Ground of Aces

I find myself in the common position of wanting a "neutral" option. There's an excellent game buried in here, but it's locked in behind things that are unenjoyable and that's stopping me from actually having that positive experience. The survival nonsense is the main thing, and I see other reviews calling it out. No, WW2 air bases did not have to forage for berries, get water from the local duck pond with buckets, or chop down their own trees to produce lumber. It doesn't fit the setting or premise, and it also isn't fun. There's a solid concept in here for a management game on the operational side of an airfield, but only if you're willing to micromanage menial tasks that have no bearing on the actual setting it's based in. Add in an option to cut out all the survival nonsense and this probably becomes a positive review, though there's still some cooking needed on other aspects. But right now it just feels confused. Like it doesn't know what it wants to be, and has picked the less-fun path out of the options it had ahead of it.

The game is okay—I had fun with it for the first few hours. The biggest problem is what happens if you have to start over. Rebuilding your base and collecting everything you need takes an incredibly long time. I spent about five hours playing it on stream and only managed to get my airfield to Level 2. The core gameplay is enjoyable, but so much of your time ends up being spent waiting for HQ to send the supplies you need that it quickly starts to feel like you're wasting your time. The issue isn't that the game is difficult. Honestly, very little of it is actually hard. It's just painfully slow. Everything takes forever, so if something goes wrong and you have to start a new save, it feels more exhausting than exciting. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Let’s put it this way.. I’ve owned this game for 31hrs and I’ve played 21hrs. I often struggle to focus on games these days and when I have time to play (which is rare) I feel guilty I’m not doing something productive. This is the first time in years I’ve been sucked in so hard without a care for anything else. So so addictive, so much fun, I love this game and the fact it’s an early release just adds excitement for what else is to come.

I think that this is a very fun game with lots of potential, but in this update that they just released they kind of ruined it. Your crew's morale goes very low no matter what you do in the beginning of the game which just snowballs untill you lose and it's impossible to bring it back into the green, unless you just tell your crew not to work at all. All in all this is a very good game but they accidentilly made it almost impossible to get through the begining in this last update.

Ok, ok. Due to the constant begging window that I review thier game, they win. Just to hopefully GET IT TO STOP. Now, don't get me wrong, why would I care about the begging window unless the game was good? It is good. Now, sorry, just my opinion, it is not great, But... it could be. I also fully knew that this was a game and not a simulation. I expected some of the stuff that happens here, but I guess maybe not as much? Think "The Keystone Cops try to run an airbase". I get why they do that sort of thing... but at some point it's just silly. Even so, I will continue to follow the game and give input because I still believe that the potential here is great. Especially now that the evil begging window will now stop. *grin* EDIT: Even after the review, the begging window doesn't go away!

This is a game caught between two perspectives. It tries to be a colony sim and WW 2 airbase manager game at the same time and falls short on both. It is early access, so it could go either way later. The sim side of things is more developed and you are expected to build facilities from scratch. The morale and energy of your personnel can be dependent on things as simple as enough chairs, beds, a radio, rugs near their beds, in addition to the normal sim food and water essentials. You use victory points to purchase aircraft and more personnel, which of course means if you do not do well you won't gain vp's and won't be able to obtain better aircraft or more personnel. I was really hoping the game would focus more on assigning missions, aircraft, pilots and running the base from a more historical perspective. That's not how it works. You will spend most of your time gathering wood, water, plants etc. to make buildings and feed people. Now don't get me wrong I like the idea of supplementing the airbase operations this way, but it being a core element not so much. Also I dislike the graphics in the game, which appear to be comic book like. This may have been acceptable 20years ago, but not today. I know some people like this style of art work and that's fine. To me its just a lazy way to avoid providing good graphics. I might tinker with this game for awhile, but had I to do it again I would not purchase it. Perhaps later they will decide if this is a colony sim with WW 2 theme or an airbase commander during the Battle of Britain game. If they choose the later and stick with it could be thumbs up.

Having played the game through twice now, I've really enjoyed it and look forward to its continual development. Sure, there are things that are incomplete, but the developers seem to be very active and committed to the project. I particularly like the cartoon style graphics, it works for me and gives the game some extra charm. If I had gripe at this stage, it would the game seems a bit sequential, you follow the assigned tasks and you get to the end of the game. If the developers wanted to add some reality to the game, allow players to specialise their base so they can become a figher, bomber or special ops squadron and then tailor the missions to the type of squadron. Overall, I would happily recommend this game to others

Very fun and unique game. I give it a mostly positive review but the latest fire update is extremely annoying and senseless. How does a bring/cement/steel building light on fire as easy and quick as a wood or tarp builds. I understand its a game but the balance is daft right now with the fire mechanics also could have add some sort of fire truck to help counter the fires

Pretty much the WWII RAF airfield management game I've always wanted. About 15 hours in and I'm having a great time trying to keep aircraft flying, crews happy, and the station from descending into the sort of chaos that probably kept RAF adjutants awake at night. It really gives you an appreciation for the ground crews who kept aircraft like the Spitfire and Hurricane operational during the war. There's a few areas that feel a bit light right now, but the game is still in early access and the foundation is excellent. Looking forward to seeing where the developers take it—preferably with only slightly less paperwork than the real RAF.