Lets clear this up right now – Wings Of War is NOT an aircraft simulation game. There’s no 600-page manual telling you how to fly into head winds, or explaining how the sun heats up swamp gas making it hazardous to fly over. You don’t need to be a semi-trained pilot to enjoy a good dogfight. No, Wings of War is a simplistic representation of WWI fighter planes, and a pretty good one at that.

The main mode of the game is Campaign Mode, which puts you in the flying seat as Benjamin, or ‘Butch’ as his flying mates prefer to call him, flying for the Allies in WWI. Each mission will see you tasked with performing a number of objectives, over the course of a 10 or so missions. Missions start off with a static briefing read with the most English accent you’ve ever heard. “Right O, chaps, this one’s going to be a blighter, Tally Ho and whatnot!”… Which is rather campy and predictable, but this is a WWI flying game, so it’s to be expected. The briefing has an aerial map, and your objectives are shown on it. The briefings are quite long and involved, daunting even, but once you get flying you’ll find that things seem to be quite straightforward.

The first mission you’re invited to do is the obligatory training mission. Pulling the right trigger increases your throttle, while the left decreases it, leaving the face buttons for binoculars/zoom, firing machine guns and using secondary fire. Pulling the throttle, and then pulling back on the joystick achieves take off, and once airborne you fly around at your set throttle speed. Landing takes a little getting used to, as you’ve got to drop the throttle and reduce your speed, and land whilst keeping your nose up. You can also do crash landings if you lose your landing gear by enemy fire or hitting trees or buildings. Tricks can be done by dropping the throttle and moving the joystick around, although this doesn’t give you nearly enough manoeuvrability as Crimson Skies.

Firing machine guns is done with the A button, and it pays to control your bursts as guns can overheat, and although this can be switched off in the options, that takes away from the strategic use of your ammunition. You must plan your weapon usage, as secondary ammunition can become scarce. Secondary fire comes in the form of bombs and rockets, which is controlled by the B button. Yes, we’re all aware that rockets weren’t used on planes in WWI, but it makes the game FUN. You want a sim; get a PC and a MS’s Flight Sim. You want a rollicking good old time sending the Huns to hell, get Wings of War. Bombs can also be more precisely dropped using the BACK button, which puts the plane into auto pilot mode and gives a top down view of the terrain below you, but it makes you more vulnerable to enemy fire.

The range of variety in the missions is outstanding, and it never feels boring. Whilst most are simply destroy this or protect that, the way you go about it is entirely in your hands. If you have a ground-based objective you have to destroy, you can fly in low and shoot; fly in low and haphazardly drop bombs, or use precision using the back button. All the while there are ground and air attacks coming at you, enemy and allied planes to avoid, buildings, bridges and farms to dodge and destroy. Air based missions can be finished by you holding back and using rockets, or getting amongst it, good old dog fighting style. To aid you in your fight many planes, balloons, ground troops (tanks, armoured trucks, trains), boats and buildings have pick ups attached to them, and destroying them rewards you with these, and you can also pick them up through good old barnstorming, but this is tricky and dangerous.

Not only is there airplane action, you can also find yourself at the gun of a train or AA gun of a transport as it drives along, and have to shoot the enemy from the skies before they bomb you to smithereens. Other missions will have you taking photographs of enemy positions or factories, avoiding enemy fire snapping a picture much in the same way a bomb is dropped using the back button. Then there are side missions, which generally need to be completed within a certain amount of time. These take on a similar form of the main missions, and reward in the way of extra weapons, health, shields, faster engines and points. Some side missions require you to land and steal another aircraft, which then becomes unlocked in the Instant Action mode, and there are also race missions, where you have to beat another flyer to the checkpoint, whilst being engaged by other enemy.

Instant Action mode is a dogfight or team dogfight deathmatch. Choosing either Allies or the Germans, you battle it out with one another to see who is king of the skies. Unfortunately, this mode can’t be played multiplayer. No split screen, no LAN or Xbox Live, which makes it pretty much obsolete. It’s nice to include it as a distraction from the main mode, but considering that Xbox’s strength is its multiplayer functions, and considering how fun the dogfighting is in the game, it seems like a horrendous oversight. Being a budget title, it can be forgiven, but if some kind of multiplayer was included this could have been a sleeper hit.

Graphic wise the game isn’t too great. The planes look good, although at a distance they all tend to look the same. There’s a stupid cut scene when you change planes that shows you leaping from one plane to another, and it looks rather silly, especially when the plane you’re changing into is above you. When you fly close to the ground things really get ugly. There are messy textures and a general “sameness” over each and every landscape. The weather effects are quite average, and the game lacks the polish the xbox gamers have come to expect. However, each map is absolutely massive and very open. You won’t have to worry about knowing which way is up or down; blue is up and green/grey is down. The landscapes are dotted with tress and buildings, rivers and roads, and whilst they are undulated in places, it’s a far more realistic representation than the caverns and gullies of Crimson Skies.

Sound wise the game is pretty good, with the aforementioned campy voices speaking throughout the game. If you think of the WWI war movies, made in the 50s and 60s, you’ll get the general idea. I often found it hard to distinguish between the allied voices in intense plane battles, unsure if it was Benjamin or another allied pilot talking. The screams of the Germans as you shoot them out of the skies is pretty funny, but the German fighter ace, called Max no less, belongs back in Hogans Heroes. The planes and guns are slightly over exaggerated, but still realistically so, but there is no 5.1 surround sound support so you never feel as though you’re “really there” as the bullets zip past you.

Conclusion:
The disappointing visuals and complete lack of multiplayer do hurt Wings Of War, but to put it simply if you’ve got $30 to spare you could do a lot worse. It is a fun game that features a lot of depth for a budget title. The Campaign mode offers solid gameplay, and the open-ended nature of the main and side missions does allow for a little more replayability than one would first think from looking at the box. There isn’t any other game in the Xbox library to have the WWI fighter ace experience, and even at a higher price Wings Of War would be worth it.

Pros:
+ Excellently conceived Main and Side Missions that take thought and skill to get through
+ Wide, open maps and open ended gameplay dynamic
+ An incredible amount of planes to fly
+ The only WWI flight game on Xbox

Cons:
– Overall lack of polish screams that this is a budget game.
– No multiplayer what so ever.
– Really average looking graphics and environments

70/100