"Wingman Project": Although the sparrow is small, it is a winged man with all kinds of organs

This article is written by White Feather Night Tea Party Little Black

Preface:

Only fans know what fans want, like Project Wingman. As a "fan" work of Ace Combat 7 (hereinafter referred to as AC7), Project Wingman has received widespread attention from fans of the Ace Combat series since its inception. And the production team Selector D2 also handed over a good answer sheet.

(Unfortunately, since I am not a fan of the Ace Series, but just a passing military fan, I have only played Ace Combat 7.) Therefore, this article will not touch on the history, culture, and derivations of ace air combat that I am not familiar with. Although this is a very important influencing factor for the origin and content of project wingman. At the same time, because the author does not have money for the whole flight stick and VR, the driving feel and VR experience of the flying stick are not within the scope of the author's discussion)

We roam the clouds together

How to briefly describe the contents of Project Wingman? Simply put, it is to drive an airplane and blow up everything that can be locked.

There are two types of mission objectives, one is to accumulate points by destroying enemy aircraft or ground equipment to achieve the mission requirements points to complete the task. The other is to shoot down a target similar to a small boss and a big boss to complete the mission. But there will also be a combination of the two that will allow you to reach the target score and then shoot down the corresponding target.

You can choose the plane you want to fly and the special missiles or weapons you want to carry before each mission starts, to cope with different mission needs or to make it more suitable for your own fighting style, so that you can be more comfortable under the sky.

There are currently two main modes of Project Wingman, namely "Campaign" mode and "Conquest" mode. The campaign mode is the traditional level by level to advance forward, and finally win the war.

Conquest mode is a bit of a rogue element, with areas on the map being occupied, with mission objectives and enemies in each area random. Complete the objective to capture the area.

However, remember to complete the mission once, because Project Wingman does not set a level save point, which means that you have no chance of failure, and each level must be completed with one life. What if you accidentally crashed? Excuse me, start from scratch.

However, since the difficulty setting of each level is not very high, the frustration in campaign mode is not so great. But in Conquest mode, the crash clears the archive, which really means that everything starts all over again.

Once you've entered the level map, you'll need to destroy the corresponding targets to complete the mission according to the mission prompts. However, compared with AC7, the mission design of "Wingman Project" is more monotonous, which makes people feel nothing new. Although each level is shot more coolly, it always feels like several repetitive levels are looped many times. Even if you open the matchless open, the number of times you have been experiencing the same feeling against the same level will be annoying.

This is also a relatively big regret of the "Wingman Project", in order to use limited technology and capacity to better allow players to experience the core gameplay of the game, it must be a trade-off. Not only is the level design relatively simple, but it is basically in the service of peerless.

This trade-off is also reflected in the expressiveness of the picture. Stiff smoke and fire effects, not fine environmental performance. While players may not notice this during intense battles, there is always time left during the mission to observe your surroundings or when the battle isn't intense, and these compromises will be more obvious.

However, these shortcomings are actually beyond reproach and understandable, after all, in terms of 13G capacity, the size and technology of the production team are there, and it is not fair enough compared with AC7, so maybe we can be tolerant, after all, their core gameplay is really good.

Stand with you on the side

When it comes to the core gameplay of this casual flight simulation combat game, the most important point in the author's opinion is the flying feel, which is also the part that surprised the author.

When playing AC7, the experience of being able to experience the keyboard and mouse is not as good as the controller. But when playing "Wingman Project", at the beginning, the author also played with a handle, and the biggest feeling was that it was a little more clumsy and stiff than the AC7.7 feel. Then the next day I didn't bother to play with the handle directly with the keyboard and mouse, and the author experienced obvious silkiness and smoothness, even more silky than the AC7's handle operation (perhaps because the author compared the dishes).

This is inseparable from the setting and debugging of the operating parameters of Selector D2. It can be said that they really understand what players want, and they also know how to make them more comfortable for PC players. After all, The Discipline D2 itself is made up of fans of the Ace Series. The only things holding them back are budget, time, and technology.

In my opinion, this is a good trend. We can't always say "Keyboard/Mouse/Handle Can't You Play Too?" Why are there so many faults? Or the classic "handle play FPS big guy there are a lot of it." ”

Whether you can play or not and whether you can play comfortably are two different things. For a more extreme example, you can also play games with the small red dot of the tp book, but in addition to the whole work, except for Lu Mingfei, few people use it and play very well.

In addition, it can be reflected that the production team understands what the player wants and where your teammates "actually" are no longer decorations, they can really play a role in the battle. Instead of paddling on the VIP observation deck and watching you incarnate as a "pale blue star" while praising you for "blowing brother too NB". This is another place where I was pleasantly surprised. Although my teammates don't talk, even if they talk very bluntly, they are really not the battlefield atmosphere group.

Break through the night and never fade

However, the plot design of the campaign mode of "Wingman Project" can only be said to be very general, basically there are no ups and downs, almost from the beginning to the end.

The overall feeling of the plot is that I don't need to know any background, I just need to kill all sides. The plot is expressed in a way that is limited to briefings that only exist before and after the mission and can only be skipped at one time. The dialogue in the level can only be said to be better than nothing for the introduction of the plot.

If you directly compare the plot of AC7, there is no stolen frame-up, no relationship in the new team to gain trust, no redemption, no reversal and rehabilitation, no chasing other people's big treasures, no thunder to be yourself, no a thousand guns, no intellectual crisis, no flesh and blood technology of the enemy super pilot, no tunnel car chase. It can't be said that it is not bad, nor can it be said that there must be these factors, but the point is that "Project Wingman" does not provide anything else with waves in the plot.

The problem is that the plot performance is directly linked to the sense of substitution, which is given by the producer rather than required to be brought by the player. Although this is a game that focuses on simulating flight combat, it can't just be combat.

For example, in the game with the enemy ace and the local final body, if an enemy is just an enemy with various anti-human maneuvers and full bullets launched without plot explanation or preparation, the player feels like not fighting the enemy ace, but just a parameter tune of the perverted little miscellaneous soldier or gou (gou).

Although it is said to make way for gameplay under limited technology and capacity, the presence of the plot is really too low. It may be difficult to write a good script, but it's not hard to write a script with ups and downs. The plot is bland and low presence.

The plot itself is too bland and the general sense of expression is not high, which leads to a very strange situation, and the conquest mode is stronger than the campaign mode substitution. After all, at least the advance of the conquest mode front is more intuitive, and watching one area after another become the color of your own camp with the joint efforts of yourself and your teammates, at least the sense of achievement will be stronger.

But on the bright side, these problems are not irreparable. Although the author may be a little nitpicky, after all, eighty dollars for what kind of bicycle. But the "Wingman Project" has built the framework and core very well, and it is almost filled in with more content, and the current situation is inevitably a bit too bad. The steak has been fried pretty well, and it depends on how the side dishes and sauce can be improved.

Is Project Wingman a good game? The author's answer is: "Yes". Eighty bucks brings a great value for money gaming experience. What about places that need to be polished and lifted? Yes, too, but it doesn't hurt. If you want to experience the thrill of the ace in the air, or simply want to fly a plane and hit the plane, then "Wingman Project" must be a good choice.