stainy

The graphics are well put into place, and the controls are genuinely good. The physics are solid except for missiles since they turn a little slow and they aim for the back of the enemy. You can pull off some great maneuvers, and overall, the game leans into realism. If you're playing, just stick to Expert controls for a more authentic feel. But the DIFFICULTY. THE DIFFICULTY. The first few missions are fun, but once you get past Mission 5, the game starts testing your patience. The difficulty increases incrementally, and by the time you hit Mission 6, it feels like the devs decided you’re a professional pilot. Checkpoints are scarce. You won’t see one unless you're 60-80% through a mission, and by then, you might as well just let the mission auto-complete because the hardest parts are often already over. Missiles feel weak. It shouldn't take two missiles to down a plane. A missile hitting dead-on should mean a kill—simple as that. Instead, it feels like they explode with the force of a rubber bullet rather than a warhead. Even bombers should rarely survive a direct hit. Then there are the Annihilation Missions, which are just shooting sitting ducks with seemingly infinite missiles. Not much fun. Mission 11 had me stuck for an hour on Casual difficulty. Mission 12? SO MANY enemies in the sky at once. At this point, the game doesn't care if you’re struggling. Allies are USELESS. They just talk, miss their shots, and serve as background noise. If they do land a hit, it feels like they're firing missiles packed with peas. They contribute nothing but drama. Difficulty scaling is absurd. Normal mode feels like Hard. Hard mode is just a death sentence. Campaign replayability? Sure. If you really enjoyed it all, you do have the option to replay it, even if it doesn't change the difficulty at all. The game is fun, but still unreasonably rough on you. If you're looking to play Multiplayer, I'd recommend playing the campaign first and then unlocking something good. The only reason you should use multiplayer is for MRP, and slight fun. It’s a good source of MRP, but unless you have an overpowered jet, don’t expect to get first place. Six months of practice might help. (maybe.) The Darkstar ruined the balance. If you're up against a Darkstar, they’ll swoop in, fire a couple of missiles, and rack up kills. I’ve seen players get 13 kills in one round with it, something you’d rarely see from a non-DLC jet. Aircraft Tree Strategy: Forget unlocking planes just skip straight to the F-22 Raptor by grabbing the F-15E and focusing on grabbing parts and slowly making your way down to that beautiful F-22 Raptor. Want MRP? Don't acknowledge single-player for that. Multiplayer is the way to go. You’ll earn around 60,000 MRP per round, even if you just get a single missile hit. MY THOUGHTS. If you really, really want the game, go for it. I can’t judge how you spend your money. I bought it too. Just don’t expect Casual difficulty to actually be casual, lol. The game is fun, but VERY VERY difficult. You'll be doing almost all the work, considering your allies don't do much.

The campaign was PEAK in my opinion. And I don't really play multiplayer so in my eyes the campaign is all I need.