Red Jets is a 3D combat flight simulator, inspired by the Cold War conflict and the USSR Air Force.
Contents
Gameplay
The player can fly four famous Soviet jets: the MiG-29 Fulcrum, Yak-141 Freestyle, Su-27 Flanker, and Su-25 Frogfoot. The game features relatively realistic flight physics and detailed cockpit and external views. Twenty missions and thirty scenarios come with the game. The landscapes were modelled from actual satellite maps. In addition, a detailed visual weather system to simulate flight in almost unlimited combinations of weather and day is included in the game. It also features a multiplayer mode, where up to 16 players could play simultaneously. The game also came with a mission creator, which was criticized for its lack of openness.
Plot
The player, whose callsign is "Eagle Six", takes off from an airbase in Crimea and spots an intruding Lockheed C-130 Hercules. He follows it until he gets permission from the tower to use his weapons, and then shoots down the C-130. This event sparks a whole-out air war with the United States, which is what the game next focuses on.
Engine
Red Jets was built on InterActive Vision's jet fighter engine.
System requirements
The game needed minimal to medium system requirements to run. It would run on a minimum of 1 GHz, but the CPU recommended was 1.5 GHz or higher. The operating system, or OS, was fairly surprising, too: the game would not run on anything above Windows XP, just 98, Me, 2000, and XP, but this is acceptable because, at the time, Windows Vista had not been released. Memory required was 256 MB, minimum.