Project Wingman

A great core of a game with some rough edges that make it a little difficult to embrace fully without poking yourself. I install it every once and a while and quickly find myself getting bored within a mission or two. This game is about as close as anyone has come to releasing an unofficial Ace Combat game. There's a good core, the visuals are great, the planes look good, and the UI is pretty crisp. Loadouts are nice and flexible allowing you to take three special weapons instead of just one like in AC. But then there's the rough parts: [list] [*][b]The Story[/b] - I didn't really care too much for it. You're a mercenary company being hired by world powers to do their miscellanous bidding. The mercenary aspect is really kind of just a backdrop for sending you all over the place; it doesn't actually have any gameplay implications. Your team members also just being rather generic mercenaries "in it for the money" makes them rather difficult to care about. [*][b]The World[/b] - The story takes place in a world after a major catacylsm pretty much destroyed everything and humanity has since rebuilt. A LOT of the details of how the world works cannot be readily explained and you have to go read through the in-game glossary to get the full picture, which takes a long-ass time. Its in a catch-22 where its too much to casually explain in-game during missions but not knowing it makes it hard to understand what the hell is going on in later missions. Everyone's after magical geothermal rock energy but apparently you can nuke it enough times and it causes the world to end. [*][b]The Characters/Voice Acting[/b] - The characters you fly with are difficult to actually care about or relate to. "Monarch" (you) is the faceless mute protagonist god pilot of every ace combat game. Prez (your WSO when flying two-seat planes) is maybe the only endearing one because of her close relationship as your backseater and how she actually has some reaction to what the player does. The other two of hitman who I can't even remember the names of are just rather generic gruff money obsessed pilots with little noteworthy dialogue or character traits. [*][b]The Late Game Strategy[/b] - Unlike AC, PW is very liberal in giving you tools that instantly cause missiles to miss. This pretty much turns flying into a fighting game. Bosses and important enemies will vomit 100 missiles out at you at which you're expected to either dump flares and make them all instantly miss or do a 270 degree flip and zip in the other direction with a braking manuver. This makes it kind of annoying to out-fly missiles because out flying them takes way longer and is much less successful then pressing the missile delete button every 5 seconds it is off recharge. [*][b]The Curse of Boring Missions[/b] - Every flying game has like three or four really good missions, a bunch of alright missions, and everything else is BORING. There are several of "those missions" where you're just flying around doing FA or you're the only solo ship blowing stuff up in the dark. The best mission by far is Cold War and thankfully that one is early enough in the game to keep you hooked for a while hoping another one like it shows up.[/list]