B-17 Flying Fortress

B-17 Flying Fortress is a flight simulation from MicroProse that puts the player in the role of crew commander of an American B-17 bomber during raids over Germany in the Second World War. Unlike fighter simulators, the game focuses on managing the whole crew, operating individual machine gun turrets, maintaining the bomber formation, and precisely targeting objectives with the bombsight, with the player able to take control of different crew members depending on the current situation and the urgency of the threat from enemy fighters.

The game was praised for its realistic depiction of the bombing campaign, including the risk of losing friendly aircraft from the formation, damage to the player's own plane from anti-aircraft fire and fighters, and the need to deal with a possible engine fire or wounded crew members during the long return flight to the base in England across the English Channel. The graphical rendering of aircraft formations and anti-aircraft fire was impressive for its time, and the tension was heightened further by the need to fly long stretches over enemy territory without being able to immediately intervene in the plane's own defense, when the player can only watch as enemy fighters approach and the formation slowly thins out from damaged aircraft.

B-17 Flying Fortress is still mentioned today as one of the few simulators devoted to the perspective of a bomber crew rather than a lone fighter pilot, which gives it a specific and fairly rare place within the genre among titles of the same era. This different perspective, the emphasis on teamwork inside the aircraft, and the palpable risk of losing the plane and crew make it a game that remains interesting beyond a purely nostalgic view of period Second World War simulators. It is precisely the tension of the player not having full control over the mission's outcome, having to rely also on the formation of other bombers, that gives the game its distinctive atmosphere.

Why play it: Thanks to its unusual bomber-crew perspective and the tension of the mission's outcome depending not just on the player but on the whole formation, it still offers a distinctive experience today.