WWII Fighters Demo

Up in the air, the lack of traffic and people wandering around might give you a false sense of freedom and security, which is definitely not something you want to cling on to, if you are a fighter pilot. Despite the clear blue skies and the white clouds floating below you, anti-aircraft guns and radars make sure that your trips are not exactly uneventful and they also keep you on your toes at all times.

WWII Fighters is a flight simulator that concerns itself with the aerial battles that roared above Europe during the Ardennes offensive, between the Allied and the Axis forces. Throughout the campaign, you get to pilot some of the greatest planes of that era, as well as accomplish a variety of objectives throughout the continent, whether it's to take down a squadron of enemy aircraft, or destroy a vital enemy building and hurt their production.

As far as the planes themselves, you can admire and pilot gems like the P-47 Thunderbolt, Focke-Wulf 190A, or the all-too-famous Spitfire Mark IX, all of which come with different capabilities and behavior up the air. Obviously, since the aforementioned planes are split between the two factions, the missions themselves provide you with scenarios on both sides, in order to scour the battlefield as both the RAF and the Luftwaffe.

For those who are all about authenticity and simulation, you will be glad to hear that the game tries very hard to be in tune with reality when it comes to the flight model itself and the aerodynamic properties of each plane, even if the technology available at the time of the game's release was not powerful enough to properly portray such a thing. It is, however, pretty difficult to keep the planes level without the autopilot and it gets even harder when you have to engage the enemy in combat as well.

Speaking of which, the dogfights are about as intense as they can get, although it is all about your mindset going in, since there isn't too much emphasis put on characters of background stories. Moreover, the AI should be competent enough to provide you with a challenge, although they are also very predictable and repetitive. Naturally, the graphics may not turn any heads nowadays, but given the age of the game, the planes themselves are quite detailed, although the terrain below can make it really difficult to immerse into the atmosphere, due to the very low resolution of the textures used to depict it.

WWII Fighters should be regarded as a decent attempt at portraying this specific scenario of the second World War, especially when it comes to the planes themselves and the missions that are part of the main campaign. It is, however, rather hard to properly appreciate the title at the moment, especially when far better simulations have been achieved since.