History VideoGame / BomberCrew

** You can make emergency repairs on an engine or fuel tank by climbing out on the wing. [[note]]RealityIsUnrealistic: This is based on two incidents where a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cyril_Jackson bomber]] [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Allen_Ward crew member]] climbed out and attempted to extinguish a fire on the wing. In both cases, they had at least one other crew member holding a rope to keep them from flying off, and only one of the two succeeded.[[/note]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: To the Creator/MicroProse game ''VideoGame/B17FlyingFortress'', which was the first bomber simulation to feature crew management. In comparison ''Bomber Crew'' is LighterAndSofter, not requiring the player to actually fly the plane or fire the guns, just direct the crew to do so.

** In the USAAF campaign, the Nazis have not only completed the aircraft carrier ''Graf Zeppelin'' in 1942 and actually solved the InterserviceRivalry that kept it from ever being assigned an airwing, but they have somehow got it from Stettin (now Szczecin), which is on the Baltic Sea, out through the Kattegat and Skagerrak, across the North Sea, through the Straits of Denmark (or even more unbelievably, ''through the English Channel''), into the Atlantic, around France, Spain, and Portugal, through the Straits of Gibraltar, and into the Mediterranean Sea, where it is operating near the Tunisian coast.

** In when a fire breaks out, crewmen will just stand in fire and burn to death till you tell them to move. You also to click on a precise spot on the fire to get a crewmen with an extinguisher to fight the fire, or else they'll just stand in the fire and do nothing. This was corrected in the sequel, ''VideoGame/SpaceCrew'', which has a "fight fires" button that will automatically send any crewman with an extinguisher to fight the closest fire.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: One of the more challenging aspects of the game is managing all your systems, since there are more systems than crew members available to man them. While this may seem like a contrived mechanic to make the game more difficult, it is in fact accurate. The Lancaster really did only have seven crewman to man nine different stations.

* DisposablePilot: While all of your crew can die, the pilot is especially prone to it, since they stay at the controls when the bail-out order is given. Many players don't bother providing a parachute for the pilot at all, since the pilot having to leave the controls to grab a parachute is actually ''more'' likely to kill them than staying at the controls and attempting an emergency landing.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Sending out a lone Lancaster on a mission is something the Royal Air Force rarely did in real-life, and likewise, the USAAF rarely sent out lone B-17s. Lancasters did operate solo on sub patrol and air-sea rescue missions, but a strategic bombing mission requires at least 4-8 Bombers flying in formation to be able to effectively support each other and deliver enough bombs on target to actually have a noticeable effect. This apparently doesn't apply in the game's world; see MadeOfExplodium below.

''Bomber Crew'' is a {{Roguelike}} video game made by Runner Duck in the vein of ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight''. In the game you'll manage the crew of a [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII World War 2]] bomber based off the [[UsefulNotes/BritsWithBattleships Avro Lancaster]], flying missions against UsefulNotes/NaziGermany.

It will be followed in September 2020 by the ScienceFiction sequel ''VideoGame/SpaceCrew'' that puts players in control of a spaceship as they battle their way across the galaxy.

* YouHaveReasearchedBreathing: Some of the skills your crewmen learn at higher levels are pretty basic, such as putting the plane into a dive to put out engine fires, or using the radio to call for fighter support.

* DifficultySpike: The USAAF DLC is notably more difficult than the vanilla game.
** For starters, your B-17 carries fewer bombs, making aiming critical. But you're asked several times to bomb moving naval targets, which require using your navigator's custom heading ability to aim your plane along the ship's path of travel to have any chance to hit.
** Most Optional Recon targets only give a small boost to unlocking equipment, not cash like they do in the RAF campaign, so upgrading your plane takes longer.[[note]]In the RAF campaign most missions have one or two recon targets that award cash. In the USAAF campaign only land-based recon targets give cash and these are much rarer. Recon opportunities for ships are a lot more common but don't award cash.[[/note]]
** If you lose your landing gear and crash at your airfield it's an nearly-guaranteed plane destruction, while the Lancaster had noticeably better odds of survival when attempting a single-gear landing or belly landing, and due to having fully-enclosed landing gear bays while the B-17's landing gear still sticks out the bottom of the engine nacelles even when retracted, the Lancaster was less likely to lose landing gear in the first place.
** The B-17 has significantly less forwards firepower than the Lancaster due to lacking a nose gun. The cheek guns and roof and ball turrets try, but they just don't have the same coverage. Also not helping when fighting heavy fighters and jets is that the B-17 doesn't get 20mm cannons like the Lancaster, and .50 cal guns have neither the per-hit power nor the armor piercing value of 20mm guns, which makes a significant difference against more heavily armored fighters like Me 262s.

