Gunship 2000

The Good
Microprose peaked with this game. The 3D theatres were unreal; very richly detailed, and far surpassing anything they'd done before. You could actually hover near the train tunnel and see through it out the other end of the hill! The AI was decent (with one failing). You finally had wingmen who would fight reasonably. The tactics are actually fairly realistic, as are the missions. The graphics are decent. If you ignore the lack of texturing and the simpler meshes, it even ages gracefully. and the military hardware was great; lots of helos (including the Stealth Comanche). You'd work your way up the ladder getting access to better and better ones. The game balance wasn't unreasonable; Unless you used the 'turn off my computer fast' cheat you would lose wingmen and get them replaced.

The Bad
It was very hard to play without a joystick.

You were supposed to hide behind e.g. a hill and pop up to fire, then duck back down. BUT the enemy missiles could fly through short distances of solid hill!

When you rose up, enemy radars would instantly to spot you and . They should have had a more realistic sweep delay. Because it meant what you'd have to do is "drive" a few feet along the ground and get real close. That part at least wasn't realistic.

The Bottom Line
In 1991 Microprose was at its peak. Their technology had come a long way and they were getting extremely good at what they did. GS2000 was their pinacle simulation. Basically, it was extremely good!

Unfortunately shortly after this "Wild Bill" decided to pursue the arcade game market, just in time for its slump. He sold, and Sid followed him shortly thereafter. Gilman Louie from Spectrum Holobyte took them over, at which point MPS started to slide. There is a difference between doing military simulations (which Louie presumably bought them for), and doing them well. Nothing they did after this came close. Their follow-up to GS2000 was F-14 which was more like Spectrum Holobyte's Falcon series. The magic was lost.

Check out GS2000 and you'll see MPS at their best!

The Good
Saddle up, if you think Gunship was great, then prepare to be blown out of your boots with this one.

If you've read my review on Gunship, well let's just say nothing prepared for the sheer excitement the sequel had to offer! Gunship 2000 I repeat is the BEST modern combat simulation around, even by today's standards! (Unless they did come up with something good that I'm not aware of...let me know somebody!)

Everything in this version of Gunship is bigger in every element:

• New Choppers: Once you only had an Apache Longbow, now you have more than one Apache Longbow versions in addition to various other choppers like the Blackhawk, Cobra, etc. Different kinds of choppers provide various combinations of offense and defense (although at most occasions you'd prefer a whole bunch of Apache Longbow D choppers locked and loaded with Hellfire missiles!) Some missions such as rescue missions require you having one Blackhawk chopper for example.
• Wingmen: Once you were a lone pilot, now you can have 4 buddies guarding your behind and see the whole horizon filled up with Hellfire missiles...it really doesn't get any better than that! You wingmen and wingwomen even gain ranks and medals, so it's more character development for RPG fans!

Wow, my limited vocabulary level eludes me from explaining all the great stuff about the game. Every new mission is an anticipation of a new medal or a new rank. New ranks means new wing pilots or new choppers to fly.

This was also the first time I experience the sheer power of the Sound Blaster digital speech in a simulation game. Suddenly my wingman was crying out "Incoming left, right, front, back...dang it all over!" (dramatization). That just blew me away! (that and the sidewinder stuck at my aft!) The sound effects was a major element in this game. Missiles flying, tanks exploding, machine guns roaring...it did it all. Everything just became a little closer to reality, dang they did a great job on this game!

The Bad
So I only get 4 wingmen flying around, that ain't bad. Could use more, but that wouldn't be fun either wouldn't it? Hehe. Gotta find me a good emulator to play this game again.

The Bottom Line
This is totally simulation magic.

The Good
I missed this back in the day because I didn't find the original Gunship very engaging, and now I completely regret it. I played it for the first time in 2022, and was blown away by the variety, the gameplay, the immersion, basically every dang thing. This game has so much content, so many ways to play, it's a marvel.

Like a lot of classic Microprose sims of this era, you're able to tweak the difficulty on a per-mission basis, meaning you can make the game as easy or challenging as you want. While the initial gameplay in a solo helicopter is great, it's when you get promoted and can command multiple helicopters that the game really...ahem...takes off.

Your pilots get promoted, just as you do, and their skills increase, just as yours do, so you'll want to take VERY special care of them. This makes the game go from a solo helicopter sim to something of an RPG/strategy game hybrid, as you're managing your fellow pilots and moving them around the (amazing) map interface in order to complete their objectives.

Marry this with a mix of single players and early dynamic campaigns, all of which are randomized in a variety of theaters, such as Europe, the Philippines and even Antarctica, and you can play this for literally years.

I've played a lot of helicopter sims, and there are many I've loved, I think this might've edged out Hind as my favorite. I mean the variety of helicopters ALONE add to the variety. Apaches, Comanches, scouts and the venerable Blackhawk allow you to pick the best machine for the job (if it's available).

There's just so much to love about this game, I can't recommend it enough if you're into helicopters.

The Bad
Being a game from 1991, the graphics and audio aren't super great, but if you have a MIDI unit, that helps.

The Bottom Line
I can't gush enough about this amazing game. This is my first review on Mobygames, and I felt compelled to write this one because I just love the game so much. Track down a copy of the CD-ROM version, which has all the campaigns, as well as the wonderful strategy guide, and you'll be set for a long, long time.