J.A.S.F.: Jane’s Advanced Strike Fighters – Missed the Target

Game Info

The Jane’s series is toted as being some of the best simulation games on the PC. J.A.S.F.  is much different from those simulation games and being much more of an arcade flyer.

As you begin J.A.S.F. you’ll be asked to choose you plane. There’s only two to choose from at the beginning, but as you progress through the game you’ll unlock around 30 other fighter planes.  After choosing your fighter you’ll select your mission that only has a brief introduction via text and voice-over, which left something to be desired.

Now, like I said earlier J.A.S.F. is much more arcade shooter than simulated flyer. Enemy aircraft can seem to spawn from nowhere and continuously swarm on you. In one mission specifically, I died numerous times from enemy aircraft that continued to respawn from nowhere. Also, your plane can take quite some damage. Everything has a health bar, from your plane to enemy fighters and buildings. Which might not be so bad if not do to the fact that everything can take quite a pounding. Some building take multiple bombs, enemy aircraft take multiple missiles and your own aircraft can easily take 6 missiles and stay in the air. Now I know that’s because this game is leaning more towards arcade, but it’s not completely there. It hangs in a strange place between arcade and simulation.

Now the games solo-campaign has you bolstering the side opposing the ruling tyrant of Azbaristan. The story is told through 16 mission, which could be a hefty amount but, a lot of the missions were quite short. Taking maybe 20-30 minutes to complete. I never cared for any character, least of all the character you take control of, Raven. Doesn’t matter what situation he is in, he never seems to care, so neither did I.

Now I’ve seen J.A.S.F. getting some flack for it’s graphics, which may not be the best, but they are the best part of this game. The models used for the fighters are quite shiny, but other than that, they’re just fantastic to look at as all their moving parts are there. The space given to you to fly over is vast, to say the least. I had no lock-ups or glitches that others have seen. Overall, J.A.S.F. was a pleasure to take in the sights.

I tried on several attempts to get a co-op or competitive multiplayer game going to no avail. Which is a shame, co-op in this game would’ve been great, I’m sure.