Combat Wings: Battle of Britain is a far cry from the usual heavily-technical and highly-complex titles arising from the overlap of the flying simulator enthusiast and the Second World War reinactment-gamer. Surprisingly, CW:BoB takes an almost arcade-like approach to the concept, simplifying much of the controls and mechanics down to just the right amount to become easily approachable to those without prior experience with ‘typical’ serious flying simulations without the gameplay becoming a glorified railshooter.
The gameplay itself follows the admittedly repetitive, albeit not boring, loop of sending your little squad of 40’s RAF stereotypes out to defend against an incoming swarms of enemy aircraft of increasing difficulty and intensity in fairly straightforward third-person K&B flying that does handle pretty well - with the occasional formula-break of having you man a turret either on the ground or on the rear of an AI plane a few times through the twenty-or-so stages in the story.
This story frames the simple campaign mode - there are fully voiced segments in between levels, as well as dialogue from your NPC allies during dogfighters featuring a surprisingly large cast of characters that are most likely just one or two voice actors putting on their hammiest English, Scottish, Polish, and German comedy accents to do in-flight banter. There is no real narrative per se, but this sort of thing really doesn’t need much in that department anyway when the actual gameplay remains enjoyable.
Even if you’re not usually a big fan of flying games or aerial combat, maybe give this one a go.
