Jane's USAF

Jane's USAF was one of the most ambitious projects of the Jane's Combat Simulations brand, offering players the chance to go through the career of a United States Air Force pilot, from training to deployment in modern combat operations with a whole range of USAF aircraft. The game included an extensive training program that gradually introduced players to the controls of individual aircraft types, along with a dynamic career in which performance in missions affected promotion and assignment to further units. The sheer range of aircraft on offer, from fighters to bombers, was among the things that set the game apart from more narrowly focused competing simulators. The career mode also encouraged replaying, since progression and access to newer aircraft depended on actual performance in previous missions. Players gradually built their own career from rookie to experienced pilot and could watch how their decisions in individual missions carried through into their unit's further development. Transitioning between aircraft types also required completing the relevant training, so players gradually mastered a wide range of different control schemes and combat procedures.

Technically, the game used the 3D acceleration capabilities of the time and offered large missions with a high number of units in the air and on the ground, which placed considerable demands on contemporary hardware. The sound design and voice communications with the control tower and wingmen gave the game the atmosphere of genuine military deployment. The scope of content and the ambition to offer near-encyclopedic coverage of USAF aviation made this one of the most extensive titles in the entire Jane's Combat Simulations line.

Jane's USAF is remembered today as the peak of the Jane's brand's ambitions in modern flight simulation - an attempt to cover almost the entire spectrum of US Air Force operations in a single game. For today's players it represents a demanding but interesting deep dive into the late-nineties era of simulators, when developers competed over how much content and realism they could pack into a single package.

Why play: For players drawn to scope and realism, it's an interesting, if demanding, deep dive into the late-nineties era, when simulators competed over how much content they could pack into a single package.