Games Like F-2 MISSIONS: CASE ONE

REAL FLIGHT. REAL MISSIONS. FULL CONTROL.

Strap into the F-2 and fly a full course of missions. One aircraft, the JASDF's F-2, over a true-to-scale Japan. Simple to pick up, and the flying is the real thing.

Authentic flight model

A flight model built on physics. Lift is computed from the aircraft's weight, speed and angle of attack, and every roll and pitch input turns into the turn performance those numbers allow at that instant. Holding a banked turn with back pressure is correct in the real jet, and it is correct here for the same reason.

The real skies of Japan

Real Japan, built from national survey data. Mountains, valleys, coastlines, lakes, inland seas, straits and rivers are all the real shapes. Airfields have the real number of runways pointing the real way. The Matsushima coastline, the Azusa valley and the ridges of Fuji are all exactly where they should be. Fuji is 3,776 m. The Kurobe gorge drops 1,800 m. Everything is true to scale, so the width of a valley and the speed at which a ridge closes in are what they would be in the real aircraft. Surveyed building footprints, trees and far terrain are layered on the ground, and the sky is simulated from the atmosphere itself: time of day, cloud cover, rain, fog and wind. The same stage never feels the same twice, and at night a real star field comes out over the mountains.

The story: a year of special training

Set against joint training between Japan and the United States, F-2 MISSIONS follows the training of an F-2 fighter pilot. You are a rookie selected for a one-year special course. Home base is Matsushima. Beyond the training wait scramble alerts against unidentified aircraft, and a sky where the rounds are live. Your instructor is on the radio the whole way, telling you what to do next. You are never thrown into the sky without knowing what is expected.

The training course

It starts with takeoffs, circuits, turns and touchdowns, then moves on to low-level runs through real valleys, holding station behind a leader's wingtip, refueling from a KC-767, and landing on the deck of an allied carrier.

Real-world missions: scramble

Sit alert, and launch when the bell rings. Join up with an unidentified aircraft, pull alongside to identify it by eye, and escort it until it turns back. You do not shoot. Once it is gone, fly home and land.

Live-fire training: air, ground and sea

Down enemy fighters with guns and missiles, take out air-defense sites lining a valley, and strike a surface group beyond the horizon. The low flying you learned in training is what keeps you alive.

Cockpit view

A fully modelled first-person cockpit. The HUD is not a screen overlay: it is projected onto the combiner glass in front of you, so the symbology slides across the world as you turn your head. Your head is not bolted to the airframe. Every g the jet pulls goes through your neck, and catching a wire throws you forward in the straps. Read the meatball the way a pilot actually reads it: through the lens.

Guide line and instructor on NORMAL

On NORMAL a guide line shows the path to the next gate as a ribbon: red when you are too fast, blue when you are too slow. Your instructor calls procedures and the next step over the radio, and says so, briefly, when you fly it well. On HARD and above the guide line disappears and the instructor says less. It does not get harder. It gets quieter.

Replay every flight

Every flight is recorded from start to finish. Review your traps from the LSO's platform, a chase camera, the cockpit or a ridgeline spectator's view, then save the clip.

Nothing flies the jet for you

Everything the real aircraft can do is in your hands. Assists live in the display, never in the controls. The FLOLS meatball, steering cues, gate rings and the guide line all show you where to go, and none of them fly the aircraft for you. What we simplified is the handling of the controls, not the flight.

Difficulty, and beyond

Built for the desk

After launch

F-2 MISSIONS is an independent production, not affiliated with or endorsed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries or any government or defense entity.