Comanche 4 was designed to appeal to a broad cross-section of gamers. It reintroduces the sometimes forgotten concept of a 10-15 minute learning curve, and has done away with a 200-page flight manual on the basics of aviation. After a relatively short training sequence, almost anyone over the age of 12 should be able to shoot and scoot in no time. For those hardcore chopper fans, no worries, you can adjust the options to add complexities like cyclic, collective, fantail, HMD information and more, increasing the game's technical difficulty. At the same time the action fans, which enjoy arcade style games, can get up in the air and blow away targets within minutes.

Weapons include a 20mm cannon, 70mm rockets, Stinger heat-seeking missiles, Hellfire laser-guided missiles and the ability to call in artillery strikes. You can customize your RAH-66 to any load out you desire depending on your missions. Some require stealth movement so less is better. On the other hand, sometimes you just have to go in and kick as much anti-American butt as you can so you better take as much as the bird can carry.

There are about 30 Missions within the 6 campaigns and involve objectives like search and destroy, rescue, providing cover fire for ground ops, air -to air combat, sea targets, and so much more.
Enemy threats include but are not limited to, attack helicopters, jets, tanks, speedboats, destroyers anti aircraft, snowmobiles, dune buggies, and ground troops. You will find yourself hovering behind mountains popping up to take a quick shot and hide to avoid enemy attention. Flying through mountain gorges will have the feel of one mistake at max speed and you will become part of the landscape. Must I say it, there is plenty of intense flying and combat situations that will have you white knuckled in no time.

The new polygon graphics engine has replaced the older but still great voxel engine that we have seen in other Novalogic releases. This new engine is optimized for the latest hardware and the graphical effects are stunning. The environments range from the arctic regions to the desert and every terrain in between. The high detail is superb especially when flying at low altitudes. Rotor wash affects both land and water. The trees sway in the breeze and the water ripples, as you would expect it to. Life like reflections and shadows help to immerse you in the game.
 

The game can be controlled using the keyboard and mouse combination, although joysticks, throttles and pedals are also supported and provide more realism when used. One down fall for the Force Feed back fans, Force Feedback is not supported (kind of a bummer) Views include first person, third person, and cockpit.

Gameplay: 9
Nice interface and easy to get started.

Graphics: 9
beautifully done. Water detail is outstanding!

Sound: 8
Sound effects had me flinching as bullets and missiles were whizzing by.

Concept: 7.5
Next in the series, but well worth the money with so many new options

Overall: 9
New chopper combat fans and veterans alike will find many hours of enjoyable and challenging mission play and countless hours of fierce battling with multiplayer capabilities.