Sabre Ace: Conflict Over Korea is a game developed by American studio Eagle Interactive and published by Virgin Interactive for Windows in 1997. Sabre Ace allows the player to take on the role of a US or North Korean pilot and fly through a series of canned missions. As their experience increases, the player will gain access to better aircraft, the North Korean pilot moving from a World War II Yak 9 to the Mig 15 and the US pilot graduating from the F51 to the F80 Shooting Star and finally the F86 Sabre. It also contains a training section with its own aircraft where the rookie can fly the T6 Texan, the T33 or on the communist side the Yak 18 and Mig15 UTI, a two-seater variant of the Mig 15.
The training lessons are well done. The early circuit and navigation exercises come with an instructor in the back seat who will tell you what course to follow and will warn you if you are getting low or slow. More usefully, in the circuit lesson you are the second aircraft in a flight of two and following your leader and obeying your instructor’s prompts is a great way to find out what you should be doing at various parts of the circuit. An excellent feature in the training is if you let your attention wander to much and your aircraft drifts a bit close to the ground, your instructor will snatch back control of the plane and only hand it back over when you are back to a safe altitude. There are four types of training mission, the circuit familiarization as mentioned above, a navigation exercise which sees you following various landmarks such as rivers and bridges before joining up with another pupil for some formation flying home and two combat exercises, ground attack and air to air.
As with a lot of these older games, Sabre Ace isn’t quite sure what it wants to be or who its’ target audience is. There are elements of a serious simulator in the game. The ground attack portion has comprehensive training, much more than the other training sections. There are some small details as well, such as needing to make sure your canopy is locked open before you ditch. Unfortunately, there are other details like having a key that will instantaneously put you over your target and back again, that bring realism level down to arcade level. Hardcore sim lovers looking for a challenge should look elsewhere though.
Overall, Saber Ace: Conflict Over Korea is a solid game. The graphics are good looking, the training exercises are well done and the whole packages is well presented.
