Jane's did a great job of recreating the atmosphere of the era in the menu or, as the game refers to it, the museum. There is always some swing music in the background and all the options are set up like a museum. There is information on aces and the planes included in the game, as well as background information on the battle that the game is based on. You can spend a few hours just looking through all this stuff. Now for the fun.
Battle is very real, and the damage model of the planes is remarkable.
For those of us with knowledge of aircraft and control surfaces, you are able to tell what it damages and how much. This is quite an entrepreneurial feature that I had never even thought of. Multiplayer Internet play is pretty smooth, with the exception of the occasional plane moving momentarily at the speed of light, or so it seems. Fighting a friend or just flying around with someone can be very fun. The game makes room for both deathmatch and teamplay games.