I'm sorry but I can't trust anyone who genuinely thinks this is better than Ace Combat lol. Entirely lacking the charm and soul of those games with a limp narrative and weak, borderline nonexistent characterization. Basically all the writing here is worthless drivel, so on the basis of the admittedly very strong sound design and music you would probably be better off muting the dialogue and turning off subtitles. Just pretend there's no story, you aren't missing out on much.
Every mission ends with extended moments of non-gameplay where you fly around the map aimlessly listening to every single character gather around to suck your cock because you are just such a good pilot and you carried the whole team/army/world and no one else really matters except you, the player. I get that they are going for a power fantasy thing here but A. the gameplay already sells that aspect of the story, and B. every single character's personality revolves around worshipping the player from like the first mission. there isn't any attempt at buildup and you never even once feel like you earned the role the game forces on you.
I guess there was no time to fit in even the most rudimentary slideshow cutscenes, so don't expect to get attached to the setting or narrative at all. This is the biggest disappointment, i think, because the world of Project Wingman actually seems quite interesting. Seeing a futuristic setting make use of Cascadian independence/secession as a plot point could be a lot of fun, but the game never tries to get the player invested in the politics of the war. One of my favourite aspects of Ace Combat 7 was the presentation of the cutscenes, which sold a narrative otherwise too detached from the player to be interesting. I get that it's a three man team making this and for what it's worth this is an immensely impressive production for what is ostensibly an AC fangame, but I can't help but feel like the plot actively suffers from the lack of cutscenes.
Then again, the story is already so weak I don't know if it could be saved at all. The main "villain" isn't even a character, he's got a number instead of a name and not for any interesting plot reason, and he only appears twice before you kill him and the credits roll without any resolution for... literally everything in the game? it's bizarre, especially considering they try to do an epic 1v1 showdown (with a character who, I cannot overstate, you know absolutely nothing about) fit with grand ideological nationalistic monologues that are both completely unearned given the content of the game prior and completely irrelevant to everything the game tells you about your character and the world. I think the biggest mistake they make is trying to do their own strangereal, which forces AC comparisons even more than the almost identical gameplay design. This game couldn't match the pure soul of Ace Combat's Metal Gear-esque melodrama in it's wildest dreams, but if this is them trying to reach those heights, I think I'd prefer they didn't bother at all.
Maybe I shouldn't be so bothered by a lame story in a very arcade-y air combat simulator but I think that it's one of the most important aspects of Ace Combat, what sets it apart from any other plane game in my mind. Regardless, I'm sure it isn't as big of a factor for most people as it is for me. For what it's worth, this is a very good game when viewed completely separate from it's narrative. Again, it's incredibly impressive for a indie game made by three people, and the gameplay and sound design are top notch. It looks pretty on a technical level, although I felt it was lacking colour and variety in the locations. I'm even willing to admit there are a few areas where future Ace Combat games could learn from Project Wingman. The main, and most obvious, being the AOA Limiter. There's no question here, as a method for pulling off maneuvers this is a million times better than the post-stall inputs in AC7. It's so fun to use here that it's annoying you can't get it on every plane and it's basically impossible to go back to flares after you've tried it once. In general the gameplay is a lot of fun, at it's best I think it often does match the raw gameplay of the more recent Ace Combats. I doubt I'll ever replay this, but I might check out the conquest mode someday.
Every mission ends with extended moments of non-gameplay where you fly around the map aimlessly listening to every single character gather around to suck your cock because you are just such a good pilot and you carried the whole team/army/world and no one else really matters except you, the player. I get that they are going for a power fantasy thing here but A. the gameplay already sells that aspect of the story, and B. every single character's personality revolves around worshipping the player from like the first mission. there isn't any attempt at buildup and you never even once feel like you earned the role the game forces on you.
I guess there was no time to fit in even the most rudimentary slideshow cutscenes, so don't expect to get attached to the setting or narrative at all. This is the biggest disappointment, i think, because the world of Project Wingman actually seems quite interesting. Seeing a futuristic setting make use of Cascadian independence/secession as a plot point could be a lot of fun, but the game never tries to get the player invested in the politics of the war. One of my favourite aspects of Ace Combat 7 was the presentation of the cutscenes, which sold a narrative otherwise too detached from the player to be interesting. I get that it's a three man team making this and for what it's worth this is an immensely impressive production for what is ostensibly an AC fangame, but I can't help but feel like the plot actively suffers from the lack of cutscenes.
Then again, the story is already so weak I don't know if it could be saved at all. The main "villain" isn't even a character, he's got a number instead of a name and not for any interesting plot reason, and he only appears twice before you kill him and the credits roll without any resolution for... literally everything in the game? it's bizarre, especially considering they try to do an epic 1v1 showdown (with a character who, I cannot overstate, you know absolutely nothing about) fit with grand ideological nationalistic monologues that are both completely unearned given the content of the game prior and completely irrelevant to everything the game tells you about your character and the world. I think the biggest mistake they make is trying to do their own strangereal, which forces AC comparisons even more than the almost identical gameplay design. This game couldn't match the pure soul of Ace Combat's Metal Gear-esque melodrama in it's wildest dreams, but if this is them trying to reach those heights, I think I'd prefer they didn't bother at all.
Maybe I shouldn't be so bothered by a lame story in a very arcade-y air combat simulator but I think that it's one of the most important aspects of Ace Combat, what sets it apart from any other plane game in my mind. Regardless, I'm sure it isn't as big of a factor for most people as it is for me. For what it's worth, this is a very good game when viewed completely separate from it's narrative. Again, it's incredibly impressive for a indie game made by three people, and the gameplay and sound design are top notch. It looks pretty on a technical level, although I felt it was lacking colour and variety in the locations. I'm even willing to admit there are a few areas where future Ace Combat games could learn from Project Wingman. The main, and most obvious, being the AOA Limiter. There's no question here, as a method for pulling off maneuvers this is a million times better than the post-stall inputs in AC7. It's so fun to use here that it's annoying you can't get it on every plane and it's basically impossible to go back to flares after you've tried it once. In general the gameplay is a lot of fun, at it's best I think it often does match the raw gameplay of the more recent Ace Combats. I doubt I'll ever replay this, but I might check out the conquest mode someday.