You could be a fan of Natsume’s Freedom Wings if dogfights and sky pirates appeal to you, but only if an empty storyline and long stretches of game with little action appeal to you as well. Limited interaction and less variety has made an exercise in tedium out of an otherwise amusing flight simulator.
The minimalist story of Freedom Wings enlists you in the Air Patrol, where your job is to protect civilians from the air pirates that prowl the skies. You fly from airstrip to airstrip, attacking bandits, rescuing planes under fire, and liberating occupied territories. Every plane you shoot down earns you extra money you can use to upgrade your plane and its equipment. Upgrades noticeably improve your plane’s performance, which you’ll need to match the increasingly powerful opponents found further away from your starting airbase. It’s fun to think about, but less fun to play.
It’s a large world, but an empty one. While there are scattered airbases all over the map, every one is inhabited by the same two people, one in the hangar and one in the store. Once in a while you will meet other pilots in the airport bar, but usually only to advance the plot. In the air, you might trigger a one-time event asking you to protect another plane as you draw close to a new airbase, but otherwise, it’s just you and the bandits, and they don’t talk much. Throughout the game, your radio stays silent; enemies never use their radio to taunt or demand surrender, and only talk to the player or themselves in the cutscenes before boss fights. They spawn, attack, and explode without saying a word.
The game’s issues aren’t so noticeable at first. A helpful autopilot makes navigation, dogfights, and landings almost too easy, allowing players to fly their plane themselves when they get the hang of it. Another feature, the ability to “bounce” off the ground without incurring any damage, makes flying easier to manage, but may enrage some flight simulator purists. Initial equipment upgrades for your plane are reasonably priced, and make effective additions. It starts off feeling like Natsume might actually succeed in grafting an RPG’s plotline onto a flight simulator’s game play. The problems come later, when you haven’t met a new character in over four hours, your plane isn’t strong enough for a boss fight, and the next best upgrades require you to defeat 40 or more opponents.
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