War Wings [Mobile]
War Wings claims to be a fully fledged arcade flying game for mobile. I was certainly intrigued, having been a massive War Thunder fan myself. Unfortunately, this game also reminded me of why I don’t get invested in mobile games.
Paper Planes
The gameplay is uncomplicated – you fly around, lock on to a target, hold the fire button and hope the opponent spontaneously combusts. Functionally it’s comparable to a console shooter with a very heavy aim-assist feature.
The main mode is a 4v4 ticket-based deathmatch fueled by atrocious spawn locations. The other game modes are Ground Attack, Team Elimination and Free For All. The latter is hilariously broken if you grab a certain homing missile, but ultimately none of the modes – which are underdeveloped to begin with – can salvage the poor game feel.
The main culprit here is the lackluster control system which doesn’t allow you to easily look around while flying. Making use of situational awareness and positioning is absolutely critical for a game like this, and if you take that away you might as well play a twitch shooter. The game tries to solve this with the “Jager” button – an aim assist feature which automatically follows your target and locks on to it – but it’s way too clunky to be actually useful as you can’t even select the damn target to lock on to.
The progression system doesn’t reinvent the wheel either – You buy new parts and planes via currency earned in battle to advance in your favorite nation’s tech tree. Of course, most of the fancy premium planes and skins are locked behind loot boxes.
The Mobile Wasteland
Usually I write a few paragraphs here breaking down the game’s more important features, but I’ll skip it this time in favor of a summary:
- Hit detection is off.
- Login issues are frequent.
- Latency is terrible.
- The balance is bad.
- The tech tree has the depth of a puddle.
- The economy is bad.
- The lifespan of this title is short.
It is what it is – an uninspired and technically mediocre War Thunder clone for mobile. It’s a passable way to spend a few hours waiting for an actual plane, but don’t get your hopes up.
Entry Fee
Mobile games ain’t ever free. The “Entry Fee” is the price I expect you to pay via in-app purchases in order to have a reasonable amount of fun playing. This price is subjective.
Entry Fee: $20
This will give you something other than a crappy Bi-Plane to start with via the starter pack and allow you to actually earn ingame currency after a match.
