Simulation

It's a study-level simulation, so it's far more advanced than everything we've previously had on MSFS. So, for example, if you don't have hydraulics, then each time you press the brakes, the accumulator tank pressure is going to go down, and after 5-6 actuations you will not have any pressure left, therefore brakes will not work. Or, for example, doors would not open/close if you forgot to enable aux. hydraulic pump. So pretty much every switch, knob, and button work in the sim.

As far as I know, every feature of the aircraft works - LNAV, VNAV, autoland, with the obvious (and famous) exclusion would be the weather radar. Every system has its quirks, so don't write off something as a bug, since it may very well be a bug in the aircraft (or, well, a quirk).

For example:

• you may find that upon re-enabling the nav mode aircraft would still stay in heading mode. That is how a real one behaves as well, you have to either make it intercept the current FMS leg by turning the aircraft, or plot a direct to the next waypoint in FMS
• autothrottle would sometimes stop doing its job, displaying a CLMP message on its panel, which is, again, how real aircraft behaves (in certain modes autothrottle just delegates it back to the pilot)
• aircraft would not power radios with just battery, therefore if you would try to use ground services you would not be able to use them until you either connect the ground power via EFB, or enable EMERGENCY PWR, which will power the systems just from the battery alone
• EFB tablet has a battery simulated, so if you don't turn it off it will get discharged in around 9 hours (and you can also put it in flight mode, which is a part of the checklist)
• APU doesn't shut off immediately when you stop it, it has a 60 seconds delay due to longevity reasons

Aircraft

I love the MD-80. It's similar enough so that you can jump into it after 737, but it has so many little quirks that you will be occupied properly learning its systems. It's a fairly modern aircraft that has been flying until very recently, for me it's in that sweet spot of RNAV-capable, but not entirely modern, with retrofitted tech weirdly combined into one package. And I also very much dig its aesthetics, with engines all the way back and a T tail, with a seemingly disproportionately extended front to compensate for all that weight at the back.

The cockpit is wonderful, most of the switches are in the places where you expect them to be, but there are a few that keep you wondering why would anyone place them there. You will stumble upon this during the startup since it's not a straight control flow like in, for example, Airbus, here during engine start you go overhead, then open the valves at the very back of the pedestal, then you go overhead again to run the starters, and then you to back to the pedestal to enable the fuel.

Visuals

That's where the main problem lie. It looks fine if you're looking at it from a distance. Night lighting also looks fine. Both outside and inside look decent, but then you zoom in you see the low resolution of the textures, you see the shortcuts of the animations, and you see the missing polygons on the knobs and switches. The artwork itself is top notch - the scratches, the dents, they all look great and authentic. It just needs a much better retouch.

It's like I've come full circle since I've started simming with XPlane. Back in the day I bought addons on XPlane, that looked fabulously, but didn't have half of their systems (yet) implemented, and now this comes out with 100% of the systems, but dated visuals.

Audio

It's pretty unimpressive, honestly. I think most of the sounds are there (speedbrakes, gears, APU, stuff like that), so it's good enough, but they all lack the "oomph". Engines are very quiet, but from what I know that's how it supposed to be on the MD80.

MSFS Integration

The aircraft has an EFB inside the sim, and configuration software outside the sim (so just a standard Windows app). The way that they are split is somewhat strange, for example, you can set the weights both in and out of the sim, but when it comes to the aircraft settings or state that's only in the app. Thankfully once you set the desired settings you can do full flights without ever loading up the external app.

And there are lots of quirks like that:

• you can load flightplan and weight/balance info from simbrief, but only if you save the simbfief file locally to the computer. You can do it automatically by using simbrief downloader, but it is still weird
• there is an invisible click spot on the display which can be activated by the right mouse button, even when you just pan the camera around using the same right mouse button
• exporting a display also exports other displays in the same window (so for example you will have ATT indicator combined with engine instruments on your exported window)
• some of the dials are either too sensitive to the mouse scroll wheel or not sensitive enough. You can fix it by disabling wheel acceleration completely, but then autopilot dials just become a chore to set up
• if you hover over a button, your zoom controls would not work. And I'm not talking about mouse wheel zoom - even if you have a button mapped on the throttle, it would still not zoom until you move the mouse away. I haven't seen that in any other aircraft in MSFS and it is 1. very strange 2. frustrating if you use anything other than mouse wheel to zoom

Manuals

There are separate manuals that explain MSFS specific stuff, and a good long and thick aircraft manual. I haven't found a flight tutorial in there, but there is so much P3D era tutorials out there that I don't think you need one bundled (for example this is an excellent one: https://www.mudspike.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/P3D-Leonardo-MD-82-Guide.pdf).

Pricing

It would have been fine if visuals were redone to the MSFS standards. You have to understand that it's a much more complex plane that recently released BAe, but with somewhat outdated visuals it doesn't feel like a premium product (even if it totally is from the simulation perspective), so I'm not sure why they went with the price that high up, especially with PMDG coming up (hopefully) next week.