World of Aircraft Review

Deep and involving sims are always nice, but sometimes a person just wants some good old fashioned no-frills gaming. This is why games that evoke a simpler pick up and play arcade like feel will always have a place in many a heart, including my own. World of Aircraft is one such game. It’s easy to jump in to aerial mayhem that’s about as grounded in reality as Modern Warfare (it doesn’t matter which one).

World of Aircraft is basically just a series of online multiplayer deathmatch dogfights. Players can opt to go one-on-one, have a free-for-all, pit one team against another, or take on a few solo missions for a little extra cash. As they earn more medals and coins they can unlock and upgrade new aircraft, which can then be used to earn even more medals and coins, and so on. As I’ve said it’s not a heavy-handed sim in any sense. The controls are very straightforward with virtual steering handled with the left side of the screen and everything else on the right. Machineguns are the primary armaments but some planes also come equipped with shotguns or sniper rifles. Yes, shotguns or sniper rifles. On an airplane. And that’s part of why it works.

Simulation enthusiasts will probably take issue with the lack of more direct aviation control, as well as the completely ridiculous weapons. However anyone looking for or expecting a fun action arcade game will probably love it. The planes don’t turn realistically, true, and they automatically level out after each turn, but they go where I want them to go and make focusing on lining up my crosshairs a lot easier. I also rather enjoy using the crazy shotguns and sniper rifles. Getting close enough to an enemy to wipe them out with one well-placed shot is plenty satisfying, and the planes and environments looks great while I’m doing it.

However it’s a massive disappointment that a game such as World of Aircraft, which is billed as an online multiplayer game, doesn’t seem to have its act together. Or rather, it doesn’t have its servers together. Trying to join a game resulted in nothing but minutes spent staring at an empty lobby screen, while trying to create my own resulted in minutes spent flying around an empty level. So at the moment it’s not exactly delivering what was promised.

I did have fun flying around and blowing stuff up in World of Aircraft, but at the moment it’s just a bunch of meaningless sorties against bland AI planes. The real draw is in dogfighting other players, crazy weapons and all. However said draw doesn’t seem to be functioning properly at the moment. It’s a real shame.