Summary: Soaring high above a world filled with tanks, World of Warplanes brings aerial dogfighting to the Wargamming universe. Weaving between your foes, dive bombing targets and engaging in aerial competitive ballet in a game where the physics follow George Lucas’ laws more than Newton’s seems like it might just be the best thing since the 10 man raid. Does World of Warplanes barrel roll over the competition, or does it go into a defensive spiral? Let’s find out! Audio Version: Pros and Cons Flying high above the earth, the beauty of World of Warplanes is immediately striking. From great textures used in the world to the puffs of cloud in the sky, everything jumps out at you and draws you into the epic battles taking place. The combat itself is a wonderful homage to the days of Combat Flight Simulator 2. I would play CFS2 for hours on end with my dad, fighting battles in the skies of Europe to see who would have to do the chores that day. World of Warplanes has the same action movie feel that Combat Flight Simulator 2 did, with just enough reality in the physics and control to make it feel like you’re actually flying the plane, and ignoring enough reality to make you feel like you’re in the best action sequence ever. With simple controls and no throttle save for a boost that increases your speed for a short duration, you can find yourself absorbed in the action from your first battle without having to fight to keep the plane in the air. The battle starts in the air, and you never have to worry about takeoff, landing, or any other technical aspects of keeping the plane aloft. There are four different control schemes that you can use: mouse and keyboard, keyboard only, gamepad and flightstick. While each of these works acceptably well, I found that the mouse and keyboard gave me the best experience, with the gamepad a close second. With the action nature of the game, which I’d definitely classify as action and not simulation, the flight stick felt too slow, as did the gamepad. Each is very serviceable though, so I encourage you to try each option to find which works best for you. In the air, each team starts in small squadrons on each end of the map. I mention the rough squadron formations as you’ll want to try to stick with a team as much as possible. Most of my battles were fought in fast dogfights between many planes, and I never had success where I was facing of against more than one enemy alnoe. As much as I tried to get away, when facing large numbers of foes, I knew that I was really just delaying my inevitable death. Battles are won either through killing all enemy planes or through gaining supremacy by destroying ground targets which include anti-aircraft emplacements, hangers and HQ buildings. I had a great deal of fun decking out a plane as a ground pounder and snaking through the geography to take out enemy buildings. At the time of this review there are nine maps in the game, but my favourite has to be Bay, where you above in San Francisco Bay. There’s nothing quite like dodging under the Golden Gate Bridge to escape your enemies to get your blood pumping. The maps, which range from European countrysides to Pacific island chains, are all varied and lend themselves to vastly different experiences when played. The planes are arranged into different tiers, from biplanes in Tier I to early jet fighters in Tier X. The matches are arranged around these tiers, to keep the battles fairly even. I was given a press account from Wargamming, but I also played with my own free to play account as well to get a feel for the monetization scheme. With both, I found that the most fun was to be had in the Tier V - Tier VII range, as I would sometime be fighting against the mighty jet fighters, which tended to kill me quite quickly, and then some of the lower and mid tiered prop planes, which tended to be more evenly matched. Most of the time though, the matches where fairly even,
