Project Wingman is a Single-player only arcade flight-action game. If you've played Ace Combat before (especially the PS2 era games - "The Holy Trinity"), you should feel right at home. Tl;dr Is it worth it? Short answer is yes. Now, let's break it down, shall we?


You are Monarch - a mercenary pilot working for Sicario Corps - a small PMC contracted by the rebels to support their independence war againtst the Federation. The story is nothing outstanding, but it doesn't have to be. It's a servicible plot about mercenary team thrust into a war and it does its job. The voice acting varies in quality, but the main cast (your wingmen, the AWACS and your WSO) are voiced pretty well, and I've got no complaints there. The story wears its inspirations on its sleeve and if you've played AC before, you'll probably catch quite a few winks in your direction.


Gameplay is smooth. There's not much more to say here, flying feels great in here. You can feel the weight of your jet, the gun is satisfying to let rip with and very effective, missiles do their job just fine. Between missions you spend your hard-earned money on buying better planes. Unlike AC, you can equip as many special weapons as you have hardpoints, meaning you can mix and match taking things like Semi-Active Missiles alongside Bombs for ground-attack.

There's also the Conquest mode. It's a rogue-like mode in which you get to pick which region you want to fight in, with randomized objectives. Once you achieve your objectives, you move onto the next zone and so on until you die. As you go forward, you get to spend your money and renown to build up your force, hiring additional pilots and even airships to assist you in combat. There's also the Alert Meter - the more time you take, the more the Alert will raise. The higher it gets, the more stuff gets thrown your way. When you die, you go back to square one, losing all of your cash and allies, but you keep the Renown you can spend to unlock planes for yourself.

For controls, it's very versitile. You can play it with M&K, the controller, HOTAS (tho according to other users, some are having problems getting their's to work). You can even play it in VR! I haven't played it myself in that way however, so I can not say how it is.


The game sounds great. Tho the radio filter can be a bit annoying at times, but the communication is generally clear and hearable just fine. The planes sound great, the weapons sound great and I can't express this enough - the music is fantastic. This is absolutely one of the best OSTs I've heard this year.

Graphically it's a very pretty game. The set-pieces look lovely, so you'll have no shortage of places to unleash hell above. The clouds could stand to be a bit better, but it's a small indie title, and it's already looking quite fantastic.


So. Is Project Wingman worth your time and money? In my mind, absolutely. You are getting a great value out of your $25 here. I am still amazed how such a small team could achieve something this great. If you like arcade flight games, you owe yourself to play this one. Welcome to Cascadia pilots. It's going to be one hell of a contract.