It’s been nearly three years since I reviewed Project Wingman on the PC. At the time I joked about its blatant similarities to the Ace Combat franchise, but now it seems Humble Games and Sector D2 might actually be trying to dominate the air combat genre on the PS5 (and VR) – not that there is any competition. With a few years to polish the PC version, I was excited to climb back into the cockpit and see what was new.
Project Wingman: Frontline 59, while sporting a new name, is virtually identical to the PC version I played in 2020; at least when it comes to the core gameplay modes. Just like it’s PC papa, the PS5 version also supports VR gameplay using the PSVR2, and there are six new special missions designed specifically for VR. The VR support is appreciated for those curious enough to tinker with it, but I probably wouldn’t play the entire game that way unless you have a strong stomach. And for some reason the game is forcing the audio to VR headphones ONLY, so I cannot listen using my home theater setup. I hope this gets fixed soon as I want to spend more time in VR since it supports all the fancy features like haptics and eye-tracking.
One thing that Project Wingman lacks is a good story. Instead of epic cutscenes between missions like in Ace Combat here you go from briefing to setup to mission to the after-action report in an endless cycle. There is no overarching narrative, just highlights and updates for the current theater of war, cleverly taking place in a fictional world so as not to offend anyone. Missions are identical in structure and design to what you’ve played in every Ace Combat game since 1995. You have hexagons on the ground and boxes in the sky and you get within 9,000 clicks, get a tone, double tap the circle button and move on to the next. If you want to mix it up, you can hold down the fire button for a missile-view of the impending enemy kill.
The missions will try to mix things up by calling out priority targets or perhaps having you protect a certain area or escort a certain friendly. Missions are super-long in Project Wingman; much longer than anything in the Ace Combat series with many lasting well beyond 30 minutes with seemingly endless waves of ground targets and aerial opponents. It’s a good thing they can pack 200+ missiles and rockets on my wing pods. Some missions will have you taking off and landing (this can be disabled in options) while other will start and end in the air.
Controls are awesome once you take to the sky and the DualSense is perfect for this style of arcade air combat. And yes, you will use the DualSense even when playing in VR. They did tweak the controls just enough to confuse those who have played any other flight game lately. R2/L2 now control the rudder while the L1 and R1 control the throttle, and you must keep R1 held down to activate the afterburner. It’s also worth noting that this is one of the rare air combat games where I have actually enjoyed using the guns for close-range dogfighting. I typically ignore that weapon, but it works really well in Project Wingman, and in some missions where ammo is running low you might have to rely on a good old-fashioned dogfight.
Graphically, this game is insane with visuals that equal and perhaps exceed those of Ace Combat 7. In some instances, they were just as impressive as the new Microsoft Flight Simulator when flying at 10K or higher. The terrain and mountains are breathtaking and the fictional city designs are cool and dangerous with skyscrapers poking through the clouds and fog waiting for your inevitable collision. I typically play from the nose camera on games like this but this time I just had to play from inside the cockpit. It was so immersive with the lighting and the scratched canopy that would capture moisture when flying through the clouds that would bead up on my windshield then slowly streak away to the sides. Even the chase camera was impressive, as it was showing off fully functional flight control surfaces along with vapor trails coming off the nose and wings at high speeds.
While there are no conventional cutscenes in the game there are moments where autopilot takes over and radio chatter will instruct you on mission objectives or just some friendly banter, usually bragging about how good you are. You’ll also be able to cobble together a rather weak backstory from the mission briefings and radio chatter about this futuristic and literally broken Earth torn apart by natural disaster that has created these warring factions.
The audio package is all over the place. The mission briefings are excellent, ripped straight from the pages of Ace Combat – I think they even got the same deep voice actor to do the briefings – and there is plenty of radio chatter during combat and between waves. There is the low hum/hiss of your engines and some weak combat sounds. The whoosh of a rocket or missile is lackluster, and explosions are weak even when you use a missile cam view. It’s hard to tell when the afterburner kicks in unless you are using the chase view. The music is the same stuff from Ace Combat with a mix of energetic military themes, bass, percussion, brass, etc. that fits the theme of the mission and adds to the intensity and perhaps blocking out the more important sound effects. You can play with the sound levels in the options to create a more useful balance if you want. You can always mute the music and put Danger Zone on a loop if you really feel the need…the need for speed.
There are 20+ missions and while they basically all devolve into shooting everything with a target on it you will still need to pick the right plane and weapons for the job. You’ll earn cash by completing missions that you can use to purchase new planes that all have their own balance of air and ground capabilities. Sadly, the interface for picking planes and customizing your loadout is really bland, and I typically just went with the default with no regrets. Just make sure to get all the priority targets before you spend all your ammo on non-critical targets.
The campaign mode will keep you flying for 12-15 hours, but it’s the Conquest mode that will keep you coming back for more…maybe. In this homage to Chris Roberts 1993 Strike Commander game, you’ll play as a lone mercenary with a couple of planes you can use to run missions and earn cash to get better gear and hire more pilots. As you grow in power you can expand your influence across the map as you balance resource management with map conquests leading up to the final boss fight. Conquest mode definitely adds a nuanced tactical element along with an almost business-like sim aspect to the arcade air combat genre and is a welcome diversion (or addition) to the linear Campaign mode.
I’m sure many will lament the lack of any multiplayer support but for only $30 I found more than enough content to keep me busy for several weeks, plus you can always go back and replay in VR for the ultimate immersive thrill ride and check out those six new missions created just for VR (but playable without)
While admittedly not as crisp and photo realistic as non-VR, the virtual reality experience makes up for this with complete and total immersion. The ability to free-look around the cockpit and follow enemies in your peripheral vision cannot be explained in words; you have to play this in VR to understand how impactful it is. Even playing in the chase view gives you this expanded sense of awareness in VR.
Project Wingman: Frontline 59 is a competent air-combat experience with plenty of thrilling solo content. Boasting the same (or better) visual fidelity as Ace Combat 7, with the same fun and accessible arcade controls and gameplay minus the crazy stories and cutscenes that most of us skip anyway, Project Wingman: Frontline 59 is a fun, challenging, and totally immersive air combat game that is just as much fun in VR as it is on a TV, and with two great modes there is enough action here to glide into next year.
