Its no secret that most of us here at KGS are fans of the game Wings Of War. So imagine my delight when I found a game on the internet that is almost identical to it. So I gave it a try and was blow away, quite literally, with how similar it is to Wings of War for all the right reasons. In fact the team who made Steambirds probably played Wings of War and decided to make a game just like it, except its free to play.
Now because gameplay is very similar to Wings of War, I won't be as thorough as usual. Before each round has a planning phase and an executing orders phase. You drag the arrow from the front of your plane to where you want it to, instead of using movement cards. If you come into range of another plane you shot at it and it shots at you if the enemy plane has you in range.
Steambirds has an excellent tutorial level which explains the how to play very well. The game is set up so you go through a story line set of missons progressing through time. On each level you are awarded 1-4 stars based on your performance. The more stars you have the higher you get promoted. I wish that this game let you have games just between you and a friend or the computer and not in a mission.
One major problem I have with SteamBirds is that the game does not show you the enemy's guns. Neither where they are or what they're arch and range is. This can be a major pain when trying to attack a blimp and not knowing where the guns are. It seems like something obvious that you would put into a game like this.
While SteamBirds may have the advantages of being free and taking up much less space to play over Wings of War, it doesn't make it better. The reason being that you can't play SteamBirds with friends, but you can with Wings of War. Steambirds is fine to play on your own, and it is a good game. But Wings of War is simply better.
SteamBirds was made by Andy Moore, Daniel Cook, Jordan Fehr, and Danny Baranowshy.
Dude, while Steambirds isn't perfect is does have an interesting challenge to it. It took me quite awhile to get four stars in every mission. I wish that you could purchase upgrades as you go up in rank.
ReplyDeleteThe one major flaw with this game is the edge of the board. First, there is no warning that you are approaching the edge. Second, instead of auto-turn-around or something, when you get to the edge you die. That stinks. Even if you're not yet over the edge but close you can't save yourself because you can't get to the arrow to change your flight path. How badly does that stink?
Perhaps they'll address these concerns with Steambirds 2.