Review of Winds of Steel, a 3D WWII air combat game

We enjoyed Polarbit’s Armageddon Squadron immensely when it was first released, so we were a little sceptical when a very similar looking game, Winds of Steel, by DeckEleven Entertainment popped up in the Android Market. Winds of Steel is, like Armageddon Squadron, a 3D air combat game set in World War II. Unlike Armageddon Squadron, this game attempts to inject some small element of realism to proceedings by letting you take part in some famous historical battles (albeit almost exclusively ones that took place over the Pacific). Here’s the game’s official description from the Android Market:-

Experience World War II’s most epic and legendary air battles in Asia and Pacific theaters on your Android mobile phone.From the attack on Pearl Harbor, and all the way to the bombing of Tokyo, take command of 12 famous Pacific fighters and bombers in a challenging 3D game.

Graphically, this game is pretty good. It’s 3D gameworld is very similar in it’s look to Armageddon Squadron, and is, arguably, better in some places, paritcularly during some of the cutscenes. The level designs are, for the most part, well thought out and often very busy with aircraft, ships and trucks, which adds a little realistic chaos to proceedings. The sound is also well implemented, between levels you are treated to a little period swing music, and, in game, the engine thrums away, rising in pitch as you dive and dropping as you climb, and the machine gun fire is suitably “dakka-dakka”.

The game is controlled via the phone’s accelerometer. Tilting left or right makes your aircraft turn in that direction, and tilting forward or back makes the plane dive or climb. There are also a few virtual buttons: a fire button, a change weapon button and a couple of buttons that only appear in certain contexts. The two contextual buttons are used to roll the plane or do a loop. If you steer hard to the left or right, the roll button appears, if you pull up hard, the loop button appears. This works pretty well and, as you play more, you start to instinctively roll or loop away from incoming fire, often giving you an edge in a dogfight. The main criticism we have for the game’s controls is the lack of any method for controlling your speed, which, whilst not essential to the gameplay, would be nice as another addition to your dogfight armoury.

It’s in the gameplay that this game comes in to it’s own though. In the case of Armageddon Squadron, the main criticism levelled at it was that it was a little too arcade-like in it’s feel. Winds of Steel, whilst still undoubtedly light years away from being a proper flight sim, does feel a couple of steps closer than Armageddon Squadron. Impacts with the ground or sea in Winds of Steel don’t just add damage to your plane, they blow it up. Battleships begin to smoke as you bomb them, and enemy aircraft buzzing around the skies do their best to menace and harass you as you make bomb runs.

Overall, we were pretty impressed with Winds of Steel. It’s a very well designed game with a lot of polish and character. We’d have liked some sort of throttle control method, but in truth it doesn’t detract from the game that much. We actually prefer this game to Armageddon Squadron, which we praised pretty highly back when we reviewed it. It’s well worth the €2.99.