Common Sense Media Review
By Michael Lafferty
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Fun, accessible arcade air combat is a little repetitive.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Project Wingman
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's It About?
PROJECT WINGMAN is set in a post-apocalyptic world, where political realities and even elements of the globe's geography have been altered. In the middle of this complex environment, a high-flying mercenary group known as Sicario is pulled into an emerging war between two factions. There are two ways to play -- Conquest (which randomizes missions) and the Campaign. Regardless of which one you choose, the central fighter pilot character, Monarch, is run through a variety of missions which essentially have the same overriding theme -- shoot enemies in your way, whether they are in the air, on land, or sea. Project Wingman features the ability to switch up planes and choosing a load-out that's beneficial to the mission at hand. You'll fly missions, earn coin, buy new planes and weaponry, then repeat.
Is It Any Good?
Through photo-realistic settings and a plethora of enemies, this is a solid arcade flight sim that takes off and soars on your PC. Project Wingman is also billed as the kind of game that a player can jump into and play without having to spend a lot of time learning control schemes, and it succeeds at that goal. Regardless of controller or mouse-and-keyboard combination, the control scheme doesn't get in the way of the action -- and there's plenty of action in this target-rich environment. There are about 20 different planes to fly, with slightly different speed and maneuverability, and players have the option to vary up their combat based on their weapon load out. For example, you can select heavy missiles for ground targets (ranging from PT boats to mechanized fortresses), or lean towards machine guns and heat seakers for aerial dogfights.
The audio is serviceable, and the environment elements are outstanding. There are even a couple of different difficulty settings to test the skill of players. Unfortunately, even with the customization, the point is of each mission is essentially the same -- find the enemy, shoot, and find the next target. That's where the game bogs down a bit, but even with this dulling repetition, it manages to capture the fun of hunting down enemies from the sky. Project Wingman's accesibility to a wide range of players keeps it from being too limited to hardcore flight fans, and while that may be too action packed and arcade-like for some gamers, it's a nice intro into aerial combat games.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in video games. Is the impact of the violence in Project Wingman affected by the lack of blood and gore shown? Would the impact be stronger if the game showed more realistic violence? Does confrontation always have to lead to violence?
What might cause one nation to go to war with another? How can mercenaries play a role? What are alternatives to war?
Game Details
- Platform: Windows
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Humble Games
- Release date: December 1, 2020
- Genre: Simulation
- Topics: Adventures
- ESRB rating: NR for No Descriptions
- Last updated: December 4, 2020
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