* ArtificialStupidity: You have to tag attacking aircraft for your gunners to begin firing on them, even if the fighters have already wounded your crew or aircraft.

* RealityEnsues:
** If you perform the Corkscrew Maneuver or Emergency Dive while a crew member is trying to repair a wing or engine, they'll end up falling off the plane.
** Accidentally choosing your pilot to move to another station means your bomber will nose down and crash.
** If you do a belly landing with someone in the B-17's ball turret, they WILL die (their Lancaster counterpart may survive, as they aren't actually in the turret)
** The B-17's landing gear doesn't retract fully into its inner engine nacelles like the Lancaster's, meaning it is more vulnerable to damage from below, which can result in deadly single-wheel or belly landings.
** In a favorable case of reality ensuing, the B-17's waist and cheek guns can still be operated even if the hydraulics fail, as they are simple pintle mounts instead of hydraulically-actuated turrets.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In the ''Secret Weapons'' DLC, we get this declaration from one of the Enemy Aces
-->'''Frans and Fritz Blitzen:''' "It takes two to Tango. But we're going to Foxtrot Uniform."

** You can make emergency repairs on an engine or fuel tank by climbing out on the wing. [[note]]RealityIsUnrealistic: This was based on an incident where a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cyril_Jackson flight engineer]] climbed out and repaired the wing that was shot by a fighter.[[/note]]

It was followed by the ScienceFiction sequel ''VideoGame/SpaceCrew'' that puts players in control of a spaceship as they battle their way across the galaxy.

** Turrets equipped with feed systems will fire non-stop without requiring you to manually order your gunners to grab new ammo belts from the ammo dump, though they still have to pause to load new ammo belts, which can make a big difference when the fighter attacks get more frequent and intense.

* AwesomeButImpractical: 20mm gun mountings in the nose and tail turrets. They're enormously powerful, have huge range, and make a mockery of the armor of enemy heavy fighters, but they chew through ammo quickly and carry relatively little of it, and as such, necessitate long trips to and from the ammo dump that the dorsal and ventral turret don't have to worry about due to being right next to the ammo dump. This is, however, {{subverted|trope}} by the final version available, which is ammo-fed, and thus quite practical.

** If you lose your landing gear and crash at your airfield it's an automatic plane destruction, when sometimes your Lancaster has a chance to survive.

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Women and non-Anglo crew can be recruited to fly your Lancaster, and your B-17 can have an integrated crew. [[TropesAreNotBad Not that there's anything wrong with that.]]

** Most Optional Recon targets only give a small boost to unlocking equipment, not cash like they do in the RAF campaign, so upgrading your plane takes longer.[note]In the RAF campaign most missions have one or two recon targets that award cash. In the USAAF campaign only land-based recon targets give cash and these are much rarer. Recon opportunities for ships are a lot more common but don't award cash.[/note]

** Optional Recon targets only give a small boost to unlocking equipment, not cash like they do in the RAF campaign, so upgrading your plane takes longer.

** The USAAF trailer is happy to let us know that the B-17 can have up to ''seven'' gun turrets (or more accurately, three turrets and four waist guns), all of which are always ammo-fed, meaning no lugging ammo around.

* SchmuckBait: Optional recon targets are often in the middle of heavy flak or radar search areas. Even when they're not, taking the photo results in a patrol of fighters immediately attacking you.

* WritingAroundTrademarks: Technically speaking, your Lancaster is just a bomber, since "Lancaster" is copyright Hawker-Siddeley, who merged with the original manufacturer Avro. Likewise an upcoming DLC identifies the B-17 as an "Iconic US Bomber" since "B-17" is still copyrighted by Boeing Aircraft.