Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Oct 16, 2021

  Abandoned and incomplete, no meaningful updates in a long time leaving this an empty shell of a game where nothing is anywhere near complete. Just buy the DCS World AV8B module instead.
• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2022

  Developer has clearly abandoned this project. It had promise but it is in an incomplete and unplayable state after several years. Don't waste your money or time on this.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 24, 2022

  It looks great, you can fly around in VR but not much else. Sad to say but the game is dead now. There has been no updates for ages,. save you money for something else, something that is finished or will be finished
• gamedeal user

  Mar 17, 2022

  Dead as the deadest thing that could be dead. The last time anything was this dead concerning Harriers they had sky blue and white roundels on the side. I bought the game after browsing through flight themed games and after watching the promos decided to take a shot at it. Being in the UK the fact that it had the Mach Loop as a flyable region appealed, plus it was the legendary RAF Harrier in a modernised USA form. There was also the promise of a dynamic campaign, which so far only Falcon 4.0 and sims of that golden age such as Mig Alley have pulled off. So lots of appeal going for it, a lightweight simulation that had some meat on the bones. That was way way back in 2021 ish, Parts of the game do seem impressive at a glance, until you realise it's just the very barest bones present as to what is promised. All you could do really was fly around with no combat, missions or campaign. At the time I bought it and checking the forums there seemed to of been a degree of excitement that a big update was about to drop. Most of my initial 2 hours was in trying to map my Hotas, which unfortunately or fortunately as it turned out I could never get right and thus gave it up, refunded but kept one eye on it just in case it finally delivered on the store page words. It's now 2022 March and progress remains as it stood the day I uninstalled it a year or so ago. Noticed that it still remains on sale still, so wrote these words for anyone chancing upon it.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 26, 2023

  Nothing but years of broken promises and a now year-long development stall with no communication. Don't waste your time or money.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 7, 2016

  This is an early access game first and foremost. So expect bugs and quirks! This simulator is between advanced and light. To make a comparison, here's a visual aid. DCS/Prepar3d/Falcon 4.0 BMS -- Combat Air Patrol 2/Novalogic F-16/MIG-29/F-22/Total Air War/Enemy Engaged -- Strike Fighters series -- ARMA Series -- Ace Combat As a hardcore sim lover like myself(From DCS, to Prepar3D, to Falcon 4 BMS, among others) I completely recommend Combat Air Patrol 2. -- What to expect on Combat Air Patrol 2 -- + With that in mind, it has mostly clickable cockpit, left and right panel, MFDs and the upper keypad(alludes to due to mouse icon change). + The flight dynamics seem quite real and gives that flight sensation. Especially with the incloud effect and the 3D waves. Flying low gives a lot of depth and speed sensation with the waves. + The weather is really quite good, flying through the map you can get some nice cloud cover in the mountains, and completely clear sky on the water. The shadowing is also quite well done, giving a sensation of flying, especially, as stated above, with the incloud flight effects. + Terrain looks really good in some places, I really appreciate the shallow water/green water near the shores. + It runs smooth, really smooth! As smooth as my beautiful ass! No FPS issues at all, and it loads really fast. + The textures, it seems, are placeholder, as some are a bit blurry, but the cockpit looks really good! + The keymappings are bare bones right now, as in, you will need to remap it at your liking as there is very little default keys. DON'T FORGET TO CLICK SAVE! + You can't, right now map more complex key commands, like CTRL + F or use special characters for the mapping, like "/" or "#". + Remember to map the keypad for padlocking to enjoy the outside view! In the current build, the "left" and "right" on the padlocking view is swapped. + TrackIr works, but it seems there's no limit to how much you can turn your head, so, you will end up looking through the floor or cockpit in some weird fashion if you turn your head too much. + Currently, when changing resolutions, or some other options you have to click on it multiple times to change it. Annoying, if you have to change resolutions, but not that bad. + I'm using Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS and F16 MFD Cougar. When they allow MFD key mapping, this will really be a game changer! + Remember to leave an axis for the nozzle direction for the Harrier, I'm using the left throttle on my Warthog for that, even though in the Harrier it is situated on the right, this is due to the buttons on the joystick. + When setting up the throttle, remember to INVERT it. + Fun fact, if you move your head at the intro menu, the pilots will move it too, and it will look like the pilots are headbanging :D + DYNAMIC CAMPAIGN! With all that being said, remember to set your nozzle to 30-40 degrees, or you will end up taking off backwards, and wondering why for a few seconds. Then crashing and drinking some salty water, which based on my various other "accidents", it is not tasty at all! But so far, the time I've played, I was impressed. This shows a lot of promise and if you are willing to go through some bugs and quirks, then please support the developers. It has been a long time since we had a simulator quite like this one, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next! For upcoming features, check this post: http://devblog.sim155.com/2016/06/like-phoenix.html For the engine capabilities: http://devblog.sim155.com/2015/08/custom-engine.html So, in my opinion, if you enjoy Strike Fighters, light-sim and want to go through a few bugs, buy it now!
• gamedeal user

