Ground of Aces

About

Ground of Aces is a single player economy city builder game with economy and historical themes. It was developed by Blindflug Studios AG and was released on July 1, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Welcome to GROUND OF ACES It is the dawn of World War II, and you take command of a remote military air base. Prepare for missions, send out pilots and fend off attacksEngulf yourself in the Second World War and experience its battles from the perspective of your air base crew. It is your responsibility to make sure everybody is physically and mentally prepared to fulfil their duties. Plan, bu…

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86%

Audience ScoreBased on 879 reviews

story19 positive mentions

stability29 negative mentions

Unique and engaging WWII airbase management and base-building gameplay with a strong strategic element.
Charming and distinctive art style complemented by fitting soundtrack and sound design, creating immersive atmosphere.
Active and responsive developer team providing frequent updates, bug fixes, and community engagement with clear roadmap for future content and features.

The game is still in early access with numerous bugs including pathfinding issues, planes getting stuck, and crashes affecting gameplay and saves.
Lack of comprehensive tutorials and unclear UI hinders new player understanding and leads to steep learning curve.
Gameplay pacing issues such as slow building times, repetitive missions, micromanagement tedium, and limited mid-to-late game content reduce long-term engagement.

story
215 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
9%
89%
2%
The game's "story" is largely emergent and mission-driven rather than scripted, focusing on base building and managing aircraft and crews during WWII. While players enjoy the strategic depth and thematic setting, the missions are often seen as repetitive, lacking meaningful narrative impact or variety, with outcomes heavily affected by RNG and occasional bugs. Many reviewers express a desire for more dynamic, historically grounded missions with consequences that influence the broader war effort to enhance engagement and storytelling.
- “The game does a really good job at helping you get into it: the early missions are designed to help you understand the game's economy and processes, so I never felt lost.”
- “The story and gameplay are great, and I’m confident that the team will keep us busy with DLC and patches for a long time.”
- “You’ll build your own airfield, manage iconic aircraft, and oversee the well-being of your crew as you prepare them for air raids and send pilots on dangerous missions.”
- “It's okay... I always wanted a game where I manage an airforce in the Battle of Britain, but this feels too barebones on the mission side of things.”
- “You can select up to 5 planes on an easy mission, that provide a 99% mission success chance, and still get the worst roll possible that results in failing the mission and losing all 5 planes that you sent.”
- “No reason to care about mission flights, they are just random pop ups and timers that give rewards that can be easily farmed by doing the same clicks, no engagement no strategy.”
gameplay
159 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
35%
62%
3%
Gameplay in this early access WWII base-building game offers a solid and engaging core loop with well-designed resource and personnel management that appeals to fans of strategy and simulation. However, many players find the mechanics confusing or poorly explained due to lack of tutorials and unclear systems, leading to a steep learning curve and frustration with bugs and pacing. Despite some clunkiness and unfinished features, the gameplay shows strong potential and rewards investment as updates and community support improve overall depth and polish.
- “I highly recommend this game for anyone who is interested in city builder style gameplay management and has a fascination or interest in world war II time period.”
- “The gameplay strikes a perfect balance between accessibility and depth — every decision on the airfield matters, and you feel the weight of each sortie.”
- “The core gameplay is solid and enjoyable.”
- “It took a while for me to get used to how things work and to get the correct gameplay loop going, so it was a miserable 3 hours of my crew dying and me not understanding what the hell is going on.”
- “The game feels like it's juggling too many systems at once while failing to expand on any of the mechanics in any meaningful way.”
- “It’s very tough to intuit how to actually play the game successfully without any meaningful tutorial or explanation of iconography, and it lacks basic QoL features that would make it actually enjoyable (assign pilots to specific beds, hover over icons to see what they’re trying to tell you, explanations of mechanics).”
graphics
93 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
57%
40%
3%
The game’s graphics are widely praised for their unique, charming, and vibrant comic book-style art that effectively captures the WWII theme with nostalgic and historical touches. While some users note minor bugs and areas needing polish typical of early access, the overall aesthetic, animations, and UI are well-received for creating an immersive, relaxing, and visually appealing experience. The developers' evident passion and ongoing roadmap for graphical improvements contribute to the positive reception and anticipation for future enhancements.
- “The isometric art style strikes a balance between accessibility and historical immersion, making it easy to navigate your base while still appreciating the finer details.”
- “Managing the air base is both engaging and satisfying, and the art style is absolutely stunning with strong nostalgic comic vibes.”
- “The game truly shines with its art style, which gives it a vibrant character distinct from other titles.”
- “Graphics still need some polish but it's a style reminiscent of Running with Rifles.”
- “But the game is still in early development and peppered with game-breaking bugs like planes refusing to take off, pilots not pathfinding to their planes, and weird black graphical glitches from planes when taking off and landing across the screen.”
- “A thumbs up for the game concept but a downward thumb for graphics.”
stability
35 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
83%
The game’s stability is currently poor, with frequent freezes, crashes, and numerous bugs affecting gameplay such as pathfinding issues, plane takeoffs, and object handling. While performance is uneven and late-game becomes problematic, users acknowledge it is in early access, with developers actively working on improvements. Despite the technical issues, many find the game enjoyable and see strong potential for future stability enhancements.
- “Enjoyed this game for many hours at this point, runs great and looks great.”
