Project Wingman Review

Project Wingman isn't as amazing as it might be, but it's also a lot better than it had any right to be. Project Wingman was developed on a shoestring budget with the very simple idea of “Ace Combat, but with the serial numbers filed off,” and the only thing it ever had to offer was a thrilling arcade-style flying combat option and a few different aircraft to play with. Project Wingman, on the other hand, provides all of that with an incredibly detailed campaign mode and a tough roguelike conquer-the-world mode, on top of an astounding assortment of playable aircraft, useable weaponry, and aesthetic flair.

Given the (tragic) fact that arcade-style air combat simulators are a dying genre, surviving only on the extremely sporadic production of Ace Combat, Project Wingman, while imperfect, is a very welcome contribution to the genre and a wonderful experience for flight combat aficionados. Combat is straightforward and fast-paced, with the player regularly pitted against massive waves of opponents in the air and on the ground. The bigger battles may be utterly chaotic, with dozens of fighters hurling missiles at each other, igniting the sky and turning the land under them black with ash and smoke. Project Wingman shines in these moments of frenzied mayhem, providing tremendously ambitious over-the-top combat that can tax even the most hardy of GPUs. This is exactly the type of foolishness I like as a long-time (and long-suffering) Ace Combat fan.

However, there are certain drawbacks to be aware of.

The writing is the first and most distracting aspect. The storyline connecting the campaign objectives contains some intriguing concepts, but they are badly conveyed. The grammar is usually awkward, and words are frequently employed incorrectly—almost as if the screenplay were produced by someone for whom English is not a native language, and the translation fails to catch the complete meaning they want. As a result, the plot feels a little amateurish, and it fails to explain the action in the missions in a meaningful way. Project Wingman, for the most part, mimics the style and concepts of a normal Ace Combat tale. So, in the end, it's a game that delivers on its promise of an off-brand Ace Combat experience.

The only other issue I have with the game (aside from some annoying optimization hiccups) is that the ground terrain lacks detail and relies too heavily on recycled assets, and the entire game is smeared in a grainy filter that just makes everything look blurry, whether you're playing at 720p or 2160p. The ground landscape might appear to be nothing more than an expanse of featureless darkness in certain lighting situations. Water has a particularly poor texture, frequently resembling sheets of partially-reflective metal rather than fluid. At one point in the game, I was perplexed as to what PT Boats were doing on land before understanding that the "land" was simply the usual water graphics with some strange lighting.

Of course, given the game's shoestring budget and small production team, all of these flaws are easily forgiven—that it can come so close to conjuring the same emotion as a AAA Ace Combat game with a quarter of the cash and personnel is nothing short of a miracle.

Finally, Project Wingman deserves special mention for incorporating a feature that fans of the Ace Combat series have long wished for: every time you fly a mission in a two-seater aircraft, your colleague pilot is there in combat with their own distinctive spoken conversation. Instead, they'll sit out the conflict in a single-seater. It's a minor thing, yet it makes a big difference. I wouldn't say Project Wingman is as good as the games it so zealously emulates, but it comes close. This game was definitely a labor of love, and the care that went into its creation is evident at every level. The fact that anything like Project Wingman exists in this world is a genuine pleasure.