World of Warplanes

I have to be honest and say that when a buddy told me about an MMO flight game I thought it would never work. Well tons of people are super into World of Warplanes and as it is free to play I thought that I would give it a try.

Take To The Skies

One of the things that is most impressive about World of Warplanes is the attention to detail that they have given the aircraft. Now I am not an aviation expert, but I was very impressed with the different types of planes that were in this game. There are five “classes” of plane for you to choose from and each one has its own style, For example, one might offer more firepower, but be slow and another can be more nimble, but not as powerful in a firefight.

It Is An International Affair

One thing that is pretty neat is that they have given us the choice of using aircraft from different countries. The USA, UK, USSR, Germany, France, Japan and China are all represented. The idea of the game is to represent the golden age of aircraft. As I said I am not an aviation expert, but I can tell you that each countries planes certainly have their own style and that is really cool

All Out War

I know that some people are put off flight games as they can sometimes be overly complex with their controls. You do not have to worry about that with World of Warplanes. I found that the controls were pretty Arcady in their nature and had no trouble getting to grips with the basics. Each plan can do more advanced maneuvers, but I found these no harder to pull off than in a game like Ace Combat, After Burner or even Star Fox.

The core gameplay is actually a lot of fun and you will be taking part in these huge 12 v 12 aerial battles that are very exciting. The maps are the perfect size where you have a little bit of space to catch your breath, but they are not so large that things get boring. In all from a gameplay point of view, I found World of Warplanes to be a really fun time. Also, I never spent a penny on this game and never felt that I was being hustled to or that I was at a huge disadvantage.

Progress In The Skies

There are plenty of upgrades that you can get for your plane and if you want to get super into it then you will have to use them. Weapons, more fuel, better engines and so on are things that are going to make your plane better than the rest. This is where you could spend real world money to give yourself an edge and get the best equipment. I can see why some people would get into this. I though found that I did not need to spend any money in order to have fun. Still with that being said as you progress through the game and “level up” I would think that when you are playing against more skilled players who have upgraded their planes that you would have a harder time surviving a battle and getting a win.

Pros:

• Plenty of planes to choose from
• You can upgrade your planes
• The graphics are quite nice
• Gameplay is fast and fun
• Much easier to get into than you would think

Cons:

• You will have to spend money to seriously compete
• UI at first can seem a little cluttered

I have a friend who is super into World of Warplanes. So much that he was always bugging me to give the game a try. An MMO flight game sounded really strange to me, but as it is free to play I decided that what harm was there in actually giving it a try.

Whoa! That Looks Real

I am sure that much of the detail that is in the warplanes in World of Warplanes is lost on an aviation noob like myself. However, I can tell you that a ton of work has clearly gone into the different models of plane. The game actually has five different classes of plane for you to choose from and each one has its own style. So you can get a plane that offers some really heavy duty firepower, but it might be a little hard to maneuver. On the flip side of this, you have a plane that is fast, nimble and easy to fly but lacking in firepower. Like any MMO game, finding the right class for your playstyle is key. One thing that is cool is that you can fly warplanes from the USA, Germany, France, the UK, USSR, China, and Japan. I am sure if you are actually into historic warplanes this is really cool. What I found really neat was how each countries warplanes had their own kind of style.

More After Burner Than Flight Sim

In all honesty, a huge part of what made me reluctant to try out World of Warplanes was that I thought it was more of a flight sim kind of game. These types of game are not or me as they are way too complex. World of Warplanes is not like that, it is more like After Burner or Ace Combat in that it is a more arcade-style flight game and that is really cool. Even the more advanced moves that the warplanes can pull off are nice and easy to do and if you can make Fox McCloud do a barrel roll, you can do the maneuvers that are in this game. The battles are 12 v 12 matches and they are really cool. The maps that are in the game are all a nice size and they are not so large that you struggle to find an enemy to engage with. In all the actual gameplay is way more fun than I thought it would be and I actually played the game for many hours without spending any money at all.

Free To Play? What Is The Catch?

I am as suspicious of free to play games as anyone, but I found World of Warplanes pretty fair in the way it handles things. Now granted if you do want to get really into the game and be very competitive, you might have to spend some actual money to get some of the better equipment. You can get better weapons, better engines and things like that and these will make your warplane a real death machine.

For me, though I was more than happy just playing it for fun. You do level up in the game and I have a feeling that as you start to get to a higher level and playing against players who have spent money, you might notice a difference then.

World of Warplanes was a real pleasant surprise. I am not going to say that this is the greatest flight game in the world, but there is certainly a lot of fun to be had here. As I said in the review this is more like an arcade-style flight game than a sim one so I do feel that it is worth checking out if you like action games and flight games like Ace Combat. Plus this is free to play so there is nothing to lose if you do not like it.

7/10

Pros:

• You can fly planes from different nations
• The presentation is actually quite good
• The action feels very arcady
• Controls are very easy to learn
• Plenty of choices when it comes to warplanes

Cons

• It does have things to spend real-world money on
• Too many people think this is a sim style game!