So I Tried… Sid Meier's Ace Patrol

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never tried before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for the PC version of Sid Meier's Ace Patrol.

What I thought it was
Well, it’s got Sid Meier’s name on it so of course it’s going to be something quite involved. I love Sid Meier’s Pirates! and even have a copy signed by the man himself, but that isn’t exactly a simple game. Similarly, Sid Meier’s Civilization series is well known to be comprehensive, and I’ve played Sid Meier’s Railways. I honestly didn’t know quite what to expect when I installed and loaded it up. Some sort of war game with biplanes, from the images.

What it actually is
You pick a side from the First World War and send planes into battle against the enemy - I chose to play as the British. It’s obviously a port of the mobile version, because right at the start you’re told to ‘tap’ on where you want the planes to go… But anyway, it’s a turn-based affair so you tell your pilots what to do, they do it, the enemy take their turn - whether it’s bank left, dive or what have you.
Most of the battles are fairly simple - fly around and deal damage to the enemy. But some are almost based on real battles. The one I encountered which took me up to my time limit was part of the Somme Offensive. I had three pilots to take on three German pilots and a zeppelin, lost one to enemy fire, one to him landing for an unexplained reason and the other managed to destroy the zeppelin and two fokkers (German planes). This was a surprise to me as much as anyone, because I’m not very good at this game.

Will I keep playing
Honestly, probably not. Half an hour was more than enough to get a feel for the game, and I don’t like the feeling. There are plenty more missions to do, but as with most war games - I know the storyline. I like to play games for the storyline, so I’m obviously in no rush to find out what happens next - the Allies win, the Germans lose. The storyline really doesn’t appear to be more than that, as it has to be generic enough to work with whichever assemblage of pilots you choose. I had a bit of fun but I’m not going back to it.