Airfix: Dogfighter Review (no fat)

Game Description

What do you think about when you hear a sequence like "Mustang, Messerschmidt, Grumman, Focke Wolf"? Bombs, blood, Pink Floyd? What about your bedroom, your living room or any other room in your house?

We don't see such games every day. Airfix Dogfighter is World War II with a serious twist. A plastic twist

Airfix: Dogfighter Gameplay

Home Alone...

In Airfix: Dogfighter you take the role of a very young kid whose parents are away. The kid's imagination is quite active, and he pretends he is a World War II pilot which contorts reality to the point where the kitchen, the bathroom and the living room become war fields. Under-sized planes will rage in the skies of over-sized rooms, in quite a unique manner.

Now, after blaming the TV for how wild the imagination of the little one is, we should get serious and have a deeper look at the game. As much of a farce as it may sound to be, Airfix: Dogfighter is actually quite serious for what it does.

The thing we should mention from the very beginning is that while there are several things that fly here, die-hard flight simulator fans should look elsewhere. The game physics, the setting and the weapons don't have much to do with a war game, or with reality, to an extent. It's not a SF game (after all, it's WWII-based), but it's not a realistic flight simulator flight schools would rush to use as a teaching too. There's more action than simulation in Dogfighter.

Market Kitchen

The core of the game comprises of two campaigns. You can choose to play for the Allies, or for the Axis, whichever feels more comfortable to you. Each side has its own share of 10 missions, and a pretty nice range of planes to pick from

In total, there are a dozen planes in the game. The Allies can use P-51s or Grummans to keep up the pace against the Messerschmidts and the Mitsubishis that the Axis throws into the game. The planes are characterized by four statistics: Speed, Control, Fuel and Armor, which you should carefully take into consideration when choosing a plane. Each of these has a significant impact over how the plane handles and how it can resist under heavy fire or long-lasting missions. Each plane is better suited for a certain kind of mission, and you should consider your pick for a while. For example, a Mustang will make you a beast in a mission where you have to intercept enemy planes, but picking it to bomb a base will make you an easily disposable target for the defense troops. The weapons, though, are less realistic than the planes. You will surely agree that World War II would have looked slightly different if people had energy beams and Tesla coils installed on planes, and if the ground troops fired crayons at the planes.

The battlefield is noticeably different from anything you have seen in a while. It's not like saying we're facing the first game to feature toys that fight (think of Army Men or Europa Project) but even so, this is not something you see everywhere. However, the environment itself is not extremely detailed. Even the outdoors scenes look a tad faded, maybe because of the rather poor textures. However, these scenes are filled with a lot of objects, with many of which you can interact. Maybe it's not too much, but at times, it's quite fun to break a vase.

Staying alive

The hard and maybe a little bit annoying part in Airfix: Dogfight's gameplay is the rather abrupt difficulty change in the later part of the campaigns. The first six missions or so are quite easy, but the last two are frustrating. Besides, although there is some form a briefing, it's not always conclusive, meaning that you often end up trying one mission with a plane and failing miserably, simply because you should have chosen another plane. Still, it's important to notice that some sort of motivation is still kept there. As you progress through the game, you get more planes, more weapons and even some medals, like Dad's Medal of Car Insurance.

This is compensated by an interesting and rather addictive multiplayer mode. Seven multiplayer maps are readily available, but the Universe can be extended with the included map editor. It's not the most full-featured editor you have ever seen, but it does its job well enough. There is also a sticker editor in addition to that, which even allows you to create your own stickers from scratch. So, if you ever wondered how would a Messerschmidt look like if it was owned by a flower-power-crazy hippie, you can find out now.

Airfix: Dogfighter Graphics and Sound

It's interesting to notice the amazing level of detail that has been put into the planes. Everything is rendered here. You will see the flaps, the re-created cockpit and even the pilot inside. It's nice to see such level of detail, as many flight simulators don't really bother to render anything but the important parts of the plane.

The artistic side of the game is dominated by a rather fun look otherwise. The graphics aren't necessarily cartoon-ish, but there are many contrasting colors that give it a fine toy-like look. Everything else is rather sparse though: there are no great graphics effects, no fantastic sounds to hear or anything like that.

Airfix: Dogfighter 2cent

If you like to go into the nitpicks and can’t resist blasting a game for shortcomings, then you’ll probably see a few flaws in this game. However, for the fun loving and those who don’t really require a realistic environment to enjoy their flight simulations, Airfix: Dogfighter can be a very enjoyable timewaster.

Airfix: Dogfighter – Price

Airfix: Dogfight currently retails at approx. 7.99$