B-17 Flying Fortress : The Mighty 8th Redux

TLDR: Bug filled mess, horrific controls, Dev Team as quiet as a corpse in a morgue, AVOID. Even on sale. Watch YouTubers play instead if you really must. Man... I love B-17's. I never make reviews, but oh my god is this game a bug filled mess. I really want to like it, after spending ages trying to sort out this archaic control system and getting the game into a position where it's somewhat playable, there's just none stop bugs and I just cannot bring myself to enjoy it. Here are the three most annoying bugs that I've encountered multiple times in my relatively short time actually playing the game that have been driving me nuts: Crewmen that just bleed to death for literally no reason after a mission after you've patched them up sixty times on their way back to base and on the ground while waiting on all the other B-17's to land, if they do at all and don't just fly back off to German airspace instead. B-17's just getting the wobbles for no reason and then collide with one another causing half the formation to then also collide with one another making you lose half a squadron, especially when using time acceleration. Unresponsive mouse controls, you'll find yourself pressing the same buttons multiple times. Trying to slow down time or speed it up? Nope. You must click it at least five times and headbutt your desk to get it to work or use the keybindings on your keyboard. Want to hear the weather report? Click it a dozen times first, and pray to it then it might tell you the weather report for your targets. There's a load more gremlins onboard this bird than just those three. With this said, this game does have potential, and can be fun! However, given the fact the dev team is quieter than a corpse, and given the state of the other B-17 flight sim products by MicroProse I highly doubt it is going to achieve that potential anytime soon, or probably even this decade. This is literally not the same company from back in the day that made the original, it's a cash cow wearing MicroProse's skin like some corporate Buffalo Bill. Like seriously, for a game that is in "early access", getting one bug fix in January and leaving the player base dry since then except for the fart that was the dev blog in May teasing fancy new clouds when they can't even give you a single mission without a buggy mess occurring in one way or another speaks volumes about how MicroProse see's their games and their consumers, and judging from the games steam discussions and their own Discord server and the games reviews I have a strong feeling I am not alone in seeing things like this and feeling this way. For now, AVOID this game, even if it's on sale. It is not worth your time! If you want to enjoy it, do it at a distance and watch someone on YouTube play it. Example: Taff In Exile.

By 2025 standards there's a learning curve with all the keyboard commands. If you grew up in the 1990's you remember this kind of detailed no handholdy setup. Take the time to learn it though and it's rewarding. GRAPHICAL IMPROVEMENTS Remember it's not a modern game but REDUX is better than the original in many ways. UI has been upgraded with photo-quality images and text. The flight models look a lot better as well. A few quality of life improvements such as mouse control of the Norden Bombsight. TACTICAL PAUSE STRATEGY Janky? Sure but I like the strategic control you have in this game. Control one position or let the AI do everything. The game includes a type of tactical pause (with time controls) which is a welcome sight. You decide how deep or basic you want to play the sim. KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING AND YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED Worth it on sale if you're into these types of vintage games or the B-17.

Loved the original not a fan of the "Redux". Have hundreds of hours playing the original. I have 1 mission on the redux and cant end the mission. Was really hoping to relive my time in the original only to be disappointed by this poor attempt at reviving a classic

Hab nach 8 Stunden kopfschüttelnd die Rückerstattung beantragt. Mir ist schon klar, Early Access usw. und ich habe mit 17-18 hunderte Stunden ins Original damals gesteckt... aber da die Redux-Version nun bereits eine gewisse Zeit aufm Markt als EA vermarktet wird, sind die Verbesserung auf ein bisschen UI und Bombermodell echt nicht erwähnenswert. Texturen laden immernoch nach "Sichtbereich", was bei schnellen Richtungswechseln zu kurzen, aber extrem störenden Rucklern führt. Der Sound ist eine Katastrophe. Die AI würfelt immernoch planlos die Besatzungen durch die Positionen. IMMERNOCH ist das AI-Triebwerksmanagment buggy, wenn man mal in den Pilotensitz springt und selbst die Kontrolle übernehmen muss. Bei jedem Spielstart darf man erstmal seine gesamte Joystick-Konfi neu machen, weil das Game es nicht schafft die Bindings zu speichern... echt jetzt?!?!?! Was soll das!? Nach 25 Jahren hilft da auch keine rosarote Nostalgiebrille mehr, um den Zustand zu rechtfertigen. Da warte ich lieber auf The Bloody Hundred. Micropose hat im Sim-Bereich echt mal für was gestanden, aber wenn B-17 The Mighty Eight Redux das ist was abgeliefert werden kann, dann motte ich Micropose allgemein besser wieder ein.

Although a fair number of updates in 2024 since November patch '24 had updates spaced at 78 days, 4 days, 55 days, 171 days and now 95 days (15/12/25) very infrequent and feels very much like game finished with, otherwise why 13.5 weeks to get a new update out? Its hardly 2020's technology for a 20 odd year + old game. Now 110 days since last update this is very slow in 2026 nearly 2.5 years since release.

1 update per year. Not much has changed from the original game and the progress are next to non-existent and the company does not talk about the plan whatsoever concerning what's going on with the game. Better off with the old original game at this point.

I'd recommend this to anyone that enjoys an authentic simulation of aircraft of this era. I've always wondered what it would be like on one of these bombers. There's a sharp learning curve, though... there wasn't enough easily-followed tutorials and it requires some documentation research. I'm passing on all that so if you don't like reading guides and you'd rather just play a fun game, this might not be for you.

Bought this SAME GAME on GOG. Don't waste your time there. They don't update the game at all - last I checked they're still on "Ain't It Gruesome?" update. This is soooo much more better than the OG B-17! The tension is incredible and the game is beautiful. Give this a shot, you won't regret it.