If you are anything like me, you grewup obsessed with aircraft and pilots who flew them. For me thefascination was always a toss-up between the aces of the great war andthose who defended the British skies in 1940.

With no warbird to fly myself, I of course turned to combat flightsimulators and cut my teeth as a 13-year-old on a little game calledRed Baron 3D in the little office of my friend's house, who happenedto live across the road from Biggin Hill airfield in Kent.

I've been playing flight sims ever since we used to spend all nightgaming and keeping my friend's dad up as teenagers. Now I use thesegames as the backdrop to a growing aviation history channel on YouTube(You can check it out here).

If you love the history and aircraft of the Battle of Britain,you'll know that there haven't been too many flights sims which caterto that period. You'll be happy to hear that one company called OBDSoftware has produced possibly the best single player sim for Battleof Britain buffs on the market.

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been firing up my copy of Wingsover the Reich and indulging my inner 13-year-old to get my Battle ofBritain fix.

What Is Wings Over The Reich?

Wings Over The Reich (WOTR) is another game from the team behindWings Over Flanders Fields, which is also a great WW1 based game.

WOTR is set to be a modular based sim, which is becoming the normin the industry, and will include additional theaters and periods fromWW2 in the future. The first module is focused on the Battle ofBritain.

Another focus of the WOTR system is single playerimmersion. Although logging on to a server and fighting a real humancan be awesome, most of the other games I like to play have sparselypopulated servers. What's more, most of these other games don't offermuch in the form of single player campaigns.

With WOTR, you don't have to wait for peak times to play or waitfor a human wingman to watch your tail.

Game Installation

As is the norm nowadays, you will have to install the game via adownload link sent to you after your purchase. I initially had anissue downloading the game, but then just had to click on analternative download location and everything loaded up fine.

A word of warning. Make sure that you keep a copy of the zip fileor game files somewhere safe on your computer. The link you are sentwill become invalid after a short period (a couple of weeks I believe)and after that you'll have to pay an additional fee to reactivate it.

Game Setup

I have to admit, when it comes to my games, I don't have thesharpest CPU in the box, and I usually just whack everything up ashigh as it will go and pray the game runs. For me, there was no issuedoing this in WOTR and I only run an RTX 2070 Super.

What I did have a little issue with, was the controller setup,which I think was more my issue than one with the actual game.

I have a very DIY home cockpit or Simpit. I've combined a number of3D printed Spitfire controls, offered for free by Phil Hulme thefounder of AuthentiKit.

I also have a separate Pro Flight Cessna trim wheel, Saitek rudderpedals and a couple of generic controllers I've converted into abutton box.

Annoyingly, WOTR will bind a lot of your axis controls to the samecontrols in the game. It took me a while to figure this out but afterdeleting everything and starting again, I had most of the basic flightcontrols set up.

I really struggled to get my Pro Flight Cessna flight sim trimwheel to register with the game and my genetic controller button boxseemed to confuse the heck out of the software.

At the end of the day, this wasn't a massive problem as my simpitis really geared towards VR where I have to feel for the right buttonor control.

With me being in front of the monitor I could rely more on keyboardcommands. That being said, it did take a little something away from myfeeling of immersion.

Graphics

In terms of the aesthetics within the game, there is no pointbeating around the bush. If you are coming from the Il2 SturmovikForgotten Battle series, War Thunder or MSFS 2020, you are going tohave to accept that this game just ain't as pretty.

That isn't to say it looks terrible at all, it's just that youwon't have the cockpit reflections and degree of aesthetic detail tothe game as a whole.

Once you get over that, you will start to appreciate just how nicethe game looks. The countryside looks authentic, clouds seem quiterealistic and the aircraft themselves are done to a high standard.

However, I do feel that the immersion here doesn't come from whatyou can see but rather how it feels when you play the game.

Head Tracking

For me as an avid flight simmer, the key element of an immersivesim is head tracking. I cannot remember the last time I've had topress a key to turn my head in a game. So, you can be safe in theknowledge that WOTR works perfectly with head tracking software.

I actually had to dig out my old TrackIR camera and Pro clip forthis game. For the last couple of years, I've gone completely VR, andit took me a good couple of flights to get used to it.

As a VR simmer, I do wish that every game had VR support, but Istill found it enjoyable to fly in WOTR without it.

Flight Model

In terms of the flying experience in WOTR, I felt it was justfine. I felt that basic flight maneuvers felt fairly natural, andcombat could be quite fun.

Landings and takeoffs are very easy in this game, and you won'thave the same issues you might have with games like DCS.

The aircraft models seem to be very forgiving and the stallcharacteristics for landing won't bite you like they would in othergames. I was able to glide and flare my landings at 75 MPH very easilyfor most planes in the game.

That being said, the overall feeling was different to when I jumpinto IL2 Forgotten Battles or MSFS 2020. I felt that I could getbetter input control on these games, but this could very well be downto a setting I wasn't aware of which adapted the input sensitivity.

