Until recently, the gaming industry was not too fond of fans of online flight simulators, in which players could try their hand at battles against real opponents. The breakthrough took place several years ago, and several worthy games appeared on the market at once, which can compete for the title of masterpieces of the genre.
The most prominent among modern online flight simulators are two projects presented by domestic developers. They are the clear leaders of the list, are very similar in game model and have a huge following.
World of warplanes
One of the most anticipated games from the creators of the super popular tank simulator World of Tanks. It uses the same principles of the game and the same game engine, adapted to the characteristics of air, rather than ground combat.
The game is conditionally free, that is, it allows you to download the client and play without paying, but it has useful game content purchased for money, as well as premium accounts that allow you to get more experience and in-game currency for the battle.
World of Warplanes and World of Tanks accounts can be combined and receive in-game bonuses for this.
The arsenal of available equipment includes fighters, heavy fighters and attack aircraft of the countries participating in World War II, starting with the early models of the 30s. Despite the strong arcade component, the technique has realistic characteristics and is fully consistent with historical prototypes and their modifications.
War thunder
Another online flight simulator from domestic developers, whose portfolio includes the legendary Il-2 Sturmovik. The game follows the Free-to-Play model, the player needs to develop lines of equipment, earning in-game resources in battles. The time period is similar: from the technology of the beginning of World War II, to jet fighters during the Korean War.
Unlike World of Warplanes, War Thunder also has the possibility of a single player game with missions of various difficulty levels, as well as a PvE mode. In addition, player-controlled ground vehicles (already launched in beta test mode) also take part in the battles, and they promise to add a fleet in the near future. If all plans are implemented, then the battles promise to be extremely large-scale.
In one battle, a player can use different planes for sorties.
In addition to these two games, one cannot fail to mention a few more projects presented by the foreign gaming industry. It is difficult for them to compare with the two already named releases (at least in terms of the number of participants), but they should not be ignored either.
Other projects
Heroes in the Sky, which takes place in the same time frame as the previous two games. The player has access to the Allies and Axis vehicles from the Second World War, there are interesting online modes, as well as single missions.
The game Ace Online is somewhat out of the general list, as in it players fight on fantastic planes, rather than realistic models. The "simulator" component in it is not that great, but the game can be included in the list. Ace Online is an honorable old-timer, which means that the hardware requirements are not high and it can be easily run even on old computers. The Russian servers of the game were shut down a few years ago, but you can still play on foreign ones.
There are many other successful projects, but they are more designed for a single passage and, at best, have a corporate mode, so it will not be possible to fight with dozens of players at the same time.
