Luftrausers

 PC
User Score
7.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 94 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 54 out of 94
  2. Mixed: 24 out of 94
  3. Negative: 16 out of 94

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  1. xenoxinius
    Jun 1, 2014
    7
    Beautiful game.
    The ability to change the plane parts certainly does it for me
    Certainly worth the prize Only reason I only give this a 7 is replayability, I put like 4 hours into this game and I've pretty much seen it all. Ofcourse I might pick it up for the 'time filler' once in a while, but I might as well play other Indie games to fill that time. Is the game good? HELL YES    Beautiful game.
    The ability to change the plane parts certainly does it for me
    Certainly worth the prize

    Only reason I only give this a 7 is replayability, I put like 4 hours into this game and I've pretty much seen it all.
    Ofcourse I might pick it up for the 'time filler' once in a while, but I might as well play other Indie games to fill that time.

    Is the game good? HELL YES
    will it be my indie of the year, or be a game that will capture you for hours? Unfortunately not    … Expand
  2. KingMob4313
    Mar 23, 2014
    6
    I was so looking forward to this game. While the gameplay is energetic, the controls tight and art style crunchy, the entertainment value does not hold up very long. It has about as much depth as a good flash game over at Kongregate, which is quite disappointing.

    Wait for a sale, this game is more suitable as a $4-6 USD game, not a $10-15.

    I expected so much more.
  3. jackhunter
    Sep 10, 2014
    5
    The difficulty of the game is much too high and the controls are rather counter intuitive, even for a oldschool game. The musics are a bit too repetitive and increase the feeling of frustration, increased by the lack of a proper tutorial. Last but not least, it seems the game doesnt really have a story mode, which would have been nice, even for that kind of game.
  4. MikeZillaGames
    Apr 5, 2014
    7
    I'm gonna go out on a limb and call Luftrausers overrated. Yeah. Here goes...

    I'm not saying it's bad...it's pretty neat for what it is. The game looks, and sounds awesome...and the whole free fall physics makes you feel like you're dog fighting. But, this novelty quickly wears off when you consider some of the game's shortcomings...which, in my opinion are numerous. The worst    I'm gonna go out on a limb and call Luftrausers overrated. Yeah. Here goes...

    I'm not saying it's bad...it's pretty neat for what it is. The game looks, and sounds awesome...and the whole free fall physics makes you feel like you're dog fighting.

    But, this novelty quickly wears off when you consider some of the game's shortcomings...which, in my opinion are numerous.

    The worst thing: too much screen shake. I found this incredibly disorienting and, coupled with the game's odd frame rate dips (I can't believe I'm getting frame drops on my rig for what's essentially a flash title) make it easy to lose track of your aircraft. At times, my craft will seemingly stick to one side of the screen for a while...unexpectedly.

    The sprites...I also have a bit of a problem with. Actually, they're more like outlines of sprites...and they don't contrast well with the background. Because your craft is essentially a silhouette, it's sometimes hard to get directional feedback as to which direction your are facing and because your thrusters blend seemlessly with the clouds...this too is disorientating.

    Maybe it's just me...but this stuff really bothered me while playing. I also have some very minor complaints about the game's controls, menus, etc. but they're not as important.

    But...hey...still pretty good. Got a rockin' soundtrack.    … Expand
  5. TitaniumDragon
    Sep 29, 2016
    5
    LUFTRAUSERS (the title is, apparently, all caps) is a very simple 2D arcade-style game. You control a plane which flies around and shoots enemy planes. Unlike a schmup, where you proceed left-to-right or top-to-bottom, this is a side view, looking at a plane flying over an ocean, dogfighting vertically and firing on boats below.

    The game has a highly non-standard control scheme – you    LUFTRAUSERS (the title is, apparently, all caps) is a very simple 2D arcade-style game. You control a plane which flies around and shoots enemy planes. Unlike a schmup, where you proceed left-to-right or top-to-bottom, this is a side view, looking at a plane flying over an ocean, dogfighting vertically and firing on boats below.

