Lock On: Modern Air Combat

Our favourite is the A-10 Warthog – cruising at 50 feet, on the prowl for enemy tanks, it’s one of the most exhilarating missions available in any recent simulator.

As a flight simulator goes, this is as technical and detailed as it gets. For fans of warplanes and flight sims, you should look forward to getting this running on your highly advanced PC system.

At the time of this review, I can say with assurance that LOMAC is the best commercially available jet combat simulator ever developed. It’s simply the most in depth, the best looking, and the best flying than any previous. (Falcon 4 fans, don’t eat me)

When totally bug-fixed and modded, LOMAC could stand alone as the preeminent modern jet combat simulation. However, if you install the first patch and can deal with challenging frame rates, LOMAC already rocks.

The number of flyable aircraft and the attention to detail in modeling them just can't be beat. With the mission editor, and the excellent online component, you'll have plenty to keep you busy.

A stunning achievement in realism, and the only way to get a more authentic experience in one of these cockpits is to enlist and go to flight school for a few years, and even then you likely wouldn’t get to fly in a fraction of these planes.

I'd personally give it a perfect 5 outta 5 if they had included information on how to drive the system and if it didn't have the few bugs that it does.

When the inevitable patches and mods do start shipping, Lock On is likely to transform from a stunning but gawky debutante into the Grand Dame of modern flight sims. [Feb 2004, p.82]

While we can't see Lock-On bringing the genre back to the masses, the sheer visual appeal, the depth of the missions and ability to customise and make the game your own should see it do a lot better than recent efforts.

Lock On provides the more experienced player with some of the most accurate flight and system modeling around and does so with a much larger roster of planes than most sims. The short verdict: if you're in dire need of a sim, this one is hard to beat.

While it's a diamond in the rough in its initial release form, there's enough depth and breadth here that there's no doubt at all that Lock On is destined for greatness.

Lock-on will mature as more patches are released and it could well become one of the great flight sims but with the initial problems it's made this a tough game to score. It's a shame the Q&A process failed this game, it would have been better if the developers had just held off and the Beta testers had got off their backsides and spotted some of the more nasty bugs.

Detailed terrain, buildings, water, and effects lend an unprecedented feeling of speed to low-level flight. [March 2004, p.82]

It has great graphics, fairly simple controls, great scenery, a decent choice of planes, and a great editor. Although the sounds easily get on your nerves, it will be the load times and need for a computer upgrade that will have you pulling your hair out.

An incredibly deep military flight simulator, Lock On is overwhelming, except to the most die-hard flight-stick jockeys. [Mar 2004, p.83]

The "Full Monty" in terms of the era it covers and it has all the jets! Although a lot is thrown at the player at the start of the experience, with carefully reading the manual, as well as going through the training mission and taking in all you are told will pay its rewards. This is a game you can't rush!

One of the most user-unfriendly sims ever committed to ones and zeros. [Apr 2004, p.67]

Has all the makings of a truly great air combat sim, but it's hard to recommend while it's crippled by bugs and poor documentation.