This game is brutally hard (aside from getting the steam version to work). Its a great mix of Sim and Arcade flight combat. The missions are more in depth than alot of other flight games of the time and plays like an actual sim, rather than an arcade action game. Youll provide close air support, and escort bombers, and uncover a.....story of some sort. The games translation is also kind of hilarious. Your Commander really lays into you in the after action reports. Would be interesting if Multiplayer for this game made a comeback as this and the sequel (Echelon: Wind Warriors) supports 48 players. Theres not much like this game out there and its unique in the flight sim world.
It does work really well with HOTAS through joystick gremlin (or your vjoy setup of choice) though the actual game only recognizes 1 joystick. At least 1 pov and 16 buttons, not sure the axis limit though I have 4 through vjoy.
Would love to see this game added to GOG as the Steam version is a bit strange to get running correctly and if GOG can implement the fixes out of the gate, this game might get the recognition it deserves