''Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe'' is a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

air-combat combat flight simulation game first released in August 1991 by

Lucasfilm Games Lucasfilm Games (known as LucasArts between 1990 and 2021) is an American video game licensor that is part of Lucasfilm. It was founded in May 1982 by George Lucas as a video game development group alongside his film company; as part of a large ...

. It was the last of a trilogy of World War II titles by

, the others being ''

Battlehawks 1942 ''Battlehawks 1942'' is a naval air combat combat flight simulation game released in 1988 by Lucasfilm Games. It is set in the World War II Pacific air war theatre, and was the first of Lucasfilm Games' trilogy of World War II flight simulations, f ...

'' (1988) and '' Their Finest Hour'' (1989). It enabled the player to fly aircraft of the USAAF

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...

and the German ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

'', including some experimental aircraft that did not see operational service during World War II. The game was initially released with a

code wheel {{Refimprove, date=September 2008 A code wheel is a type of copy protection used on older computer games, often those published in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It evolved from the original "manual protection" system in which the program would ...

and a 225-page manual, detailing the air war over Western Europe between 1943 and 1945. The game also featured a campaign mode, similar to that found in ''Their Finest Hour'', where the player had to make the strategic decisions on which targets were to be attacked (as USAAF 8th Air Force) or defended (by the German Luftwaffe). Four expansion packs were released: ''P-38 Lightning'' (1991), ''P-80 Shooting Star'' (1991), ''Do 335 Pfeil'' (1992) and ''He 162 Volksjäger'' (1992).

Setting

The game focuses battles between the

and the Luftwaffe challenge during World War II, especially the American strategic bombing offensive against Germany, from August 1943 towards the end of war in 1945. It is focused more on action than on realistic simulation. The game sets up German secret weapons, with fast jet propulsion and a variety of missiles and bombs, against slower but more numerous American piston-engined airplanes. There are a number of ways into the game, covering full Tours of Duty, historical missions, campaign battles as well as a custom mission builder.

Tours of Duty

In Tours of Duty, the player creates his own pilot (or crew, for B-17 Flying Fortress) and fights in the air war for a limited number of missions (from 25 to 55, according to the historical Squadrons). The pilot/crew gain experience points, ranks and decorations; and if he manages to survive his assigned Tours of Duty, he can even start another, without time limitations. The same Pilot/Crew can be deployed by the Player in Campaign Battles, or in Historical Missions or Custom Missions.

Historical Missions

The game features a numerous set of prebuilt, historically-oriented missions in which the player is free to choose their own pilot and/or crew.

Mission Builder

The Mission Builder allows the user to create missions. The "Waves" function allows the player to automatically replicate, up to 9 times, any planned ''non-bombing'' Flight; so that it is possible to simulate, for example, several waves of enemy interceptors against a Bomber formation, planning a single Flight of interceptors and setting the "Waves" option as desired.

Campaign Battles

Campaign Battles are the heart of SWOTL, allowing the Player to plan missions inside the Campaign Battles, using the Mission builder. This feature allows the player plan their own way to fight the air war, without any limitations. Success or defeat are determined by several overall Winning/Losing conditions.

Reception

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' in 1991 and 1993 gave the game four and a half stars out of five, stating that it "is a welcome addition to Lucasfilm's World War II aerial oeuvre. Graphically rich, stylistically complex and user-accessible, it succeeds on three levels (tactical, operational and strategic)". The magazine gave the expansion disks four stars. In 1992 the magazine named it one of the year's best simulation games.

References

External links

* {{moby game, id=/secret-weapons-of-the-luftwaffe, name=''Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe'' 1991 video games DOS games LucasArts games Classic Mac OS games U.S. Gold games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Michael Land Video games with expansion packs World War II flight simulation video games Single-player video games