Sometimes, when you’re looking for what game to play, you want something that doesn’t require any thought, or any real investment of time. You want something fun and mindless where you can just blow a bunch of stuff up for a while. Well, if you like flight sims, then Vertical Strike Endless Challenge might be just what you’re looking for. You start the game by selecting one of two available aircraft, picking what loadout you are equipped with from a variety of different missiles designed for different types of opponents, and then take to the skies.
You can select to go against other aircraft, or against surface targets in the form of ships. You take out enemies in waves and see how far you can go before you are destroyed. That’s about the game in a nutshell. The developers really focused on making the game easily accessible and not too focused on any kind of story or detail. However, the aircraft models are extremely detailed and cool looking and you get to enjoy them as you play the game from a 3rd person perspective.
There are two different planes to choose from in the game and they are both really well-designed. The planes, as far as I could tell, aren’t real fighter craft, but definitely resemble actual planes like the F-35 Lightning and the F-22 Raptor. The afterburner effects are especially pleasing when you hit the throttle to chase after incoming enemy craft. There are also some pretty cool wind and contrail effects that will happen across your wings as you bank and make sharp turns. It definitely adds to the feeling of speed and g-forces that you are carving through the sky at high speeds. As far as I could tell, though, there are no black-outs caused by g-forces or anything like that, so you can turn as hard as you want without having to fear any consequences. This might be a selling point for some and a turn-off for others. Considering that the game isn’t really designed as a flight simulator, but more of an arcade flight shooter with some sim elements, I don’t consider this a bad design choice.
For a game that sells itself as an arcade dogfighting simulator, I was really impressed with the way the flight models of the planes behaved. You need to pay attention to your gauges and make sure that you don’t try to climb too sharply for too long, or else you’ll stall out and lose control of your plane. You also need to manage your speed to make sure that you don’t overshoot your target and end up in their sights instead of the other way around.
And the pure satisfaction that you get from blowing up an enemy after hearing the missile lock tone is unmistakable. You can also have a little fun if you get really close in with your enemy and switch to guns to finish them off. I really felt my inner Maverick coming out when I was playing the game.
The progression of difficulty from wave to wave seemed pretty gradual and I found that I usually died because I would make the mistake of flying head on into an enemy plane whose AI isn’t smart enough to avoid collision. But then again, the argument could be made that I wasn’t smart enough to avoid the collision either. So, I guess the lesson there is that playing chicken in a fighter jet usually ends badly.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the game for what it was. It is a great way to kill some time blowing up enemy airplanes for as long as you want without having to spend any time worrying about a campaign or any other clutter that might get in the way. Quick, simple, and fun. It isn’t a flight simulator, but it isn’t purely arcade.
