Project Wingman, aka Exhibit A in the upcoming copyright lawsuit by Bandai Namco, is a pretty awesome arcade flight-combat game and why wouldn’t it be? It pretty much borrows and steals every single element and aspect of the Ace Combat franchise, tweaks it slightly, and tosses it up on the Steam store for less than half the price of the most recent Ace Combat title. Admittedly, I didn’t waste too much time wondering how this game could legally exist despite it having the same style mission briefing, the same planes with the same camera views, the same weapons and flight control systems, the same style of lock-and-fire combat, the same…well, pretty much everything.
In all fairness, Project Wingman seems to do everything Ace Combat does but just a bit better right from the start with HOTAS support, head tracking, and even VR support for the entire campaign if you are willing to sacrifice resolution and clarity for some intense immersion. It’s definitely worth tinkering with in VR, but I probably wouldn’t play the entire game that way unless you have a strong stomach.
First up, the menus are horrible. I had to wait for a post-launch patch before I could even navigate them reliably and it’s still a pain in the ass even in the latest build. Ever since Destiny where they use a mouse-like cursor to navigate menus even when using a gamepad, I despise this configuration. My analog sensitivity for flying is perfect but trying to get my cursor to stop on the plane or weapon I want is still next to impossible. Thankfully, you don’t spend a lot of time not flying in Project Wingman. All the superfluous stuff like story and character building are gone. You go straight from mission briefing to plane and weapon selection right into the mission.
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 B 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 while other will start and end in the air.
Controls are awesome once you take to the sky whether you are using a gamepad, joystick, or a complete HOTAS setup; a bit overkill considering this is pure arcade rather than sim. They tweaked the controls just enough to confuse those who have played any other flight game lately. Triggers now control the rudder while the LB and RB control the throttle and you must keep RB held down to activate the afterburner. This can all be tweaked in the options theoretically, but when I tried to switch controls it was replacing controller inputs with mouse and keyboard commands, and believe me, you do NOT want to play this game with a mouse and keyboard. 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.
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 objects 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 a nightmare 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 $25 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. The game supports both Rift and Vive and I tried with both. Normally the Touch controllers give the Rift the edge but even though you are wearing a headset you will still use a gamepad or flight stick, so the only thing differentiating the two was the slightly sharper graphics of the Rift S and the lighter headset which offered greater comfort for prolonged play sessions. 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.
Project Wingman was a complete surprise; not just the fact that I was totally unware of its existence prior to its December 1st launch, but also in just how solid and full-featured this game is for only half the cost of a AAA title. Boasting the same (or better) presentation quality as Ace Combat, with the same fun and accessible arcade controls and gameplay minus the crazy stories and cutscenes that most of us skip anyway, Project Wingman is a fun, challenging, and totally immersive air combat game that is just as much fun in VR as it is on a monitor, and with two great modes there is enough action here to carry us into next year.
