GoD Factory: Wingmen Review

At first blush, GoD Factory: Wingman is a pretty simple looking space shooter in the vein of veteran LucasArts game Tie Fighter. It’s not long after firing it up though, that you realise there is quite a bit more depth to it than that.

When you first start the game, the anime style music track hits you and you get a sense of impending combat that is quite appealing. Unfortunately, then the menu comes up and your initial impression is confirmed. The visual style is certainly leaning in an Asian direction. It reminds me heavily of cartoons I saw as a kid in the ‘80s.

It took me about an hour to get the hang of the controls for GoD Factory: Wingman, an hour... I admit to the fact that I deliberately went for the “simulation” control option when given the choice between that and “shooter” and maybe I shouldn't have, these old bones aren't as accurate as they once were, the touch is not as feather light as it was when I used to burn hours upon hours in IL 2 - Sturmovik and Eurofighter Typhoon. Even so, the sim controls are somewhat twitchy and sensitive. After that hour of swearing at the screen and wondering which way was up I adjusted and started to have real fun throwing my gunship all over the place, but it did present a barrier to entry that the faint of heart may not appreciate as much as me. Not everyone is of my occasionally masochistic bent.

Eventually I decided that this self flagellation had to stop and I should switch to the shooter control scheme (this is done by resetting the controls to default. Something I had to work out by checking the forum on Steam).

Once you have the hang of the controls, the game starts to shine a bit. The maneuver system lets you do 180 degree flips, back up your ship, drift in one direction and fire in another, a full gamut of cool aerobatics that bring something really quite interesting to the flight model in this game.

Add in the idea of building gunships out of parts and sending them in to the fray and you add another layer to this onion, but that is where the good bits screech to a halt.

Combat itself is formulaic, and unless you can find other players you're looking at A.I opponents with all the tactical ability of a Yorkshire terrier. True, you can hit V to issue commands, but the A.I. ignored me at every turn. Now I'm not saying I am not to blame there, my keyboard is on the way out and V happens to be one of the less reliable keys, but it really did feel like they were giving me the finger and flying off on their own when I gave them commands.

All in all, GoD Factory: Wingman felt a little hollow to me. There are bits it does really, really well, the flight felt almost Babylon 5-ish at times, and was almost as fluid as a personal favourite by the name of Independence War 2 : Edge of Chaos. The game just felt like it was missing something. This impression was not helped by the lack of people in-game on multiplayer, having to fight with or alongside those cretinous bots didn't help the initial impression.