14 DAY TRIAL // 
Flight simulators can be quite hard to get into, as inexperienced players will have to pay attention to all sorts of settings, inputs, and figure out tricky controls, even when using a dedicated controller.
Fortunately for the less experienced, there are still a few arcade flight games around, with the most recent being Air Conflicts: Vietnam from developer Games Farm and publisher bitComposer Entertainment.
Promising to deliver an easy to figure out flight experience that's set during the Vietnam War, with a variety of period-appropriate jets and helicopters, the game is looking set to be an impressive experience.
Does it deliver a great time or should it land somewhere else? Let's find out.
Air Conflicts: Vietnam has a single-player story that focuses on American pilot Joe Thompson, who goes off to fight in the Vietnam War by piloting both jets and helicopters during all sorts of famous and infamous missions.
In between these assignments, there are a few story moments, but these mostly contain monologs from inside Thompson's head and letters he receives from his family back in the U.S. While its delivery isn't the most interesting, the story does follow Thompson's journey from an idealist who wants to stop Communism to a cynic who begins to see just how the war is devastating the beautiful country.
The game doesn't shy away from infamous missions, such as the defoliation missions that saw the U.S. spray herbicides like Agent Orange or Purple in Vietnamese forests to destroy the trees and ruin the cover of VietCong forces who were using the environment to their advantage.
In terms of actual gameplay, Air Conflicts: Vietnam is pretty decent, managing to deliver its goal of an arcade flight experience. Planes and helicopters are controlled rather easily by using the mouse and a few buttons from the keyboard.
While the game won't meet the expectations of simulator purists who want to really feel like they're piloting a plane, it does a decent job of putting you in the shoes of a fighter or helicopter pilot and even features a cockpit view.
In terms of jets, players can select from different models from that era, like the F-105 Thunderchief, while famous helicopters like the Huey, Cobra, or Chinook are also featured. In some cases players can even choose the loadout of the machines, ranging from air-to-air missiles like the Sidewinder, to regular dumb bombs that are just dropped onto targets.
Shooting these missiles or using the regular canons is a bit tricky; however, as while the target will lock on rather easily, different other factors, like you movement speed and angles, will usually result in you missing most of the time.
Missions aren't that varied, unfortunately, as they mostly involve Thompson leading a squadron of jets or helicopters into an area to complete different objectives while being on the lookout for Anti-Air guns, enemies with RPGs, or other VietCong forces, so expect things to become rather repetitive.
The maps on which the missions take place are also small, although the boundaries are marked by red walls that can be flown through. When you do that, however, a warning to get back into the battle zone appears and you should do that as soon as possible.
Your AI squad mates aren't that clever and will mostly just give chase to enemies, without actually engaging them, so it's up to you to actually finish the job. If your aircraft gets into a critical condition, you can always jump to another jet or helicopter from your squad and control it, which is good when dealing with annoying bomb runs against targets protected by lots of AA guns.
Enemies, however, are pretty decent and aggressive, so expect to face some challenges when going up against MiGs in the air or regular infantry on the ground.
You also go through a few turret sections, so to say, as you man the machine gun mounted on the sides of a Huey chopper, although these segments are rather dull and simplistic.
The game also has a multiplayer mode in which players can engage in aerial fights one against the other, but the whole system is a bit simplistic and, unfortunately, there aren't a lot of active players, meaning you'll just end up flying around in a small level alone.
One major area where the game disappoints, however, is the graphics one. While the jet and helicopter models look pretty good, the world, the levels, and the ground enemies look really bad. The trees seem like old sprites, the soldiers look bigger than they are in real life, and the buildings are just rectangle pieces scattered across a plain-looking ground texture that only stands out because of its rice fields.
The sound is pretty decent, although the voice acting is a bit lackluster. The game wins points, however, by using a variety of licensed tracks and songs from the Vietnam War era, making the whole experience seem genuine.
Conclusion
Air Conflicts: Vietnam is a fun little game but its poor graphics, its simplistic missions, and stupid teammate AI weigh it down severely.
If you're looking for a simple flight simulator experience and have a penchant for the Vietnam War, however, you'll certainly enjoy Air Conflicts: Vietnam.
