In this exciting aerial combat title, you face off against rival aircrafts, destroy enemy structures and remain the last one standing. Experience the thrill of high flying action in both the mission-based Single Player mode and the local Two Player mode.
In order to be an ace pilot, you must master the game’s simple controls. Using the default control scheme, the Up and Down Arrow keys adjust the direction of your plane while the Space Bar fires your gun. Playing against a buddy in Two Player mode divides the keyboard into two sections. One of you is assigned the W and S keys to move the aircraft and the left Shift button to attack while the other uses the Up and Down keys to move and the Enter key to fire their weapon. If you find the default directional button assignment difficult to get used to, you have an option to invert them. While this is but a small detail, we found it to be a considerate, essential feature for those who naturally lean towards a specific control scheme.
Dogfight’s Single Player mode gives you goals to meet per stage. You may be asked to eliminate other aces or destroy specific enemy machines such as AA Guns, Bombers and Zeppelins. While the game is not terribly difficult, there are enough challenging missions to keep you on your toes. The AI is relentless, though not to the point of being perfect and boring. Pulling off risky maneuvers like dipping to the ground and pulling up at the last minute may just trick them into crashing.
There are unlimited tries and infinite ammo. Once you get used to the game mechanics, you will be able to finish most missions under five minutes. There are ten all in all, which makes Dogfight the perfect tidbit to complete your snack break.
There are very few flight games that feature local versus modes. That being said, we really wanted to see something special in Dogfight but with only a single level to try, we found this to be a mere novelty. It is fun for a while, until the magic is gone and your arms hurt from sharing a single keyboard. Perhaps with new stages and enemy setups there would be more of an incentive to squeeze in more game time in this mode, but with the way things are, it’s too basic to be considered a highlight.
We definitely appreciate the smooth, realistic animations that Dogfight has to offer. The aircrafts wiggle and turn as they should, smoke appears at the tail once you get a critical hit in on an enemy and the backgrounds offer a contrast yet do not distract from the action. We found no game breaking lags even when fighting against squadrons of baddies littering the screen. Though there is not much in terms of variety, whatever is there is done well and is definitely one of the best we’ve found in a flight sim.
With its addicting game play and spiffy eye candy to boot, Dogfight: The Great War has all the makings of a classic flight sim, aerial battle hybrid. It could have used a more intricate Two Player mode, but as it is we recommend it for those who are looking for quick, satisfying match ups and realistic animations.