This is something of a pity, since Wings of War turns out to be an extremely playable flight game. Developed by Illusion Softworks, the company responsible for Mafia, Wings of War puts players in control of a fighter pilot around the time of the World War I. No specific events or battles are recreated. Instead fictional missions are devised over various parts of Europe where fighting took place.

The environments generally look well done, although most of the time is spent in the air away from any features. Each of the maps is quite large, taking several minutes to cross from one side to the other, but all are fairly flat and featureless from a distance. Illusion Softworks have learnt from Mafia and made large improvements in draw distances, and if the weather is fine the horizon appears to be quite far away. Up close objects on the ground are well done. Houses and villages dot the countryside, with valleys broken up by small hilly ranges. The details the ground features show are quite hard to see though, with players either flying too high or too fast to take in a lot of what is on the ground.

Despite the detail on the ground the levels are a bit too featureless and bland. One of the strengths of a game like Crimson Skies is the richly varied landscapes, not only in terms of looks but height as well. Battles fought around jutting mountains, buildings or deep valleys added a level of excitement that was hard to match. In Wings of War the ground is just too flat, leaving a large amount of air to fly around in so that crashing becomes the exception rather than a common occurance. Even on maps where there are mountains they are just too large and gradual to affect the game at all. The developers may have been going for a bit of realism in the game but they lose some of the immediacy that could be in a flight game.

That is not to say that Wings of War lacks excitement though, because it certainly does exist. Each of the levels is packed with missions and side-missions, leaving players little time to rest or sightsee. Over the course of one of the 13 levels up to 10 missions can be played, all at a fast pace and resulting in a very busy days work for the pilot. Luckily there is a handy auto-save feature that saves at certain stages through the level, so getting killed at the end won't mean replaying right through again.

The objectives themselves cover a whole range of actions, but generally involve shooting or bombing targets in both timed and un-timed missions. Regardless of the current mission the air is littered with enemy aircraft, so fighting them off while completing an objective adds nicely to the challenge. The missions involve a good mix of targets, both in the air and on the ground, both moving and stationary, and require a mix of gun, rocket and bomb attacks. The mission type we liked the best involve scouting for targets on the ground. This offered an opportunity for exploration, while still fighting off enemy aircraft. There was also a bit more risk involved since scouting can only be done by flying close to the ground.

The wide range of missions packed into each level does have its downsides though. Most of the objectives are centred on a small part of the map. While this means there is less downtime while traveling from one place to another it does mean that the player could play through the entire game without seeing large parts of each map. The reconnaissance missions seemed to be fairly redundant, involving no flying or fighting, just pressing a button when told to. Also more of a curiosity than a criticism, many levels involved switching from one plane to another, for instance from flying a fighter to a rear gunner in a bomber.

Besides the mission-based Campaign mode there is also an Instant Action mode, which allows players to compete in either Deathmatch or Team Deathmatch games. There are a good range of maps and weather types available for this, with most of the aircraft unlocked in the campaign available to fly. Unfortunately this mode does not support multiplayer, even on split-screen, leaving players to fight against bots. Partially making up for this is the relatively high level of difficulty these bots bring, and winning in this mode is quite a challenge. Even so, we are a little disappointed that there are no online or LAN option, as there will be with the PC version.

The aircraft through the game are a mix of both fictional and actual designs. Planes used in World War I on both sides, such as the Sopwith Dolphin, the Eindecker and the Bristol Fighter are all represented fairly accurately. These early aircraft, mostly bi- or tri-wing, are a large part of what makes Wings of War so fun to play. It also differentiates itself from other flight games through its realism as well as being a throwback to an earlier time rather than the better technology of World War II or later that other games have focused on, much in the same way that Mafia did with its early-era vehicles.

Flying the aircraft is fairly simple with the left analogue stick handling all of the plane's movement in the air. The handling is quite oriented towards the arcade player, rather than towards flight simulation, and easy sharp turns, landings and take-offs, and general gentleness of flying are the result. Fighting other aircraft is not so simple as flying though with the aiming quite difficult to judge well, even at close proximity. We found it quite difficult to judge where to aim, and even when following a plane in a straight line hitting the target was very haphazard.

Visually the aircraft all move fairly well, although there is often a sensation of the world turning around the plane rather than the plane flying through a static world. The large amount of open space means that often there is no sensation of speed, with other aircraft looking more like they are floating rather than flying. Up close to the ground players do get the feeling of speed though, although this doesn't translate well to the aircraft. For instance a dive bomb from high in the air to a target on the ground is possible with no momentum effect on the plane when pulling up. Speed also doesn't affect the plane's turning circle, which is very small even at top speed.

Despite being made in the Czech Republic, Wings of War displays a rather British sense of humour and properness, to the extent that it could easily be called "Biggles Goes To War" especially in the voice acting. Both pre-flight briefings and in-flight chatter are filled with British caricatures that are wont to shout out "tally-ho" at a moment's notice. It's all rather fun in a hammy sort of way, and works well with this type of game. The soundtrack is purely orchestral, and reasonably inspiring without being too memorable.