Gameplay
The game has been designed so it is as easy as possible to get into giving it the tag 'Lite Simulation'. This is opposed to other hardcore 'study simulations' such as Falcon 4.0 where the learning curve is much steeper. After flying one Jet you should be able to hop into any of the other Jets and fly them with relative ease. In reality the Lite category tag places the game halfway between Arcade and Hardcore.
Set over a fictitious desert scenario the game has a useful 'Single Mission' option that allows the user to choose their mission, aircraft type, weapons and look at a map of where they are flying to. A set of names are generated to be included on the squadron rotor and they are allocated varying skill levels, which is useful to know when they are flying as your wingmen. The Single Mission mode is a good chance to practice for the Campaign mode because it gives all the mission types that the user will face in any campaign.
Flying over the desert can be long and lonely, and just like the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s there are never that many enemy planes up in the air. A time acceleration feature is built into the game as well as a feature to let you warp to the target, although this later feature can place the player in the middle of trouble.
Bombing targets is difficult and the user has to practice dive and low level bombing to complete missions. The default jets are purely 1960s technology and have no useful bombing aids.
The planes have simplified radars that are easy to operate, and try to simulate radars of that era; they have a delayed scan, do not always find and lock targets and are subject to ground clutter.
Dogfighting is almost always necessary thanks to the simulated unreliability of the early AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-7 Sparrow, and AIM-4 Falcon – which adds an element of realism. The user will then find themselves in no position to out-turn the enemy MiGs due to the maneuverability of the featured US jets, so new tactics must be learned.
Flying over populated enemy areas the user will be subjected to many types of Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA), or the SA-2 soviet Surface to Air Missile (SAM).
Read more about this topic: Strike Fighters 2