Taken for a Quickie | Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China

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Last week saw Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China stealthily make its way to Xbox One as a console exclusive. Grab your best pair of flying goggles and keep an eye out for ack-ack guns as we take to the skies in our first quickie of the year. Chocks away!

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 by Liam
 Andrews

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​@liam_andrews5

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 Developer: Ace Maddox
Publisher: Ace Maddox
Platforms: Xbox One, PC
Players: 1 - 16

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What is it?
 
An air-combat action game based on the exploits of the American Volunteer Group, more popularly known as The Flying Tigers, who, along with the British, Australian and New Zealand air forces, took on the might of the Japanese army during the early years of the Second World War.
 
How does it play?
 
Gameplay in FTSOC is more arcade-based than military sim, but that doesn’t mean it’s totally lacking in realism. You’ll struggle to pull up if entering into too steep of a dive, and though you may have unlimited ammunition and a generous aim-assist with which to chew up enemy aircraft, you’ll still need to lead your shots rather than simply pointing and shooting.
 
We’d recommend ditching the standard control setup for the manoeuvrability afforded in the pitch/roll combination, which allowed us much greater aircraft control during the campaign.

Is the campaign any good?
 
It’s a little short, to be honest. Even on the hardest difficulty setting, you’ll likely power through everything in just under five hours.
 
While the majority of missions never stray too far from the main attraction of dogfighting, most offer multiple objectives to mix things up a bit and provide a few standout moments, including strafing/bombing ground targets, torpedoing battleships and protecting friendly bombers.

If you grew up playing titles such as Rogue Squadron and Blazing Angels, FTSOC will definitely tickle that aerial combat itch that’s been missing from consoles for too long.

Hmm, five hours isn’t that long…
 
There’s a few extra modes that help extend the game’s longevity, including online competitive multiplayer, provided you can find a populated server.
 
The highlight of these extra modes has to be Dogfight, which pits you against enemy AI in a location and aircraft of your choice, including a few that aren’t available in the campaign, such as the iconic Supermarine Spitfire and P51 Mustang.

Would you recommend it?
 
Yes. The campaign may be too short, and the visuals can sometimes look a little plain (pun very much intended), but there’s just something incredibly thrilling about hearing the rat-at-at-at of machine gun fire and the thrum of your engine as you pounce upon enemy aircraft formations from above.
 
If you grew up playing titles such as Rogue Squadron and Blazing Angels, FTSOC will definitely tickle that aerial combat itch that’s been missing from consoles for too long.

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Flying Tigers: Shadows Over China is available now on Xbox One for £15.19/€18.99/$18.99 and on Steam, where it released last year, for £12.39/€15.99/$15.99.