World of Warplanes

Written by MA Staff. Model Aviation reviews a free-to-play, online action game. Enjoy bonus game screenshots and video highlights.

World of Warplanes is a free-to-play, online action game featuring aircraft from the 1930s through the Korean War era of military aviation. Created by Wargaming.net it follows the hugely successful World of Tanks, and the soon to be released naval offering, World of Warships. World of Warplanes opens up the skies for those looking to dominate the air while flying aircraft from the USA, Germany, Japan, and the USSR. Aerial clashes, often referred to as dogfights, provide an entertaining experience as you try to out maneuver your opponents. The warplanes you pilot, like their real counterparts, have other dangers to be mindful of such as mid-airs with other aircraft, anti-aircraft fire, and colliding with other obstacles in the virtual battlefield. You needn’t worry however; you have the ability to attack those pesky ground targets as well as ships that you encounter. Players start in the hangar where they can purchase new aircraft or upgrade their existing airplanes. The funds to make purchases come from accomplishments made during each battle, where the player will be awarded tokens and experience that can be spent on research. When you are ready to battle, the system matches pilots using a tier system. The aircraft are assigned a numeric value from one to 10, with one representing the slower, lesser armed aircraft. Warplanes rated a 10 are generally jets and pack one heck of a punch! The game combines pilots flying aircraft with similar skill levels, but it is common to come up against aircraft that are rated higher or lower than what you are currently flying. As the battle loads, players can view the matchup screen showing all the aircraft assigned to the teams, the aircraft’s skill level, and the pilot’s user names. Each of the two teams can have up to 15 aircraft take part in the aerial battle. The main objective is to achieve and maintain supremacy or destroy all enemy aircraft. Each battle lasts up to 15 minutes and the environment is selected randomly. Control of the aircraft can be done using the keyboard, mouse, joystick, or gamepad. We found that using a joystick made controlling our airplane through the aerial ballet a little easier and consistently scored more kills. The game quickly becomes addicting as you begin to experience all of the different locales in which you can fly and the wide variety of aircraft that you will encounter. Having an upgrade path for your aircraft motivates you to continue to try and earn more tokens, so that you can improve your mount and deliver more virtual lead to your enemy targets. World of Warplanes also takes a different path than most multiplayer games when it comes to death. If you fall prey to an enemy, or by any other means, there is no respawn, you’re out of the battle. The only option you are afforded is to continue to watch the battle from the viewpoint of one of your team members or you can head back to your hangar. If you choose your hangar as a place of refuge, it is important to note that the aircraft you lost will not be available until the battle has come to its conclusion. At first, not having the option to rejoin the battle seemed annoying, but ultimately it makes the game more interesting and just might make you a little more cautious. World of Warplanes is an entertaining online multiplayer game that has a simple learning curve and allows anyone with a modern PC and a reliable internet connection the opportunity to pilot many exciting aircraft from four countries and two decades of military aviation. You can download the game at http://worldofwarplanes.com/en/content/docs/update/.

Screenshots

Video