Great game overall! Graphics & sound is exceptionally well done. Low cost and the multiplayer? There is NO grind, no in-game buying, no pay 2 win! I like that philosophy, everyone is equal to each other — skill first, I give this a solid 9/10 rating. Would love to play it more however if you have a flaky Internet connection, you WILL be frustrated continually as firing at enemy planes will have little effect seemingly due to lag. So now I’m using a fast mobile connection that fixes the issue, but is helluva expensive. By the way, concentrating on Asian region only is very unusual for me, so an extra plus for that :3

I hadn't realised I missed this type of game quite so much until I started playing this.

Lovely, evocative visuals (with some gorgeous optional filters for that "vintage" look if you so desire), brilliantly booming sound effects and an anachronistic but strangely appropriate soundtrack all combine to make what is pretty much Ace Combat: WWII Edition.

It would be nice to have a bit more personality in the campaign in the form of more named characters/wingmen a la Strike Commander/Pacific Strike, but the campaign itself is suitably atmospheric and strikes a good balance between "I'M FLYING A PLANE!" joy and the sheer terror of machine gun bullets rattling around your ears as you struggle to shake off a bandit on your six.

The package is rounded out nicely with some fun challenge modes with online leaderboards and a multiplayer component (which I'm yet to try at the time of writing), making this altogether one of the most competent, polished Early Access titles I've had the pleasure of checking out to date. Will be very interested to see what the devs have in store for the updates leading up to 1.0.

This game sure has potential. But it is still a bit buggy. Random crashes for me. But the feel is there, and i can see this being great if all the bugs get sorted out. The multiplayer lobby is alays empty, and thats a shame, becouse this is where the game will shine!!!

I hope this game gets completed, and that more people join. Im bying this for a friend now. :-)

For a fairly cheap price you get acccess to a fun ww2 Arcade style airplane shooter. I want to stress here that this is very much reminisent of the old xbox/PS console flying games, and I wouldnt recommend this game without having a controller.

If you loved the old acade style airplane games then this is a must buy as it takes me back to the good old days, where you can shoot wave after wave of enemy planes out of the sky with the typical corny english/ American accents detailing all the trouble about you.

For its price its offering a decent sized single player campaign and skirmish modes. However Taking into accout this is an early access game but currently No one is playing multiplayer hopefully the community will build in time.

So in conclusion a fantastic arcade style game, loads of fun to be had, plz dont consider this however if you are after a simulator.

7/10

The game would be highly enjoyable.
Unfortunately after the early missions in the campaign mode there are audio isues that still after several months the developers have not yet fixed.
Also, not being able to save the game during a mission forces to restart it all over again: if getting stuck somewhere happens, good luck going ahead. This impairs the game greatly because, independently from the outcome of the mission (unless death happens) choice should have been given to go ahead or start all over.

My grandfather was an RAF pilot in Burma. I let him play this game, he was amazed.

Flying Tigers: Shadows over China is an arcade dogfighting game set during WWII in China, Burma and India. The 1st American Volunteer Group, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, were a group of US pilots who fought for China during WWII. The game itself is based around this group and the campaign missions are based on real operations that took place during the War. The two factions in the game are the Allies and the Japanese, currently the campaign only lets you fly Ally aircraft but you can fly Japanese aircraft in the other game modes.


Flying Tigers is, overall, a good looking game. The graphics aren’t exactly cutting edge and some of the ground textures aren’t brilliant but they get the job done and they do it well. All of the aircraft models look good and, to my eye, look reasonably realistic. For the most part, visual effects are good, I particularly like how bullets actually leave holes in the aircraft. The only visual effect that I thought was sub-par was rain, it doesn’t really fit with the overall look of the game and missions where it’s raining seem to look worse, graphically, than other missions. As for menus and the user interface they’re both very good. The menu is simple and easy to navigate while the UI is useful as well as fully customisable in the sense that anything can be turned on or off as you please.


