if lock on is lost and then regained the view reverts back to the long range target view and does not reestablish the missile camera view. Having the missile view reestablished would have been a nice feature but the lack of this is only slightly annoying.

The forty new missions are divided into four separate "campaigns" of ten missions each. These sets of missions can be played in any order except for the final mission of each set which must be completed last. The "campaigns" range from easy to impossible, with the last one requiring, as the manual points out, "nearly every bullet, every drop of fuel, and every last bit of nerve to succeed." I have played the first two mission series and found the first very easy and the second mildly challenging. The level of difficulty for the first two mission sets was described accurately by the manual and I have little doubt the second two live up to their billing!

I give the new COTE terrains two thumbs up! The most striking new terrain is the desert river with the magnificent sunset and plenty of water. The desert river is where the reflections are truly incredible. The other three terrains are very nicely done with water and even snow! Additions to the older terrains include snow and flying cinders from the Hawaiian lava terrain.

The new enemies are the Hughes 500MD helicopter (a small "whirly-bird" type copter), the OSA II Missile Patrol Boat, and the Lebed Air-Cushion Landing Craft. The Hughes is extremely fast and maneuverable making it a difficult target at times. The missile boat and the hovercraft are basically "tanks on water" providing yet another missile platform from which to shell your Comanche. The new friendly, the Abrams M1A1, is fun to watch as it mixes it up with enemy armor but is little more than an amusement in the greater scheme of the game.

Overall I like COTE and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the original and the first mission set. Given a choice between mission sets to buy I'd buy COTE because it adds much more than the first mission set. This does come at an increased price however ($40 retail) compared to the first mission set that was priced at about $25 if I remember correctly. COTE is also an excellent addition to your "wow look what my computer can do" collection as it improves the already unparalleled scenery from the original.