    The game has a highly non-standard control scheme – you can fire, you can boost, and you can pitch your plane up and down, in a full 360 degree circle. The controls are very simple and kind of unusual, but you get the hang of them after a while.

    The game has 8 different enemy types – basic planes, a nastier kind of plane, giant blimps, basic boats, submarines, battleships, and two rare enemy types which almost never spawn. You will encounter them all in fairly short order, and at that point, you’ve seen all that the game really has to offer – there is an alternate mode which is basically a bullet hell mode, but even the regular mode can start bordering on that at times.

    You can customize your plane with five different weapons, five different bodies, and five different engines, each of which alter the gameplay of the game in reasonably significant ways, but ultimately the variety granted by these unlockable parts wears off after a short while. There are in-game missions which allow you to unlock parts and color schemes, each of which is attached to one of the parts, with each part having six such missions attached to it. If you beat all the missions, you unlock a final, alternate plane.

    Really, this game is decent enough gameplay wise, but it just doesn’t have much depth to it. It is really simple and there just isn’t much variety to it in the end, so you’re likely to get bored with it after a short time.

    If you got it as part of a bundle or something, it might be worth looking at, but it just isn’t worth buying – it just feels too simple to feel like an adequate stand-alone game.    … Expand
  6. mrnice
    Mar 27, 2015
    6
    I expected a storyline, a campaign, distinctive variation, and just some surprising elements. What I got reminds me of smartphone games. Fun, addictive, attractive, but just that one screen of action that you work at. The unlockables add some variation but still within that one same setting.
  7. GRANITsalvo
    Mar 10, 2015
    7
    Simple, non-confusing graphics, tight controls, and good beats make this a fun bullet-hell. I particularly enjoy the varied parts changing the attack styles as well as having a dynamic soundtrack that changes with the parts: Guns=Drum track, Body=Lead Track, Engine=Bass Track.

    The flaw is that most lives play out the same way (if I'm not trying for a specific unlock): after 2 minutes I    Simple, non-confusing graphics, tight controls, and good beats make this a fun bullet-hell. I particularly enjoy the varied parts changing the attack styles as well as having a dynamic soundtrack that changes with the parts: Guns=Drum track, Body=Lead Track, Engine=Bass Track.

    The flaw is that most lives play out the same way (if I'm not trying for a specific unlock): after 2 minutes I have nothing to fight except for 5+ battleships.....I speculate that the enemy spawns are on a queue with a value equal to difficulty and the queue opening up as your score progresses, but I always end up between 10k and 15k points with no aircraft and sometimes an airship. The game starts with aircraft but if I kill them all first, by the 3,000pt range, 3 battleships spawn but no aircraft. If I can take out a frigate I can get 2 aircraft to spawn, but that wont get my multiplier up to open the queue. The trick is to rush for some frigates early and ignore the small aircraft, try to kill an odd number to keep them spawning fairly well. Try to take out the first battleship while keeping frigate dead, then you should be able to have fun with the air battles.
    So yeah, it's fun as hell for the first 2 minutes. If you want a life to last longer you have to plan ahead. Thus, I took points away. I wanted more freedom in it. I don't like being forced to take on 3 battleships at once to spawn more aircraft (not all builds are ideal for this). I enjoy the heated air-to-air fighting. I even tested this and just did aerobatics dodging the battleships at 11k points.....no aircraft for 5 minutes, blimp wouldn't spawn either. Kill a frigate, 2 aircraft spawn.    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

70
#70 Best PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 45 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 35 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 45
  3. Negative: 0 out of 45
  1. CD-Action
    Jun 28, 2014
    90
    Luftrausers has just one gameplay idea but executes it in a best way possible. [05/2014, p.67]
  2. GameCritics
    Jun 23, 2014
    65
    Luftrausers is a great pick-up-and-play game in the short term, with most sessions providing a few minutes of entertainment before culminating in a bloody ship-shattering climax.
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  3. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    May 16, 2014
    80
    Brilliant arcade shooter than just won’t let go. Looks great, plays great and practically invites you to participate in vicious dogfights. [Issue#241]
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