Previously I showed off a quick look at Naval boats (@asynckronism/war-thunder-part-2-boats) and Tanks. (@asynckronism/war-thunder-part-1-tanks) Today is planes!
The first type of planes you'll see on the tier list is Bi-planes, they're small low powered machine gun firing planes that are surprisingly fun to play! As you go further down there are propeller planes that start to vary and each of the countries quirks start to show with their planes. The types of planes are Interceptors, Fighters, Strike aircraft, and Bombers.
The end of the tier is jet planes and this is where the game makes a hard change, you start to dogfight against players you think might have flown the actual aircraft before, it's surprising the maneuvers that they can pull off and its especially impressive when they jink and now I'm the one having to pull off a maneuver to escape!
Some planes have Bombs, Rockets or torpedoes as the secondary weapons, you can also choose the type of ammo you fire, Universal, Tracer, Air targets, Ground targets, they all have their own advantages.
Tier 1 Bi-planes is always a hail of bullets from every direction with nobody really aiming and pilots just holding down mouse 1, It's a blast!
At the top left there is the Throttle, Speed, Altitude, Ammo on MG(Machine gun) and later CNN(Cannons), Fuel time, and temperature gauges.
On the bottom there is the plane status, it looks like my right flap took a hit.
There is also cockpit view which for Bi-planes is pretty cool with a scope.
'I have you now!'
There's always an opportunity for cool screenshots at tier 1. The only bad thing about holding down the fire button is that the weapon might jam.
If you run out of ammo or need to repair, the airstrip is there to land and restock.
Instead of feathering the brakes I accidentally held it down and my plane flipped. BUT it was still considered a successful landing! Rearm/repair begin!
Just like with Tanks and Boats you can look at the vehicle stats and check the vehicle out by moving the camera around in the main menu.
In mid tier, which is proper propeller planes, there are less players and everyone is spawned further apart as pilots are flying planes with specific roles.
now Cannons are in play and a few shots will cripple your planes
I was hit almost immediately after the previous photo and check out my plane status.
There is a hole in my wing and my tail has some pock marks in it!
Most pilots at mid tier love to joust, the act of going head on firing your weapons until you crash into each other. I was out of ammo and my plane was a wreck so there was not much I could do.
Finally here are some photos for jets. You'll see all types of crazy stunts pulled here and more serious players as the match count is smaller and the maps bigger to compensate for the amount of SPEED every one is going.
You might think this is an easy kill.
But now the difference that each country has for its planes really plays a part that you wouldn't have thought possible. He slowed down in a small window of time and turned while I sped past him trying to get him in my gun sights.
I crashed into the mountain trying to keep up with his angles.
Planes in War Thunder are not difficult to fly, in fact the game offers easy methods in the options which are all highly customizable, so don't feel intimidated if you've tried other flight simulators and they were too complex, War Thunder is meant for every type of controller/joystick/keyboard and mouse. There are also tutorials to do combat maneuvers that might save your bacon if you remember it in certain situations and plenty of players employ them in game.
The progression from beginning to middle for planes is fairly quick but getting into higher tiers and into jets turns into a slog and sometimes it feels like you're losing more than gaining even when you win, It's pretty rough. But flying a plane is the main attraction and doing all types of maneuvers that fit an airshow feels amazing and whenever I'm not queueing for a match I'll turn on some music and fly around in the training mode just to kill time and enjoy the mechanics that went into making this game.
As I've said before, War Thunder has a love/hate relationship with its community but you can not deny the amount of time and effort that went into this game and the care that each vehicle is given making sure its historically accurate before its released in game.
What are your thoughts on War Thunder? How does it compare to other vehicle simulators you've played? Let me know in the comments below!
Thank you for reading this three part series, It has been a blast finding the right screenshot and descriptions to tell the story I wanted to show.
Happy Gaming!