Aerial Strike Review

The crucial thing I found to be missing is that extra touch of power, if you can call it that. There’s nothing particularly disappointing, but some areas lack the final polish that would make them truly enjoyable.

After the introduction cut scene, you’ll begin with a few quick training sessions. That’s when you’ll discover the first problem with the game. Being an arcade flight action shooter, I naturally didn’t expect complicated controls or super-accurate physics. What I hoped for was a smooth and responsive flight model. In a game centered on aerial combat, lack of fluid movement will always be evident. Enemies appear to roll and dive realistically enough, but turning yourself left, right, up, or down doesn’t seem natural for an aircraft to me, to an extent resembling a first person shooter’s controls. Inertia seems to be missing, so you can switch your view without any apparent delay, but your turn speed is limited. I know the developers were aiming for the arcade crowd, but even such games are supposed to give you the feeling you’re in the air, something I’m not sure I fully experienced here. The absence of any real sense of speed might be another reason, but the end result is that the illusion of you being in control of a powerful jet aircraft disappears. After a few laps around the island you’ll begin to forget what it could’ve been and enjoy it for what it is.

Mmmm.... pixel shaders

Control is very intuitive and easy to learn. It’s divided in two parts, hover and jet modes. It’s obvious what each is used for, and there’s a neat animation during the transition. I used a first-person perspective because I didn’t want to bother with the cockpit which was absolutely static: neither working instruments nor swaying as the ship moves or gets hit. The only detail I found were cracks to the cabin glass due to damage.

This freighter has had its day

The actual nature of the game is straightforward. No matter how they phrase or present objectives it always comes down to eliminating any opposition. Even missions which start slow with stealth and recon duties eventually precipitate into intense fighting. The main attraction is the fighting because it involves a lot of enemies and a lot of shooting. Seeing the mix of lasers, smoke, and explosions is a pleasant sight, but the lack of speed I talked about prevents any satisfying dogfights and extreme maneuvers. I could pretty much hover in the air strafing to my sides, aiming and firing, which worked nicely.

A nice idea was that you’d start missions with a primary set of instructions, but situations always change and you’ll end up busy somewhere else. You’re never given the entire range of objectives so you don’t know what to expect. Little in-game cutscenes drive the action forward, usually including checkpoints which allow you to spawn in full health in case you’re destroyed. The communication messages transmitted between you and NPCs in real time provide interaction, but the actual dialogue can be a cheesy, with unoriginal conversation. Maybe that was Yager’s intention, but in any case there are no repetitions so you won’t get annoyed with anyone in particular.

I found the main character’s laid back attitude slightly annoying. He’s constantly joking and playing tough, things we’ve all seen before, but surprisingly it wasn’t over the top and managed to stay behind the line of intolerance. The in-game messages, cutscenes and his ramblings steadily unfold the plot which sadly didn’t pull me in at all. You find yourself in the role of Magnus Tide, a fighter pilot freelancer living in a futuristic world owned by corporations. You’re given a new opportunity to start over after an unfortunate accident a year ago. Unknown pirate attacks prompt Proteus, your employer, to rehire you for training in their fleet. It’s pretty standard and I never got attached to the characters, but nowadays it’s always hard to find a well written game.

In a place like this you almost want to stop fighting :(

Even though you won’t see a huge variety of ships, the design is well made, not too fancy - but creative at the same time. I didn’t encounter any AI glitches or problems, but their tactics seemed to consist of approach a player while shooting, turn around to gain some distance, and repeat. I’m not suggesting the game is easy, because it does require adequate reflexes and I really enjoyed the challenge.

One thing which surprised me was the lack of an aiming indicator seen in games like Freespace, which tells you how far away from the target you have to shoot in order to get a hit. I had the auto-aim option set to full because of it. Other than that the interface, as simple as it might be, works well. I experienced virtually no bugs at all, minor or major. I had one CTD, and I had to play twice in software rendering (or something similar) because the game refused to load the graphics properly for some reason. Everything else seemed polished and tested and I had a smooth ride throughout. I suggest you get a game pad since aiming with a mouse is not very convenient, I even found keyboard control to be easier.

Let me now return to my initial statement. The flight mechanics are a little slow, so you can’t speed through enemies diving into a long arc; you won’t feel a powerful thrust or see massive engine trails as you go into jet mode, and there’s a predictable arsenal of weapons, and there’s actually a complete Quake railgun rip-off, borrowing the same name and the same spiral effect. Overall, there’s a general feeling of an incomplete experience. The game seems unambitious, probably where the cheap feeling I noticed at the beginning came from. Maybe I’m exaggerating, maybe I’m not, but that’s the overall impression I was left with at the end. If a little more time was spent to boost up these aspects I would have been hooked. In this case though, I wasn’t hooked but I had fun.

This reminds of something out of Star Wars

Graphics
While it may look juicy on the television screen, that’s never the case with a monitor at high resolution, usually due to low texture quality or poly-count. As you fly closer to the ground, you’ll see that Aerial Strike is not as smooth as it appears from above. Special effects like smoke, sparks, fire, light, and shadows are very well done, but what stands out from the rest is the water. It may not have advanced functions like physics or transparency found in Far Cry or Half Life 2, but it does reflect all objects and looks great from all angles. The sky is nicely painted too, and when everything is taken together as whole during gameplay and in motion, it all appears quite attractive.

Levels take place on large islands so hills, mountains, and water are the usual view. There’s plenty of variation in terrain with matching trees, buildings, wandering ships and various other props depending on the theme. The detail is plenty so even though fighting takes place over low populated islands, the terrain never appears bare or dull. Large vessels such as carriers or battleships are gradually stripped by your weapons, section by section, until they fall to the ground overcome by flames, resulting in an impressive sight.

Audio
No real letdowns in this area, and nothing outstanding to report. I would have liked to see some more sophisticated sounds for weapons, going into jet speed, or even getting hit though there are some fishy accents, such as the enemies’ German or the Russian of your allies.

Multiplayer
I didn’t have an opportunity to test it with some real players, but I can tell you that you have six models and ten maps to choose from, with two game modes (DM and TDM) and some various settings like friendly fire and point/time limits. I briefly flew through some of the levels which are pretty huge, but I can’t talk about balance or gameplay without actually experiencing them.

Replay Value
A one-time go-through was enough for me. There are no alternative ways of completing missions, but there are secondary bonus objectives used for unlocking extra content. Another thing that may force you to play some levels multiple times are the stats showing data such as accuracy and kills, so if breaking records is what you’re after, then that’s a good reason to load it up again.

Escape pods would have done a better job

Behind enemy lines

The more the better

Conclusion
While no particular portion of the game stands out as truly spectacular, everything is sufficiently put-together to provide good entertainment. It’s simple fun if you have nothing else to play at the moment, and being the only $19.99 sci-fi aerial shooter currently available, it highly limits your choices. If the things I mentioned as problematic are fixed and improved upon in a sequel, then a full priced release wouldn’t be out of the question.

Key high points:
• stable port
• enjoyable battles
• good in-game objective structure
• pleasant appearance

Key low points
• lacking polish – feels incomplete