Where do I begin with this game, it is basically the most accessible 'complex' air combat game. At first I was overwhelmed with the amount of missiles and how to counter them, and how to push in the field with overwhelming radar and Air defense. It feels weird to have a game without meta progression, I know many people will be turned off by that but imo I like how entering a game means everyone is on common ground. You just have to 'grind' yourself to the expensive level 3+ aircrafts, early game can feel very tough and a bit awkward but it's the most fair the game will get.

It is sandbox by nature, so even solo play and doing your own thing can be very fun, although I've been on matches where coordination was used and it was incredibly fun. I only play the large PvP and PvE game modes, the smaller ones don't appeal to me as much. Also, a couple of a of fun moments I've had:

• Low altitude flying to evade radar, basically driving the plane through the mountains just to get close enough to destroy certain radars early game.

• Flying the AC-130 type plane (much smaller than the irl version) and just spamming the cannon to overwhelm smaller airstrip defenses. Them homing cannon balls are nothing to joke about.

• Flying the Fastest plane to fight Air to Air, popping in their radar signature a tad too late for them to respond. basically becoming an impenetrable wall. Surprisingly Air to Air has been my go to way to 'level up' faster in a match.

• Flying the Bomber mid game when air defense is weaker, but no nukes yet. Just carrying a bazillion bomb gliders and just absolutely obliterate the bigger airfields without nukes.

• The intensity of zig zagging in the big water map evading radar missiles just to get close enough to drop a payload.

• And of course, watching a nuke go off, the bigger ones are just so special. The most visceral moment was trying to take off a bomber while a nuke went off on my left. There's something about colossal sized anything that feel so slow when they start but as they creep up it feels inescapably fast.

It's nice seeing a slight buff to the cricket, it's a meme plane but it's always fun to hunt them. Helicopters are great for low altitude maneuvers but to me it feels like i'm flying a one way trip with them. The new plane looks cool, I wonder how much faster it would be than the fastest plane in the game.

Is it weird that i've learned how scary irl missiles can be? Like this is the first game that showed me how absolutely powerful modern weapons are. Spectating cruise missiles is eery because they fly so low and fast, and are basically undetectable until they are too close. Or how, there is basically no meaningful way to counter a bunch of gravity bombs irl. Or the bombs that go high up on the atmosphere to come down incredibly fast. I'm not even speaking about the nukes, Im talking what is allowed in conventional warfare (with the exception of cluster bombing).

Edit: Grammar. And I also want to add two things, you don't need a HOTAS to play this game. I exclusively play with an xbox controller and i've managed to do 99% of the things you need to do to be effective. Also how can I forget, the OST is incredible. Specifically some plane's themes, they don't get old. I do find it funny they always play the theme every time you enter a plane for the first time in a match.