Over G Fighters

"A True Flight Simulator for the XBox 360"

First thing is first, I see a lot of people comparing this game to another flight “simulator”, Ace Combat. Well, let's clear up one thing right off the bat, Ace Combat is an arcade flying game, it is not a simulator.

Take a look at the negative reviews for this game, you will notice a trend. They will say things like “The missions just have you flying for awhile, shooting two enemy planes, and returning to base.”, or “There is no audio while playing other than radio chatter and the engine noises”. Well, guess what? That is what happens when a military pilot flies a fighter in real life. There are no epic battles against 200 futuristic warplanes, or techno music pounding, you are just doing your job.

Now that I have that out of the way, I will cover the standard review points.

The graphics in this game are very good. The ground is not terribly well detailed, but then, you aren't going to be seeing it much anyway. All the detail is where it should be, in the plane models and in the cockpit. Especially in the cockpit, as Over G features a fully functional cockpit for each plane. All of the instruments are not simply still images as in other games, they all work and are accurate to the real aircraft.

Another complaint about this game are the controls, I think you will find many people complaining about the controls have it set to “Arcade” mode, rather than “Real”. The Arcade controls are just that, a very basic setup that is suitable for beginners, but most players are going to want to set it to Real right away.

The sound in Over G is fairly realistic. The voice acting is indeed terrible, as you might have read elsewhere, but rest of the audio is certainly suitable.

I think the biggest advantage this game has is realism, and anyone interested in a realistic flight game (or at least as realistic as they come on the consoles) should take a look at Over G.

Whether it is the working instrumentation, the fact that your aircraft actually consume fuel at a rate realistic for that plane, or the fact that each plane has their own unique special abilities from real life (the F-14 has a tail hook, the JSF has VTOL, etc), there are plenty of details that will keep even the seasoned PC flight simulator pilot entertained.

In closing, if you want a game that captures military flight, get Over G Fighters. If you want to battle hundreds of enemies while on a quest to avenge the death of your family, then you need to look elsewhere.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/06