Balsa Model Flight Simulator

About

"Balsa Model Flight Simulator is a single-player and multiplayer flight simulation game that allows players to design, build, customize, and fly model aircraft with advanced physics-based flight modeling. The game features an in-game vehicle editor, paint and customization options, and a single-player career mode with various challenges. However, it is reportedly buggy."

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

+15

80%

Audience ScoreBased on 190 reviews

atmosphere1 positive mentions

stability13 negative mentions

The game offers a fun and creative experience for building and flying model aircraft, appealing to fans of aviation and engineering.
The flight mechanics are enjoyable, with a good level of customization for planes, and the multiplayer aspect adds to the fun.
Developed by the creators of Kerbal Space Program, the game has potential for growth and improvement, with a supportive community and active developers.

The game is plagued by numerous bugs and glitches, making it frustrating and sometimes unplayable, especially for those without a joystick.
It has not received significant updates in a long time, leading to concerns about its future development and content expansion.
The building system is unintuitive and clunky, making it difficult for players to create stable aircraft, which detracts from the overall experience.

stability
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is a significant concern, with numerous users reporting persistent bugs and crashes, particularly in its early access state. While some players find it enjoyable despite these issues, many express frustration over the game's unrefined mechanics and the lack of timely updates. Overall, the experience is marred by instability, making it unplayable for a portion of users.
- “The game itself is just buggy, unrefined, and lackluster. It hasn't gotten an update in forever, and I am saying all of this knowing it's an early access game.”
- “It's very unstable, very buggy, will force me to close and reopen the game, and seems like it's had a very, very slow crawl along over the last ten months or so I've had the game.”
- “That aside, Balsa has proven thus far to be quite early and very buggy - buggy in the sense of things that will force you to close and reopen the game.”
story
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
33%
33%
The story aspect of the game is generally viewed as underwhelming, with single-player missions lacking depth and engagement. While there are interesting environments and milestone missions that encourage exploration, many players find the missions to be buggy and not particularly compelling, leading to a mixed experience overall. The career mode offers some structure, but the execution of missions and objectives often detracts from the overall narrative experience.
- “With an interesting environment to explore already in place, and milestone missions which encourage exploring the landscapes, there is much more to do with my toys.”
- “It's good, quite different from KSP and with quests and stuff to do from the start this time. Also a career mode with money right from the start. Looks nice too!”
- “I still cannot get some things to align on the workbench when assembling planes, but I have fun flying the pre-built ones with the missions.”
- “Singleplayer missions are kind of meh.”
- “The little missions are okay and challenging at first, but not especially compelling.”
- “From these, only one is playable in the career mode, where you find all the missions/objectives and can dogfight against AI.”
gameplay
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
60%
The gameplay is currently hindered by early access limitations, including unpolished controls, frequent bugs, and slow updates, which detract from the overall experience. While the flight mechanics are appreciated, issues with combat AI, mission win conditions, and unrealistic crash physics significantly impact enjoyment. Despite these drawbacks, some players still find value in the game if they are willing to overlook its current state.
- “Flight mechanics are nice.”
- “The game is absolutely early access - limited content, unpolished gameplay and controls, and annoying bugs. Also, absurdly slow updates, but if you're interested in the game and don't mind the pretty hefty price, it's nice.”
- “The combat AI crashes into the ground too easily, and the win conditions on some of the missions are a little buggy. The planes are also not tough enough, in my opinion, when crashed, because landing even slightly too fast often explodes your plane into 100 pieces.”
- “Review was done during early access at about 82 hours of gameplay!”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
The game's optimization has received mixed feedback, with users noting that while the graphics are appealing, the maps and building mechanics require significant improvements. Issues such as clipping, inconsistent center of mass, and frequent stutters—even on low settings—indicate that the optimization is lacking and affects overall gameplay performance.
- “Graphics are nice and cartoony, but the maps could use some improvements and optimizations.”
- “I'm running the game at its lowest possible settings, and the fact that I get random stutters every 2 minutes, even in the workshop, concerns me about the optimization; hopefully this is only a thing on my end, but it upsets me regardless.”
- “The graphics are nice and cartoony, but the maps could use a batch of improvements and optimizations.”
- “Parts still clip halfway through other parts, and there's no option to just surface attach. It's literally KSP building with limited scaling wings and a half-baked interior building system that is weird to get used to and doesn't work sometimes. For example, placing certain seats inside can force them sideways when trying to get them centered, and the center of mass and lift are supposed to be more dynamic than KSP, but I notice the center of mass being randomly off-center on a perfectly symmetrical vehicle, which affects its performance.”
- “I'm running the game at its lowest possible settings, and the fact that I get random stutters every 2 minutes, even in the workshop, concerns me about the optimization. Hopefully, this is only an issue on my end, but it upsets me regardless.”
atmosphere
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere of the game is perceived as lacking depth, with players finding the building system frustrating compared to KSP. The limited activities available, primarily focused on random flying, lead some users to prefer KSP for its richer gameplay experience.
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in this flight simulation game is highly praised, with players noting that it provides a fun and entertaining experience that can keep them laughing for hours.
- “This is a super fun flight sim/aeronautical engineering experience and is guaranteed to leave you laughing for hours!”
graphics
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
The graphics are generally praised for their appealing cartoonish style; however, there are suggestions for improvements and optimizations in the map designs.
- “The graphics are vibrant and cartoony, creating a unique and engaging visual style.”
- “The environments are beautifully designed, showcasing a rich and colorful aesthetic.”
- “The character models are well-crafted, adding to the overall charm of the game.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users express a strong emotional connection to the game, highlighting their semi-invested feelings towards flight and RC models, which enhances their overall experience. This emotional investment suggests that the game resonates deeply with players, making it more than just a pastime.