  Jun 7, 2016

  Edit, October 2017: I wrote a longer update on it, but $hitty steam UI made it disappear when I accidentally clicked on the background. So here is the TL;DR: It's vaporware. Think Seven-G, only that that was further developed, with AI, SAMs, hardcore F/A-18 systems and fully clickable pit. Oh, and the price was $ 0,00. But the "Early Access" scamming scheme hadn't yet been invented back then. So, no longer recommended. Disregard the thumbs up. Edit, March 2017: Any potential buyers please be aware that the campaign - which was the main selling point for me - is still not functional at all as of now. I don't know how much more time it will take for it to be, but I have to say I'm quite disappointed that there is practically no advancement on that front (sic) from what I see. I think before jumping on the VR hype train and implementing such a superficial feature, the dev would have done better with first getting the game going. Oh well. Don't want to down-talk this game yet, but any potential buyer just be aware that as of now, other than just flying around and dropping ordnance on random objects, there is no real game here yet. Original Review follows: I'm flying Flightsims since 1995, and do also retro-simming on Flightsims from 1991 on. From my early impression - this is a true spiritual successor to EF2000. It features a Dynamic Campaign, that alone is awesome when you look at all the naysayers on flightsim forums who use to say "It can't be done, it is teh hard". Systems and Flight model wise it is a step above EF2000 and significantly above Strike Fighters actually, but not on the level of military-grade simulators like the DCS series or Falcon BMS. But it was never intended to and the developer was clear on it. The avionics are modelled to the degree they are really mission relevant. You have your main MFD pages, with the MFDs being clickable: Navigation / HSD, Radar, FLIR, TPod, Stores, etc. The thrust-vectoring is awesome and works perfect. Including weight effects - e.g. with a light load, you can take off vertically from the ship, but load 4x MK83s for example and you will have to do a rolling take off with a 45° nozzle setting or so. People who say the flight model is bad don't know what they're talking about. Since this is Early Access, there are indeed some bugs, but nothing game breaking from what I saw. I agree with the criticism that it is too dark. There needs to be more play on the brightness / gamma setting so as to increase it further. There also needs to be a way to set curves for the stick input. But I'm sure this is gonna get implemented in the future. Ok, off to some more missions in the Straits! EDIT: It seems like the campaign is currently not being saved, so be aware of that. Keep in mind though that this is just a few hours after Early Access release and the developer already stated that there is going to be a bunch of patches within the week, so I'm sure they're going to fix that soon. EDIT 2: Brightness issues have been fixed and stick input options have been improved.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 7, 2016

  Seems like all the bad reviews are from hardcore simmers..... if your hardcore into DCS.. this *game* might not be for you.. i flew around for a bit and it takes be back to many 90's sims (albeit with better graphics)... this looks promising..the dynamic campaign is pretty much what i was looking for .. Only derped around a bit.. adding vr support to this is going to be awesome..
• gamedeal user

  Jun 7, 2016

  I'm glad I backed this project. I really like the feel of the Harrier, its the perfect level of complexity for me, somewhere in between DCS and my old favourite 'Total air war'. CAP2 has tons of potential, once the dynamic campaign is fleshed out some more I can see see myself spending a decent amount of time in it. At the moment, I would only recommend it if you want to support the Devs, help test and be part of the evolution of the game. I would not recommend if you expect to jump in and start playing a fully featured game, you will just be disappointed.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 2, 2016

  Build .808: I love the idea behind this game. We haven't have a new casual sim since, I think, the 90's and this one sits perfectly in the middle between the arcade shooters like HAWK and hyper realistic sims like DCS. Add to that a really interesting jet and a dynamic campaign and you've got an excellent game. However... This is not what you will get when buying this one at the moment. Instead you'll get a skeleton of a game, with not a single completed feature. The graphics looks nice, I especially like how the water looks from different altitudes. And the clouds are one of the best, but the particles leave a lot of room for improvements. The flight model is another thing that seems almost done. It is believable without feeling too arcadey and I don't think it needs to be much more realistic. I'd maybe only improve stalls as they are a bit weird now. The sounds are ok. Certainly not the best but they're not annoying. The main problem here is content and the quality of it. I fully understand it's in early access and I'd be totally ok with the fact that there's not much of it right now. What I'm not ok with is the fact that the stuff that's in the game already is mostly broken. Here's few examples: - There is a vertical landing training mission in which by default you start with full fuel tank (which you can change before the mission) and a few bombs under your wing (which you can't change - the options for it doesn't seem to work) which makes your plane too heavy to hover. - There is a A-A missile training mission which crashes as soon as you fire your missiles. - There is a Maverick training mission but the Mav's targeting camera doesn't seem to work (couldn't find a way to lock on any target with it) - There is a HARM training mission but there's no way to setup missiles (to target radar sources)... and they crash the game on launch ...and so on. And while we're at the subject of weapons there's no HUD symbology for any of those. Currently you practically have to guess when the missile is in range. All you have right now are squares over the targets, gun reticule (without working range indicator) and CCIP marker. Add to that many other bugs and problems and we have a game that's in my opinion in too early stage for even early access. I'll still be keeping an eye on this one as it's very promising and can be a cool game when finished (or even before that considering that all the current problems are solved) but right now I don't think it's worth buying.