The notable features in the game include the ability for the player to dynamically alter their flight campaigns and the realistic physics engine. The storyline in the game revolves around a war campaign over the Red Sea between two ambiguous fighting forces which both feature modern air-combat sorties that are launched against each other in an all out total aerial war. Because the campaign missions are dynamically selected by a computer algorithm built into the game based on the player's performance in battle and random events in the game, no two air missions the player plays should ever be the same.
The Philadelphia Inquirer said "If you want ultra-realistic air combat and don't mind investing the time, Falcon 4.0 is your game. Strategic thinkers will prefer Total Air War's emphasis on the big picture".[3]
^Staff (April 1999). "Computer Gaming World's 1999 Premier Awards; CGW Presents the Best Games of 1998". Computer Gaming World. No. 177. pp. 90, 93, 96–105.