Flying Tigers features several different ways to play both online and offline. Up first we have the campaign I briefly mentioned earlier, the missions here are all based on real operations during the war but there’s no real storyline to it, each mission is effectively standalone. Currently there are eight missions to play with the rest being released as the game progresses through development. Next we have the offline Dogfighting mode, this mode allows you to choose any aircraft in the game (apart from bombers) to fly and then allows you to choose how many aircraft you want to fight and what type of aircraft you want to fight (currently you can’t pick a selection) as well as what map and weather conditions you want. Similarly to Dogfight there’s the challenge mode, currently there are only two challenges available but these have you destroy as many enemy aircraft you can with a certain aircraft before you’re shot down. The last offline game mode is free flight, the name says it all for this one really. All of the offline game modes have two difficulty levels (Rookie and Normal) with a Hard mode coming later in development. Last, and currently least, we have Online battles featuring up to 16 players, unfortunately the multiplayer seems to be completely dead, only one server came up on the server browser and it was completely empty. Fingers crossed multiplayer will be become more active as the game progresses and more people buy into the game.

Flying Tigers is very much an arcade dogfighting experience. Obviously the game is centred on air-air combat but there are also ground and naval targets in some of the missions. I must say, combat is a lot of fun, especially when you’re chasing enemies while being chased yourself. All of the aircraft feature at least one forward facing gun and some have backwards facing guns controlled by AI apart from some scripted events. As well as guns there are also bombs and torpedoes used by some of the aircraft to take out the ground and naval targets I mentioned. The main reason this game is more towards the arcade side of things rather than simulation is due to the game’s controls. It’s also an arcade game due to a slow motion ability that you can use (and recharge as it doesn’t last forever) during combat, I had a lot of fun messing around with this ability and it does also make it easier to hit targets which frequently comes in handy.


The first thing worth mentioning is that you’re given a hell of a lot of choice in the game for input devices. You can either play with: just a mouse, a keyboard and mouse, a gamepad and even a flight stick/HOTAS setup. The main thing which makes this game so much of an arcade game, which I personally don’t like, is the limitations in terms of aircraft manoeuvrability. You can’t bank the plane more than 90° manoeuvres that you can do in other games. The devs have explained that this limitation is there due to limitations with the camera and also to stop us “fiddling with controls unnecessarily” (whatever that means) but the devs have said we may see these limitations removed at some point in the future so fingers crossed. With the most recent update one of these limitations has been removed from the game hence I’ve removed it from my review, hopefully the other one will go too. Other than that issue the controls are great, the planes all feel as responsive as they should (obviously a large bomber is less responsive than a small fighter aircraft).


Audio is largely very good in Flying Tigers. The sound effects are all very high quality and make the aircraft sound somewhat real. The game’s sound track is good and fits well with the game, definitely gives it an action film kind of feel. Lastly the voice acting in the game is all done reasonably well though there were a couple of times where I was left wondering if the correct accent was used. One thing worth mentioning is that not all of the dialogue lines for the missions are in the game yet since it’s still in Early Access but I imagine these will be added in later updates.

• The game has already received several different updates and the devs are active on the forums which is nice to see
  
• There are already quite a few different aircraft for both factions with more coming soon
  
• The game already has nine different maps, each with several different weather conditions, with more coming soon
  
• Most aircraft have different paint jobs to choose from though you can’t choose different paint jobs during the campaign (due to the devs wanting to keep the game historically accurate)

If you’d like to see an offline Dogfight, check out my gameplay video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sZpZIPumk0


Worth Purchasing.

Flying Tigers is a great arcade dogfighting game with good graphics, quite a few different aircraft and plenty of content already. If you enjoy dogfighting games there’s no question you’ll enjoy this one too and it’s only going to get better as it progresses through Early Access.

Review Copy Provided.

No drama, Just Reviews.

El K.

Pros:

Fun gameplay even for someone who hasn't played much flying games before! Really action packed
Runs well (I get above 60 fps on a gtx 680)
Full campaign with varied missions. Also Multiplayer!

Dialogue is fully voiced and actors' accents are nice
If you are bad(don't get kill etc), some objectives change to different ones
Nice aesthetics, pretty good graphics
Soundtrack is on point!

Neutral:

It's not really simulation, despite the tags, more like arcade type game!
Multiplayer does not have much players, so play with friends.

