Bomber Crew | Review | Bombs, Spitfires, and Permadeath!
17There’s an ancient Gaelic saying, that when translated, means: “If you’re going to climb inside of a World War I era bomber and cross the English Channel to blow up your enemy’s fortifications, then you’re gonna need some friends.”
...I think that was Gaelic, anyway.
Regardless, it’s pretty solid advice, particularly when you’re playing Bomber Crew, the first indie strategy from developer Runner Duck. With its challenging gameplay mechanics and charming style, Bomber Crew is the sort of experience that will comfortably take up room next to other crew management games like FTL.
Bomber Crew concerns your… well… Bomber’s crew. You recruit from an endless supply of air men and women, and assign them to various roles within your flying fortress of explody excellence. You’ll make your way through different missions, whether they be bombing runs or escorting allied ships or taking stealthy pictures of the enemy’s secret plans. As you progress, your crew will gain experience, and you’ll accumulate money to upgrade your bomber. And you’d better do it well because if you don’t you risk losing your plane and even worse, your crew members, who maybe one of them you had something special to say to him but you just couldn’t get up the courage and now he’s a fly incubator somewhere in the Black Forest and you’ll NEVER GET TO TELL HIM HOW YOU FEEL. Oh, Walter… I failed you, Walter...
...Yeah, perma death is a big part of Bomber Crew.
Actually, its cartoonish style combined with the severe consequences of screwing up is one of the most interesting aspects of this game. You load this thing up, and between the cute sprites, the funny paint job options for your plane, and the Charlie Brown adult-speak of the characters, it’s really easy to get taken off guard with how brutal and difficult this game actually is.
A lot like the previously mentioned FTL, you spend each mission managing the many people you have in your crew, whether it’s directing your pilot toward the next leg of your mission, aiming your gunners toward enemies fighters, or pushing your engineer out on the flaming wing of your fucking plane to fix an engine, you’ll find yourself constantly in action mode. The upgrades you can purchase for your crew become essential, whether it’s better armored jackets, or an extra fire extinguisher, or a helpful little homing pigeon that will increase the chances that your crew is found if you go down in the woods or something. And the further along you get, the stronger your enemies become, so you need to be ready for them.
It’s this level of challenging fun that keeps Bomber Crew so engaging. It’s also this level of frustration that can make it very easy to rage quit over and over again. If you’re pretty far along in the campaign, and some catastrophe goes down that causes you to lose everything, no amount of screaming or bargaining with Mephistopheles is going to get you back to your previous level of upgrade in any hurry. You have to build yourself back up again with a lot of side missions, and then try for the prize again.
In short, Bomber Crew is a lot of fun, but it also dishes out the sort of punishment that perhaps not everyone is quite masochistic enough to dive head first into over and over again. But for those of you out there who are looking for a high stakes good time with devastating consequences, you need look no further than Bomber Crew. ...And if you happen to see Walter: tell him I’m sorry.
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