- “This is a great management/base-building game that isn't buggy and has a lot of cool planes.”
- “There is not a game out there that is bug free, but the devs work very hard to get rid of the bugs as soon as possible.”
- “Freezes every 5 seconds, forced to restart it.”
- “But the game is still in early dev and peppered with game-breaking bugs like planes refusing to take off, pilots not pathfinding to their planes, and weird black graphical glitches from planes when taking off and landing across the screen.”
- “Sorry but for now it is unplayable - object selection is buggy, moving objects duplicates them, characters bump into each other at the doors, or get stuck carrying resources.”
music
31 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
55%
35%
10%
The music in the game is widely praised for its authentic, 1940s-inspired soundtrack that greatly enhances the atmosphere and art style. However, many users note that the music often stops playing due to lack of looping, leading to long silent periods that reduce immersion. Overall, while the soundtrack is a strong highlight, players hope for longer, more continuous musical accompaniment and improved sound design.
- “I love the 40's-esque soundtrack, which helps root you in the setting, and the mechanics of ordering and maintaining your fleet of planes is intuitive and well-conceived.”
- “The soundtrack is an absolute banger tho!”
- “The vibe is fantastic, the art, music and feel really make this a joy.”
- “Main menu music doesn't loop, and in-game music also doesn't loop, so the game often becomes completely silent, with no music and almost no ambient sounds.”
- “I wish the music in the game played longer as there are very extended periods of silence in the background.”
- “It would be nice to have music playing for longer in the background or even a bit more sound effects to fill the dead airspace.”
optimization
25 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
56%
32%
Optimization in the game is currently a significant issue, with many players experiencing severe stuttering and major performance drops, especially in the late game as the base and crew expand. Despite using high-end PCs, users report frequent frame rate dips and glitches, indicating the game is not yet well-optimized. However, as an early access title, developers are actively working on improvements and performance enhancements.
- “The game runs smoothly.”
- “I have not encountered any performance issues so far (25 hours of play).”
- “It's fun to play and development is actively making it better and more optimized.”
- “I'm playing on an Intel Ultra 7 265KF and a 4070 Ti Super, and once I got my 4th or 5th plane with a few buildings down, the stuttering was insane.”
- “Having some really rough performance now as I progress through the game with around 100 crew; to the point I'm basically playing the game paused and anytime I want stuff to happen I accelerate the play speed and walk away (I'm playing at 4fps).”
- “It's in alpha, so there are some glitches for sure and performance really needs some attention - I dip to 16fps with a PC that's happy to sit at 75fps @1440p on max settings (without ray tracing) on CP2077.”
grinding
19 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
5%
11%
84%
Grinding in the game is often described as tedious and time-consuming, with resource gathering and farming feeling repetitive and sometimes frustrating due to mechanics like unusable bushes or micromanagement tasks. While some appreciate the strategic logistics, others find the focus on farming and cooking out of place for a WWII base-building game and consider the grind excessive. Overall, grinding detracts from the enjoyment for many players.
- “Starting from meager tents to hardened brick structures in a short time frame makes the game fun and not very grindy.”
- “The resource gathering has been done better in similar games; most of your workers' time seems to be spent farming, leaving little time for other tasks.”
- “It just feels tedious and boring to play, if I'm being totally honest.”
- “Spent the next five hours wondering what herb gathering, cooking, farming has to do with what was claimed to be a base building, WWII game.”
atmosphere
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
71%
29%
The game's atmosphere is consistently praised for its immersive and engaging qualities, enhanced by solid graphics, distinctive art style, and detailed sound design that evoke a strong sense of urgency and historical context. Despite minor bugs, the atmosphere effectively draws players into the WWII-themed setting, creating a unique and compelling experience that complements the strategic gameplay.
- “Love the game, gameplay loop is great, atmosphere on point, and the art very special, highly recommended!”
- “The sound design also adds to the atmosphere, with roaring engines, radio chatter, and distant anti-air sirens creating a sense of urgency.”
- “Even in its current state, it’s polished, engaging, and loaded with atmosphere.”
replayability
8 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
38%
24%
38%
Users generally find the game offers good replayability compared to similar titles, especially considering its early access status. While some note that replay value may diminish after extended play as the game can feel shallow or unfinished, ongoing updates are improving the overall experience.
- “As someone with thousands of hours in similar games, I can confidently say this one already has more replayability than most fully-released titles in the genre.”
- “Being early access, the game feels somewhat shallow though, for the price, it has a lot of replay value and entertainment.”
- “You can spend 20 or so hours in this game in its current form but after you learn the game replayability drops pretty fast.”
- “You can spend 20 or so hours in this game in its current form, but after you learn the game, replayability drops pretty fast.”
- “Being early access, the game feels somewhat shallow though, and for the price, it has a lot of replay value and entertainment.”
- “Since then, the devs have made really good progress updating the game, and now it's much more playable, but still clearly not finished.”
humor
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is described as intricate, charming, and surprisingly effective, adding a unique appeal. However, some users note that certain technical issues can lead to unexpected glitches that disrupt gameplay.
- “Intricate, charming and surprisingly humorous.”
emotional
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users find the game emotionally engaging due to its blend of base building and strategic elements, making it a unique and enjoyable experience that resonates on a deeper level often missed by other games.
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is acknowledged as a planned feature but is currently limited, with users noting that there is little to evaluate or recommend based on the present state.