Cons:

Rain effects are harsh on your fps at the moment. So some optimization on rain is needed. It's not on every map so that's good :)

KB+Mouse controls can be quite hard, so using some other input could be better, but no needed.

OVERALL:

This could be very well finished game, does not feel like early access. Some polishing on rain effects, and done.
If you like this genre, this is quite good game, just don't expect simulation.

I`m a bit confused about this one, recently I had huge desire to play games like this so when i`ve found it i had to got it instantly.
Graphics looks nice 8/10
Sound is nothing special but there is nothing bad about it to, i would say it`s ok.
And what makes me a bit confused is gameplay itself. Dont get me wrong i really enjoy it. But those controls... I dont know but it feel really awkward for some reason. Maybe it`s just me but I cannot get past that feeling that even for arcade flight game like this you need to use Joystick of some sort, somehow mouse control is sluggish with this under and over sensitive feeling at the same time regardless of how you will set it up in game options.
Maybe I need more time to get use to it but i think that it should be more user friendly.
Also game has very little to offer in term of settings.

And yet again guys dont get me wrong, if you like arcade flight games you should definitely pick this one up to support devs in there efforts to make their game better and better. I`m sure you will like it.

FLYING TIGERS: SHADOWS OVER CHINA is an Early Access indie flight simulator taking place in World War II.
If this review is too long for you, I suggest you to only read the first paragraph about the game's content and the final verdict at the end.

You are in control of a plane, air combating above Asia. You can fly in multiple territories and there is also a variety of planes to choose from. Your task is simple: destroy the enemies. Sometimes they're on the ground, sometimes in the air.

• Graphics | This game looks amazing. The plane models look realistic and the environment is beautiful, too. Water also looks way nice that expected. Regarding animations, I was impressed with explosions that bombs cause.
  
• Weapons | Different weapons are attached to your plane. You can fire a machine gun, rockets, and drop bombs. I like how you're not limited with a ridiculously small amount of ammo, but you have unlimited quantities of it. You only need to be careful not to overheat your machine gun. Bombs and rockets regenerate themselves after some wait.
  
• Missions | There are 12 missions included into the campaign. They all include cutscenes, that are voice acted, and some story. Apart from missions, there are also game modes like Time Trial and a "free flying" mode.
  
• Performance | Based on how this game looks, you would assume that it uses a lot of system resources, but it really doesn't. The game runs just fine even on high details and shadows.
  
• Soundtrack | In my opinion, the soundtrack is just awesome. I spent a few minutes on the credits screen just so I could listen to the music without any game sounds. Then, I figured out that there is a soundtrack DLC available on Steam :P
  
• Controls | I confess: I suck at flight simulators. But this game really makes it easy for everyone to maneuver their planes like a pro, if they only spend some time in game practicing. There are a lot of shortcuts on the keyboard that are really useful, like side-flips and rear view.
  
• Steam Integration | This game has Achievements, Trading Cards, Leaderboards and Cloud support. Just as it should be.

• Lack of Multiplayer Players | Well, I rarely ever came across another player on the multiplayer servers, which is really a shame. But I really love the campaign, so there's not real damage for me. I know that some people prefer multiplayer, though, so do keep this paragraph in mind if you're one of those people.
  
• No Linux/MacOS Support | Sadly, you can only run this game on Windows. Games are paying attention to alternative operating systems nowadays so it's a shame that this game isn't one of those.
  
• Controls | I was a bit unsure if I should put this in or not, since I already mentioned that controls are, in my opinion, good. But there seem to be some people who generally like the controls, but do not like the way this game plays with a mouse. On the other hand, I loved flying with my mouse, so I guess this is just a thing you can get used to.

The game looks great, plays great and sounds great. Since it's only in Early Access, I'm quite happy with the content it's currently offering. Although I'm not used to flying, I found it quite enjoyable in this game. There are 12 campaign for you to complete and, if you get bored, there are also free flying, time trial and other modes. Most people, me included, have noticed that this game runs great on most computers, which is definitely a plus.
If you're into flying simulators or war games, definitely consider buying this game!

Greetings,
BirdCute

Note that my copy of this game was obtained for free for reviewing purposes. However, this did not affect the quality and objectivity of this review.