A fantastic game, but has its issues.
Lets start with those shall we?
-The lock-on system is... finicky. Sometimes it locks onto what you want, but most of the time you have to constantly cycle which breaks the pace of combat quite often. Its reliant on the position of your nose, but if you're turning then the "next" icon on a target will often not mean you will lock onto it the next time you press the change lock button. You can work around it, but its not exactly great.
-No checkpoints. Which means if you crash like a cretin at the end of the mission, you have to do it all over again. I only had a problem with this in two missions on my first playthrough, but it can be annoying.
-Lack of plane variety. Now most planes are there, but there is a distinct lack of "Attacker" planes. By which i mean there is really only one, the SU-25. There is a ton of ground target missions in the game, but only that one plane is the best at it. And its pretty bad otherwise. So you either pick it and have a horrible time flying around/dogfighting, or pick something else and take thrice as long bombing targets. There is probably mods to fix that but im reviewing the game, not mods.
Well thats about it for the negatives, so lets go with the positives.
-Suprisingly long single-player campaign (including the DLC). Im typing this out after ive finished the main campaign and the DLC one, also done some replaying for the sake of grinding out currency. Im at 12 hours. Its definitely cost efficient (especially on sale lmao) and replayable.
-Lack of checkpoints (yes really) makes the game harder which is very needed. I didnt mind the extra risk, and on the few occasions i died, it felt like my fault instead of BS (yeah, even in Mission 4 of DLC).
-Great music
-Great visuals
-Nonsensical story (as it should be in these games)
Overall a solid 7,5/10. Could use some polish in some areas, more planes etc. But the game is fantastic and you should do yourself a favor and get it when you can. On sale its a steal.
