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!