Project Wingman is a post apocalyptic combat flight sim. As a mercenary employed by the Sicario corporation you're hired by a country fighting for its independence against a global federation with imperial ambitions. If you're familiar with the Ace Combat games, you will feel right at home. Gameplay Over the course of 21 missions, you will be tasked with destroying (almost) all enemies on the map, which includes targets on the ground, ships, other fighter jets, as well as enormous airships, which carry many heavy weapons and can be dangerous up close. There is no time limit and you can take them all on at your own pace. There are no mid-mission checkpoints whatsoever, so a death means a restart. This does encourage more cautious and thoughtful strategies, however it can also lead to being stuck and frustrated rather easily, especially since missions take up to 20-30 minutes at a time. There is not much of a tutorial, so if you struggle to figure out what you are doing wrong, it can feel like hitting a brick wall. Multiple friends of mine gave up on the game because of this. The bread and butter of combat is shooting missiles at other planes. If you are within lock-on range and have a target in your sights, you can send up to two guided missiles out to destroy them. Enemy planes will attempt to dodge them, so there is no guarantee that they will hit. They will also shoot missiles back at you. Missiles are a big threat, you can't take more than 3-4 hits from them before you die, so dodging and throwing them off is crucial. Most of the time you can simply out turn them when you hear them coming your way, but you can also equip your plane with flares. Flares are a very effective option, as they simply throw off ALL missiles currently locked onto you, regardless of proximity. This makes them very helpful for making it through missions with large amounts of enemies with as little damage as possible. They do have some cooldown, so it's sometimes a good idea to wait until multiple missiles are on their way to you before launching them. The alternative to flares is the AOA module, which allows extremely sharp turns at the expense of some speed. The other main weapon on all planes is the machine gun. Bullets are not guided at all and are affected by gravity. If you are within close range to a target, a circle indicator appears on your HUD, showing where you need to keep the target if you want to hit them with your gun. Although the indicator only appears at close range, the bullets can actually cause damage at extremely long ranges, if the pilot is skilled enough to make that shot, which can be particularly helpful against ground targets that are far away. The machine gun also helps against targets, that are able to dodge your missiles proficiently, since bullets travel much faster. Compared to Ace Combat it's a very good alternative to missiles. Each plane has its own particular selection of up to 3 additional weapons that can be brought to a mission. Some of them are specialized missiles, with longer ranges and the ability to lock onto multiple targets at once. There are also unguided bombs, which trade the ability to lock-on for a larger explosion radius. This can be useful in circumstances, where you have to take out densely packed groups of targets. The right selection of armaments can make a drastic difference in how difficult a mission will be. If you know what kind of targets you are up against, you can make your life a lot easier by picking a weapon suited for them. Story Telling During a mission there are no cutscenes that take away control from the player, however scripted spectacle setpieces still happen. It's a common occurrence to be hearing a loud noise somewhere behind you, and only finding out what it was after turning around, which can be quite immersive, particularly in VR. In between missions there are scripted briefings that detail both the tactical state of what you are about to go into, as well as most of the plot and exposition. During a mission you hear the radio chatter of pilots, both friendly and hostile. It can sometimes be difficult to follow along when your attention is already occupied with dog fighting, but anything important to the plot happens during calm moments. Most of the time it's idle chatting between your colleagues, who you'll get to know better over the course of the game, or your enemies freaking out as you kill them one by one. Final Judgement I've been playing Project Wingman at the tail end of an Ace Combat marathon, and to me it easily keeps up with its inspiration. I would go as far to say that it's my favorite AC game, that isn't even an AC game. Playing it in VR is quite incredible, simply being able to freely look around while controlling the plane adds so much to the gameplay. Being able to visually "lock on" to a plane with your head while your hands maneuver it is one of my favorite VR experiences of all time. Going back to the desktop version almost felt like it was missing something, but it's still a lot of fun. The vibe of the world is also pretty great, it diverges quite a bit from the typical "hero ace pilot who saves the day" story that the AC series likes to do, and it feels ever so slightly more grounded, despite its far future setting. Generally I recommend the game at full price, it certainly deserves its spot among other Ace Combat games. However this comes with the caveat of the game lacking mid-mission checkpoints. Some of the early levels can be quite tilting, since they take a long time to beat and keep adding escalations after each enemy wave. Having to start over after ALMOST beating a mission can be quite the mood killer. I ended up powering through it and enjoyed it once the game "clicked", but I very much was not fond of repeating the same half hour for as much as I have.
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