Iron Wings

About

"Iron Wings" is an arcade-action WWII air combat game where players assume the role of two pilots, Jack and Amelia, tasked with taking down Nazi aerial forces. The game features a rich campaign of missions with various objectives and enemies, requiring both fast-paced action and strategy in assigning primary targets. Players can control both planes and use extra tools like Chaffs, Magnetron, and Photo Camera to complete missions, making it a flying shooter with tactical elements.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

+18

43%

Audience ScoreBased on 53 reviews

story14 positive mentions

gameplay6 negative mentions

The graphics are impressive and provide a visually appealing experience.
The game features a unique story that combines historical elements with fictional characters, offering an interesting narrative.
The developers have shown responsiveness to player feedback, improving joystick support and addressing bugs.

The game is largely unplayable without a controller, as keyboard and mouse support is severely limited and controls cannot be customized.
Many missions have frustrating time limits that detract from the overall enjoyment and challenge of the game.
There are numerous bugs and technical issues, including crashes and graphical glitches, which significantly hinder gameplay.

story
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
76%
5%
The story in the game has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its unique take on WWII and the character-driven narrative, particularly the love story between Jack and Amelia. However, many others criticize the execution, citing uninteresting characters, poor dialogue, and frustrating mission design, especially with arbitrary timers that detract from the overall experience. While some find the story engaging and the missions varied, others feel that the narrative elements are overshadowed by gameplay issues and technical problems.
- “Jack and Amelia's extraordinary love story is doubled by an equally intriguing main plotline in Iron Wings.”
- “For a genre that seems to be all played out, the team managed to put a unique twist on the concept, story, and even the arcade-style gameplay, creating something that is ultimately pretty cool.”
- “They aren't playing it for laughs or trying to be absurd; this game really thinks the story is going to pull at your heartstrings.”
- “But the story, dialogue, voice acting, cut scenes, missions... basically anything on the non-graphical artistic side... are so bad as to be distracting.”
- “I've been trying to discover if this is an English translation of a Japanese game or something, because the difference in quality between the gameplay and the story is stark in a way I think I've never seen before.”
gameplay
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
54%
25%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some praising its unique mechanics and smooth execution, while others criticize the flight mechanics as frustrating and prone to causing motion sickness. Players noted issues with repetitive cutscenes, tedious objectives, and AI incompetence, leading to a lack of enjoyment in certain aspects. Overall, while there are interesting ideas and potential, the execution leaves much to be desired, resulting in a gameplay experience that varies significantly in quality.
- “Well optimized and smooth gameplay.”
- “An interesting gameplay mechanic revolves around the switch between Jack’s dogfighting-oriented planes to Amelia’s dive bombing tactics, on the fly.”
- “For a genre that seems to be all played out, the team managed to put a unique twist on the concept, story, and even the arcade-style gameplay, creating something that is ultimately pretty cool.”
- “High potential game clearly not used anywhere near its max. Decent graphics could be improved, but the flight mechanics of the game... well, I'll just say hope you are not affected by motion sickness or anything alike.”
- “Hope you have a lot of patience because you'll be stopped every 2 minutes for 'assistance' and constantly have to go back and forth for one objective. As mentioned above, the flight mechanics in the game are so dodgy, added with the tracking mechanic that stops you from flying properly altogether.”
- “The gameplay is tedious, and it just isn't fun.”
graphics
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
36%
14%
The graphics of the game have received generally positive feedback, with many users praising the impressive visuals and high performance, particularly for an indie title. However, some criticisms include limited graphic options, occasional modeling issues, and instances of graphic corruption. Overall, while the graphics are considered beautiful and well-executed, there are areas for improvement, particularly in customization and consistency.
- “Impressive visuals.”
- “The graphics are pretty impressive for an indie and are on par with Assault Horizon.”
- “Terrific graphics - really first rate.”
- “Con: extremely limited graphic options, lack of fullscreen support (only supports either few or none of your resolutions).”
- “High potential game clearly not used anywhere near its max, decent graphics could be improved but the flight mechanics of the game... well, I'll just say hope you are not affected by motion sickness or anything alike.”
- “Unplayable graphic corruption totally.”
music
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
17%
50%
The music in the game is generally described as nice and uplifting, contributing positively to the overall mood. While some players found the soundtrack decent, others noted that it was forgettable compared to the character audio, which was criticized for being a weak point despite strong voice acting. The inclusion of separate volume controls for music, voice, and sound effects was appreciated.
- “Music and general mood are optimistic and uplifting.”
- “The voice acting was spot-on and the soundtrack was more than decent.”
- “I can't even remember the music, but the character audio is a weak point of the game, which is a shame since the two main characters talk so much!”
- “Music: I don't care.”
- “Three separate volume controls for music, voice, and sound effects.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in "Iron Wings" is described as a mix of unintentional hilarity and serious tone, with its alternate history providing comedic elements despite the game's earnest approach. While the arcade mode is noted for its fun, the imposition of a strict time limit detracts from the overall comedic experience.
- “Iron Wings nearly lands on the so bad, it's hilarious scale.”
- “The alternate history this game presents is hilarious, but it's being played so straight and serious.”
- “The arcade mode is very funny indeed!”
optimization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization has been criticized, with users reporting significant performance issues, particularly on lower-end hardware like the GTX 950m, which forces them to run the game in windowed mode and at lower resolutions. Additionally, even players with higher-end graphics cards, such as the GTX 1080, have experienced similar performance problems, indicating widespread optimization challenges.
- “Bad optimization; I have to run the game in windowed mode and at a lower resolution on my GTX 950M. I can't go fullscreen or 1080p.”
- “It's pretty common to see complaints about the game being broken from NVIDIA users on Steam, as well as performance issues from people with 1080 cards.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game demonstrates strong stability, with well-developed cutscenes and effects indicating thorough testing and refinement. Previous launch issues such as poor controls, lag, and glitches have been effectively resolved, resulting in a smoother gameplay experience.
- “Quality cutscenes, textures, effects (hope you’re a fan of chromatic aberration/'purple fringing' as much as I am), all spell out the fact that this game has been developed and tested over sufficient time, in order to iron out any glitches or bugs.”
- “Just be aware that many of the former issues this game has had at launch (shoddy controls, lag, and glitches) are now long gone.”
grinding
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
300%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and unenjoyable, detracting from the overall experience.
- “The gameplay is tedious, and it just isn't fun.”
- “Grinding feels like a chore rather than an enjoyable part of the game.”
- “I spent hours doing the same tasks over and over, and it became incredibly boring.”