I appreciate the depth and detail of WoWP’s between-battle R&D component, even though keeping enough credits pouring in to make use of it takes constant play.

I was also impressed that lag issues never reared their ugly heads in any of my online dustups.

Thankfully, the Wargaming servers are efficient enough to get you back flying again in mere minutes, or you can stay in a game as a spectator and observe how your team’s doing without you. WoWP has only a cursory private lobby setup, so you’re largely at the mercy of the matchmaking gods when it comes to finding quality opponents on the public lobbies. That’s a frustrating early exits for serious-minded aviators. Sadly, not everyone got the memo about learning the maneuvers – as always, there are a number of online yahoos who prefer to ram opponents rather than dogfight them. As unbalanced as that seems, the slower biplane can turn twice as rapidly as the speedier Fw 57 so, if you fly it well, you can often stay alive long enough to move on and pair off with someone your own size. Wargaming’s matchmaking system regularly mixes up different tiers from its crowded pool of players (hundreds were queued up every time I played), so you may find yourself squaring off against a twin-engine Focke-Wulf Fw 57 in your canvas-winged Polikarpov I-15. What this means for us is a stable and semi-level playing field that rewards those with a clear understanding of basic fighter maneuvers (BFM) concepts. WoWP doesn’t pretend to offer an accurate simulation of these warplanes in battle, but it does imbue each machine with a speed, maneuverability, and hitpoint value that’s loosely consistent with its real-world counterpart. Each aircraft brings its own strengths and weaknesses: older tier I biplanes are mostly underpowered, undergunned, and fragile while higher-tier (II up to X) fighters, heavy fighters, and ground-attack planes boast an appropriate upgrade of armor, speed, and firepower. You can take to the skies in any plane you’ve earned and indulge in intense, 10-minute online dust-ups that support up to 15 players per side. WoWP takes off with an impressive hangar of over a hundred golden age warbirds, ranging from pre-WWII biplanes to late ‘40s jets.

Warplanes ww2 dogfight review