I had quite a time keeping the aircraft centered, and I haven'tbeen able to figure out if that is an issue with my inputs or an issuewith the animation of the flight controls. Most of the time the turnindicator would be right over to the right and when corrected, itdidn't always respond in the way I would have expected. Often when Ihad the turn indicator centered, it would suddenly overcorrect itself.

As I said, I couldn't be sure without chatting to another simmer ifthat was just my old rudder pedals or the flight model itself. I justdon't have the same issue with the other sims I play regularly.

What I did discover later was that there is a trim auto-correctfeature you can turn on or off. It solved the issue I had but meantthat I couldn't play 'full real' as I would normally want to do.

Damage Model

I found the damage model for the game to be pretty immersive butprobably not that realistic.

What I mean by this, is that when you are attacking an enemyaircraft, you can see your hits (usually more smoke than bulletflashes) and when you are hit you will see damage in the cockpit andwings.

Wings seemed to come off at the right time and there are some nicecockpit animations when your pilot gets hit. What I didn't think was100% accurate was the speed at which a fuel leak would empty yourreservoir.

When you have a dead stick and need to make a belly landing, youcan definitely do it in WOTR. The first couple of times I tried, Ithought that the game didn't account for these types of emergencies asthey all ended in a fireball. However, if you come in at the rightspeed and don't hit trees or fences, you can make a decent wheels uplanding.

Gameplay

As I've mentioned previously, WOTR is predominantly focused on thesingle player campaign. However, you can also fly quick combat, whichputs you right in the action, and quick missions which allow you tochop and change between phases of the battle.

What I thought was a nice touch, was the fact that if your playerdies in one of these missions it can also kill him in yourcampaign. So, in order to fly in the game, you need to recruityourself a pilot.

You're given a lot of choice about who your pilot will be, as youcan choose to have one randomly assigned or you can customize apilot. The module I played is entirely focused on the Battle ofBritain, so you can choose which phase of that battle you want tobegin in. There isn't a full list of Battle of Britain squadrons foreither the British or Germans, but there is enough choice.

Once your pilot is selected and assigned to a squadron, you canname him and input his place and date of birth as well as selecting aphoto.

When in the campaign menu, you have access to all of the squadroninformation and can fly missions assigned to you. You can do this inreal time, as in wait until the next mission comes in, or you can jumpto the next action in the campaign.

Once a mission is ready, you go into the duty room which will giveyou as much information about the raid or sortie as possible. You canthen change your loadout, amount of fuel and ammo, and choose whetherto fly or not.

The entire campaign system works in real time so you can't comeback and fly the same mission again later, it's now or never.

Aircraft Choice

Seeing as this game is currently catering for the Battle of Britainaficionados, there isn't a great deal of choice in aircraft to beginwith. WOTR gives you slightly less.

You can choose to fly either as the RAF Fighter Command or theLuftwaffe - tough luck if you want to fly for Il Duce!

It's now possible to fly both the Hawker Hurricane and theSupermarine Spitfire, but the latter is only available afterinstalling a free update. Currently there is only one variant of eachof the British fighters available, so if you are coming from Cliffs ofDover, you will be a little disappointed.

On the German side, you are only let loose on the BF 109, with theBF110 being AI only. Again, there is only one variant of the 109 onstrength.

In terms of AI, you can fight against the following German aircraft:

• BF 110
• Dornier Do 17-Z
• Heinkel He 111
• Junkers Ju 87
• Junkers Ju 88

At the time of writing, there are no British bomber aircraft, butthe Bristol Blenheim is being developed for the game, probably as apaid upgrade, hopefully as a free update.

Things I Liked and Things I Liked a Little Less

I think by now you've got a good idea of what the game has to offerand perhaps some things that you may just need to accept as being notincluded.

I also wanted to highlight the list of aspects to the game that Ithought were really enjoyable and those that I thought could beimproved.

Things I liked:

Atmospheric Immersion is Great

While playing the game, you really do get a sense that you are on asortie in 1940. There is certainly a feeling of anticipation as youmeet with the enemy and the radio chatter is great.

The inner historian within me was thinking, the CO is going to chewthat guy out for blocking the airways, but the enthusiastic AI radiocalls heighted the feeling of combat for me.

Kill Claims

This is really one of the excellent parts of this game. You mightspend 30 minutes trying to get onto an enemy's tail, shoot him downand then come home to be denied the kill because nobody witnessedit. This was a feature which made the previous release from thiscompany, WOFF, really immersive too.

Mission Diversity

One of the biggest failings of most combat flight sims nowadays isthat their campaigns are so repetitive. In IL2 Forgotten Battles Ifeel that you go to the same locations, do the same patrols and meetthe same strength of the enemy. I didn't get that feeling withWOTR. What's more, your pilot follows and records your progress fromone mission to another, also unlike many contemporary games.

AI Pilot Skill - Both Friendly and Enemy

Usually flying against an AI enemy often leaves you feeling like agod because they are so easy to down or frustrated because they justwon't fight. The AI enemy in WOTR left me feeling like a green fighterpilot just out of training, they were that aggressive and tricky tobeat.

