Missions and Campaign
The single missions are essentially there to give you a quick fix and let you fly some pre-scripted mission for the various sides in the war. In FB this was great, with lots of variety and enough to keep you engrossed for hours. AEP took a little flak in this area as what missions there were weren't exactly exciting and some even seemed to be clones of others with different planes dropped in.
PF however takes the single missions to whole new level, unfortunately, that level is sub-basement F or even G. Yep, they are dire. For the vast majority of planes, there are no missions, and for what planes do have missions, most of those are 'carrier take off' or 'carrier landing'. In total, for all the planes you have there are a grand total of 11 missions. Of those 11 there are only 4 actual missions with the rest of that 11 being flying different planes or sides in the same 4 missions.
Just so we're clear, this IS a stand alone, full price game, ok?
Alright, so the single missions fall short in number, but perhaps the quality outstrips the quantity? Erm… sort of. This is where the link between authenticity and fun comes in, something which the 1C team seem to have forgotten. Having faithfully followed the authentic route, ensuring my P40 climbs at the right rate and stalls properly, 1C has also opted for realistic maps too. That means you'll sometimes be flying for 40 minutes before anything even reasonably exciting happens. Then you face a 40 minute flight home. Sorry, but if I wanted to do over an hour of flying and not shoot anything, wouldn't I have plumped for MS Flight Sim 2004 instead? This is supposed to be a game about shooting other people down within a historical setting, but it is a game and as such, it's just not fun.
Now, to alleviate the boredom and allow you to do something else whilst flying over oceans of blue, seeing nothing for hours, you can engage the autopilot and use the time skip function…At least you could if the autopilot was reliable. I loaded up the Beaufighter campaign, keen to see what this new plane could do, saw how far we had to go and after 15 minutes of staying in formation decided that the autopilot could look after things while I made a cup of tea. I came back, steaming mug in hand to find six smoking holes in the ground and my pilot dead. One quick restart later and it transpires that the autopilot flew me into a hill. But not just me, the AI flew themselves into the hill too… all of them. Reload, crash, reload, boom.. etc etc.
So that particular campaign is bugged, lets try a carrier based one instead. Oh, super…. Miles and miles of blue… 1hr 10 mins on the mission clock and still no sign of anyone other than my flight and we return to base. And that's a mission? Load it up with map icons on so I can cheat and see where the enemy are to find that there ARE no enemies about in the entire ocean! Load up again with the external views on to find I can see a view of the enemy carriers, but, as there are no landmarks in the sea, I have no idea where they are and our patrol route sure as hell doesn't go near them. Forget it, engage the autopilot and head home… oops, that was a mistake, it just flew me into the sea… great.
Now you could argue that I should not use autopilot and just fly 'hands on' using the time skip. Which is fine, except that with everything happening 8 times faster, the slightest jiggle on the stick is amplified into a massive yank causing you to crash… plus the screen jerking along soon gives you a blistering case of eye strain.