Air Conflicts: Secret Wars

Strangely, we don't see too many games dedicated to aerial combat in the wars of the early 20th century. The gameplay potential of each would seem endless. Air Conflicts: Secret Wars aims to rectify that notion, developing a game based purely around combat from the First and Second World Wars. Sounds like we could be in for some exciting times.

Air Conflicts: Secret Wars isn't just your pick-up-and-play aerial combat game, though. Outside of the dogfights, the game attempts to implement a strong narrative that backs your piloting career through the world's most intense conflicts. There's a shroud of shadow in how this game will pan out but certainly sparks interest for anyone fascinated by aviation.

We All Have Our Secret Wars

Those who were patient in waiting for a WWI and WWI dogfighting game finally have their reward. Or so it would seem anyway. Air Conflicts: Secret Wars offers players a full range of planes to take and own their opponents to the skies. Those include the classic Spitfires to those more experimental warplanes nobody really talks about these days.

Apart from the available choice, is the gameplay any good? Let's start with the narrative that holds the game's concept together. It's a fictional tale of a smuggler named DeeDee trying to solve her father's mysterious death during WWI. Yes, that sounds ridiculous. And arguably, the entire storyline doesn't precisely immerse you throughout the game.

But let's look at the core of the gameplay, the combat. It's here we can say that the dogfights are indeed entertaining. They're designed in a sort of arcade-like third-person view that is liberal enough to allow players to take complete control in how they subdue their enemies. Despite the less-than-adequate visuals and the fuzzy audio, the aerial combat is fun.

The real problem with Air Conflicts: Secret Wars is that everything could have been much better. The narrative could have been left behind in favor of tweaking combat strengths. Environments should have been designed in a way that didn't look like an attempt to make them realistic. Most players will feel like everything is lacking, even with the engaging combat mechanics.

Friction Over Fiction

Suppose Air Conflicts: Secret Wars had a bigger budget and slightly more intelligent design choices. In that case, it could easily be a great game. However, it's a shoot for the moon on peanuts, and it shows. You'll argue that aerial combat in Battlefield 1 or World of Warplanes is more immersive even though it's not dedicated to dogfighting.

Round-Up - Pros & Cons

Pros:

• A significant number of WWI and WWII era planes to fly
• Fantastic dogfighting mechanics
• Satisfying mission design

Cons:

• Visuals are nothing to be desired
• A story told through bland images as cutscenes
• Audio and voice acting are poor