The same could be said for your wingmen. I felt that theyco-operated well within the flight and this led to the feeling ofimmersion.

Scenery - OK

As I mentioned before, once I got over the expectation for thegraphics I'm used to in other titles, I started to really appreciatethe external scenery. It feels like you are flying over southernEngland. Perhaps it's not the photorealism of MSFS, but it's goodenough.

Damage Graphics

When you are hit by an unseen enemy, you see things flying allaround you and then suddenly your screen is covered with blood andoil. Although it might not be 100% realistic, it tricked my brain intothinking I was in real danger. This is why I fly these games, to liveout my fantasies of being a WW2 pilot.

Crash Landings

As I mentioned before, the fact that you can execute a crashlanding and actually survive it without some disappointing crashscreen or automatic explosion was nice.

There might not be quite the same level of modeling for damageafter such crashes as with other titles, but it was good enough forme.

RDF

One of the most immersive elements of WOTR is the RDF feature theBritish have. When you are the flight leader, you can activatevectoring from the ground onto targets. Unlike other games, such asCliffs of Dover, you will only be vectored onto targets you canactually reach.

I played around with this feature quite a bit and it worked everysingle time, just follow the instructions and you'll find a nicelittle target to engage.

Things Which Could Be Improved:

Parachute Animation

I felt that the parachute animation, at least from the perspectiveof the attacker, was a little bit weak. Just from my experience, itfelt that the parachutes just appeared out of thin air. In most othergames I play, you can clearly see a canopy pop, the aircrew bail outand then a parachute deploy.

Not A Simulator

I would definitely categorize WOTR as a game rather than a flightsimulator. This isn't a negative thing in the least, it just means youneed to approach it as such.

For the last 15 years at least, I've always tried to play flightsims in 'full real', meaning that I rely on only the cockpit view andthe flight instruments available. You can do this for the most part inWOTR, but you would struggle to switch off the game HUD and all itsadditional information. I'll go into a few reasons why.

Not Everything Is Animated in the Cockpit

I nearly drove myself crazy during one afternoon before I realizedthat not everything in the cockpit was animated.

I was in the Hurricane and trying to set up radiator controls (if Iremember correctly). I thought the button wasn't being bound properlyuntil I realized that the radiator indicator didn't move in thecockpit. I only realized this because I had the game HUD up whichshowed me a changing percentage.

There are plenty of other knobs, levers and indicators which aren'tanimated which, for me at least, makes this more of an arcade sim thana true flight sim.

Spitfire Bug - Trim Control

Along the same lines as the Hurricane radiator indicator, I wasgetting pretty frustrated with my trim control. I could see that myCessna trim wheel was definitely being seen by the game and was evenshowing a change in the raw data.

To test if it was actually working because I naturally forget tolook at the HUD information after years of not using it, I thought I'djump in the Spitfire. The Spit has a handy elevator trim gauge on thedashboard. It didn't seem to change when I spun the trim wheel, but itwas moving during flight.

After some testing, I figured out that when I dove the aircraft,the elevator trim indicator would show 'nose down'. When I climbed itwould show 'nose up'. Either this is a bug within the game, or somedesigner didn't do his homework!

Flight Model - Stall Speeds

Although I think the flight model is just fine for the game, I dofeel that it's different to what I'm used to. I fly the Hurricane andSpitfire in other games and the stall speeds, especially for landing,felt just a little too forgiving to be realistic.

I don't think this would stop me playing the game, but I might bein trouble if I got too used to it and switched back to DCS orIL2.

Exit Control - Not Used To It

A pet peeve for me, and perhaps it's just me, is that the basicgame interface buttons felt very weird. What I mean by that iswhenever I wanted to exit a flight, I'd always pause the game insteadas the escape key was bound to pause.

Not a huge issue I know, but I'm pretty sure every other game inthe industry used similar key bindings for things like this. Justsomething I huffed about but didn't get in the way of my enjoyment toomuch.

Conclusion

There are plenty of things to enjoy while flying WOTR, one examplebeing the excellent gameplay. However, when it comes to graphics andflight model, it can't really compare to more modern alternatives.

I absolutely loved the complexity and immersion factor of thesingle player campaign. I feel that the limited aircraft option fitsthe time period well, and there is something for everyone (exceptperhaps bomber pilots).

I have a feeling that many of the things I found troubling, likethe lack of cockpit animation, will probably be addressed as the gameevolves in the future. So, if you want to really jump into aHurricane, Spitfire or BF 109 to see if you'd survive in the Battle ofBritain, this is the game to do it in.

Author Bio

Phil Hawes is a long time flight simmer and a qualified generalaviation pilot who has played most of the WW1 and WW2 titles whichhave come out in the last 20 years. He runs Caliban Rising, anaviation history based YouTube channel animated by using many of thegames that he loves to play.

Phil Hawes (Caliban Rising)

Youtube Channel

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