I’m in continuous awe of what tiny impartial builders are able to nowadays. While jetfighter motion sport Project Wingman could boast a few further names on its credit, it’s primarily a one-man challenge. Given that it seems to be, sounds and performs each bit pretty much as good as Namco’s Xbox 360-era Ace Combat 6, if not higher, that’s nothing wanting mindblowing. Better nonetheless, the lengthy 3-mission demo (which led to the project’s Kickstarter being funded in mere hours) is simply the tip of the iceberg of this beautiful tribute to a favorite sequence.
If you’ve by no means performed an Ace Combat sport earlier than (fairly excusable – the one one to achieve PC was the beautiful naff Assault Horizon), what you’re getting right here in Project Wingman is a sport that sells the fantasy of recent jetfighter fight, with out bogging itself down with any of the extra fiddly, sensible particulars. Swarms of planes swoop round one another, firing salvo after salvo of regularly replenishing smoke-trailing missiles. A gamepad is very really helpful, however the sport additionally provides help for extra complicated HOTAS-type setups should you actually need to exhibit.
Ace Combat followers will be glad to listen to that this hits all of the notes you’d need, together with an alternate-earth setting with acquainted plane, however unfamiliar nations, plus a good bit of sci-fi know-how. Two of the three demo missions throw you into fight towards aerial battleships bristling with anti-air missile and gun emplacements which have to be whittled right down to measurement earlier than you land the killing blow. The quantity of polish on present right here regardless of this being an early alpha construct of the sport aimed toward securing funding is actually spectacular – even the voice appearing sounds AC-authentic.
Project Wingman’s lead developer, Abi ‘RB-D2’ Rahmani has some thrilling plans for the total model of the sport, and even later iterations of the demo. On prime of the story-driven marketing campaign mode (whereby you play a mercenary pilot), the Conquest Mode guarantees a non-linear, semi-roguelike dynamic marketing campaign the place you run your individual mercenary power. You choose missions to undertake and spend income on rising your supporting forces, as much as and together with heavy capital-class vessels, which jogs my memory of each Sky Rogue and Strike Suit Infinity in equal measure.
As talked about, the demo is essentially to drive curiosity to Project Wingman’s Kickstarter funding page. The sport hit its goal £19,791 objective (transformed from $25,000 Australian {dollars}) inside about twelve hours, which supplies it one other 34 days to bulk up the funds. The developer’s conservative estimate is that the sport can be completed someday in May 2019, though I can think about that if this finally ends up funded ten instances over, which may be prolonged considerably to permit for better scope. I do know I’d prefer to see extra sci-fi models included. Anyway, we’ll have Ace Combat 7 to strive whereas we wait.
You can seize the Project Wingman demo over on Itch.io here, and discover the Kickstarter page here. £14 ($25 AU {dollars}) will get you a duplicate of the sport when it’s completed.
