Wings Longplay (Amiga) [QHD] [Part 1 of 2]
137Game Info
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Developer: Cinemaware
Publisher: Cinemaware
Year of Release: 1990
Game Review & Impressions
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Cinemaware was one of my favourite game studios back when I got my Amiga 500. The schlocky B-Movie horror of It Came From the Desert remains one of my favourite games of all time,
Wings couldn't be any more different from ICFTD, but it's no less significant, and in certain ways more ground-breaking. Setting a game against a backdrop as bleak as the First World War was a bold move, especially for the kind of cinematic production that Cinemaware had become synonymous with.
Set during the second half of World War I, the story of Wings focuses on the supporting role -- and versatility -- of aircraft within an era of warfare which had become increasingly mechanised. Many thousands of soldiers lost their lives in the horrific trench warfare which typified much of the war, but the war was notable for the extensive use of armoured support vehicles, artillery, not to mention the introduction of tanks, on the battlefield.
You start the game by creating a profile for your pilot that includes assigning 40 stat points to various skills that affect your flying ability. The different stats have a subtle impact on how much damage you do to enemy planes, your manoeuvrability in the air, plus your ability to walk away from a crash that might otherwise have proven fatal. Completing missions successfully will see these stats improve gradually over time, whilst failing consecutive missions sees them decrease.
The thing with Wings, just like the war itself, is the lifespan of your typical pilot is exceptionally short. Every sortie is fraught with danger, often ending in your hapless pilot being shot down in flames, colliding with other planes mid-air, or crashing into the ground because your engine stalled during an overly ambitious ascent. Your typical Wings campaign results in the death of so many pilots over the course of the campaign that the stat points are largely moot; everyone is pushing up daisies long before they offer any meaningful improvement.
The designers were well aware of this, however, and this is where things take an unexpected turn. Death in this game is little more than a formality, a temporary inconvenience that is of less significance than you might think. The body of your deceased pilot is is barely cold in the ground when the game invites you to create a brand new pilot, who effectively takes the place of your previous incarnation. You resume your duties in the 56th right at the point your predecessor snuffed it, continuing to fly missions in their stead.
There's good reason for taking this approach, because the campaign is extensive. With 250 missions to complete, beating Wings is a Herculean task. It's the first longplay in quite some time I've been forced to upload to YouTube in multiple parts, simply because the platform wouldn't allow a single video 15 hours in length!
The story that unfolds is exceedingly well written, penned by your pilot as entries in the squadron journal. Honour, fear and camaraderie are common themes throughout, bolstered by a cast of characters you develop genuine appreciation for. There's even a sense of loss for each time a pilot from your squadron is downed, especially those you've flown with on various sorties.
It's these sorties that are the game's defining feature. Strapped into the cockpit of your plane, you engage in tense dog-fights with German pilots over a 3D landscape that, despite their now primitive appearance, were pretty darn impressive for the time. These sections chug horrendously on 68000-equipped Amigas, and it's not that much better on the A1200, but it's still a compelling experience, regardless of the single-digit framerate.
The strafing runs and bombing sections are more traditional 2D affairs. The former requires you to blast a set number of targets with your machine guns, rendered with beautifully drawn graphics, whilst the latter necessitates dropping several hundred kilos of TNT on factories, bridges, and other targets of strategic value. Strafing the trenches under constant AA fire is probably the most difficult of all the mission types, a place a single flak shell can turn your plane into a smoking, airborne coffin.
Wings isn't a perfect game by any means, but the narrative and game design make it a genuinely unique experience. It's probably too long for its own good, with some of the missions feeling like extra padding, but seeing the war unfold in the journal entries and newspaper clippings is genuinely engrossing. I never got far with this game back on my A500, but I'm glad I've finally played through the entirety of the epic saga that is the campaign - it's a great story.
Chapters
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0:00:00 Intro
0:02:32 Gameplay