World War I was historic to say the least. At the start you have the French forces almost har to tell the difference from those who fought with Napoleon at Waterloo, the cavalry riding horses into battle wearing plated armor and swords, but by the end you have tanks, air to air combat and a line of trenches that basically stretched from here to the moon. Aerial combat is what Red Wings:World War I was historic to say the least. At the start you have the French forces almost har to tell the difference from those who fought with Napoleon at Waterloo, the cavalry riding horses into battle wearing plated armor and swords, but by the end you have tanks, air to air combat and a line of trenches that basically stretched from here to the moon. Aerial combat is what Red Wings: Aces of the Sky focuses on. It’s a World War I combat flight simulator that tasks you to play as the Germans or the Allies. Fifty story missions split among the alliance of Germany, Austria/Hungary, and Italy against the big threat of Russia, France, and Great Britain. You’ll find yourself deep in dogfights hunting the enemy of your choice, with every fifth victory revealing a little more black and white story playing out for you. The story, told through a series of cartoonish photos, centers about the Von Richthofen bros, with The Red Baron taking most of the center stage. I say most because the story mentions him the most and as the story goes everyone knows who the Red Baron was as he as the best of the best at his outings. His brother also is mentioned, however neither make an impressive appearance in the game. It’s more a tale of how there are invariably big names in wars and why they were such big names in the throws of history.. The Alliance wants to support them, where the Entente forms an anti-squad to try to take him down. As history goes, it leaves a lot on the table. I enjoy a solid historical game, and while Red Wings: Aces Of The Skies does borrow from history, it’s not completely accurate. Figher pilots in World War I, for example, didn’t have regenerative forcefields and couldn’t refuel in mid-air by flying through a magic fueling hoops. Nor could you kill the enemy by barrel rolling into them in a head on collision. This won’t bother everyone as to everyone is a history buff and this is meant to be fun not history class. However if you’re looking at picking up a game that is a faithful simulator of life in 1918, you’re going to be a a little off-put from this. Otherwise there's plenty to enjoy here. The gameplay in Red Wings: Aces OF The Skies was fine for me as a game as I don't care for a history lesson while playing the game. The combat is most engaging, with abilities like calling a squadron to support taking out an enemy or being able to lean out of the cockpit and shoot a rival pilot down with a pistol was something that actually happened in the War and I found to be quite fun overall. War can certainly be a complex, however some of these skills are more useful than others, with some of them being basically useless in game. As you complete each mission you find the now traditional three star rating based on either your time or your score, but you don’t know what time or score you need until you either conquer or fail your mission. These stars are added to your skill book where you level up your pilot and plane. Some upgrades, like having heat resistant guns, are essential as they allow for shooting for longer before your guns overheat. Others in play like the ability to have increased visibility in clouds, feel pointless because they don’t make enough of a difference to be worth the stars you’d need to unlock them. Fortunately, you can always refund your stars if you don’t like a load out and reallocate them appropriately. You’ll likely be doing this after nearly every mission. Interestingly, the stars carry over between the two sides, which is fortunate if you’re stuck on one side of the story. The problem remains that you don’t know what you’re doing until you’re doing it, making investing those points a challenge going into a mission and then backing out to fix your points and restart the battle at hand. The mission structure is where Red Wings: Aces Of The Sky fail the most as repetition creeps in. You take down as many planes as you can, stop your weather balloons being destroyed by the enemy. Then bomb the opponent’s and then refuel by doing a generic racing style mission, flying through a series of hoops while battling against a clock. You attack, you protect, you bomb, etc. There’s just not enough variety here. Red Wings: Aces Of The Sky is far from bad though and there is plenty of game content to keep you occupied if you happen to enjoy what's on offer. Those who like to collect things will love the number of skins available for each plane, and will no doubt have fun completing the very specific challenges. There is also a survival mode and a co-op mode for those who desire them. Survival is quite challenging and engaging, but unfortunately I didn't have a local co-op partner on my Xbox One for local co-op.… Expand
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