Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Nov 1, 2021

  Sorry, but I can't recommend this game. It keeps crashing at will, probably around ten times in three hours playing time. I had no problem setting up my controller (Saitek X52) but the controls themselves are horrible. The plane is in no way sensitive enough to the inputs I make. The idea for the game is actually not bad. I like the mix of walking around on base doing stuff and then flying a mission. Also that you can work on your plane installing upgrades. Althought this is very rudimentary. There is no communication between you and the other pilots during a mission. Only scripted radio chatter. So, while you chase alone after six bombers everyone else is attacking the fighters which hardly feels realistic. Speaking about realism, even on realistic setting this is no simulator. It's arcade. Which I wouldn' mind at all but at this point it doesn't matter anyway. Not giving up yet because I have an interest in WWII history and know of the famous 303.But I don't think this game will recieve any updates in the future. I keep trying for a while but it might end up on the pile of "good idea, bad execution" games. There are positives: I like the graphics but I can only do medium at best. And the fact that all the characters talk with accent is a small but important detail
• gamedeal user

  Apr 7, 2022

  Planes leaving the combat area so you can't engage them but get automatically turned back whenever you get close, no checkpoints in missions with multiple waves that can take tens of minutes to complete, dying due to collisions 99% of the time... this game is interesting but just too bloody frustrating to play. Can't recommend.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 31, 2022

  If you would like a walking simulator where you can walk around a British RAF airfield and look around the glorious Spitfires and Hurricanes, then this is the perfect game for you. Also it's kind of cool that whenever you want to change something on your plane you have to physically dismantle that part of the plane and mount it with the upgrade or the change you want. If you would want a game in which you can fly around in a WW2 air battle situation, then you will hate this game. The flight model is absolutely unusable, like you move your mouse a little bit and your plane almost does not move at all, then you move your mouse just a little bit more, and the plane turns like there's no tomorrow, and then you try to fix what you have just done and it all just becomes worse and worse. Also the AI frequently just flies into hills for no reason and kills itself. For those reasons this game is pretty much unplayable for me. I also tried playing it with a plane controller, and it was also pretty unusable for the 10 minutes i tried it (because i could not be bothered to waste my time more with something so bad). If you try to compare this game's flight model and aiming model with War Thunder's for example, the difference is so significant that there's no comparison (War Thunder may have many, many flaws, but it's flight model is pretty good, even if it's in an arcady sort of way, but still a bit realistic). Also i have no problems in games like DCS for example, so it's not that i am incompetent or something like that, it's just that the flight model and the aiming model in this game is almost completely unusable. Otherwise for a walking simulator in an UK RAF airfield it's pretty good, and if you would like it for that reason only then i would recommend it.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 25, 2023

  Almost 150 Poles flew for the RAF during the Battle of Britain, which makes it the largest contribution of foreign personnel from that period. The most famous of these Polish units was the 303rd Tadeusz Kościuszko Squadron of Warsaw, the deadliest of the Allied fighter formations defending the UK, whose pilots became the subject of books, films, documentaries, a board game, a browser game, and now a video game. Sadly, unlike the skilled aviators of the Varsovian 303rd, the game dedicated to them is unsatisfactory – though not altogether terrible. Though released in 2018, the graphics of 303 Squadron: Battle of Britain look about 12 years older than that or worse. Fortunately, the planes look nice and some detail has gone into the mechanic simulator sections for modifying your fighters. The gameplay is alright, but there are much better flying simulators as well as arcade dogfighting titles out there, and controller support is only partial. Moreover, some missions will glitch out on you, as if they were not already frustrating enough with the lack of variety in objectives. When it works it can be quite fun, especially if you are into WW2 aerial combat, but it simply is not engaging enough. In general, this feels quite lazy and inadequate. At least they tackled the history with utmost respect. However, this actually affects the narrative negatively. As the developers from Atomic Jelly studio focus on characters that really existed (Jan Zumbach, Witold Urbanowicz, Josef František, John A. Kent, etc.), they are limited by what they can portray. There could have been a much more interesting and personal story told here, one of vengeful veterans who lost everything; fighting against overwhelming forces of the enemy who considered them literally subhuman, they fled so that they could live to keep fighting against Nazi Germany in other armies. At first treated with suspicion and conceit by their British allies, who initially disregarded their experience and could not understand their culture, eventually the English, Canadian, and Czechoslovak men they flew with formed unbreakable bonds of friendship and brotherhood with the Poles. A story that follows the underdog as he narrowly escapes extermination, continues experiencing alienation abroad, and lets out all his resentful fury in successful devil-may-care flights against the Luftwaffe elite in daytime while drowning his sorrows in copious amounts of vodka at night as he remembers the loved ones he lost back home. There are seeds of this in the game, when the personality of its characters sometimes shines through, but for the most part they are just robotic exposition devices and walking history lessons. Readable notes left around the base add some more backstory, yet this also typically takes the form of textbook facts as opposed to the more personal touch that this game badly needs. Fortunately, the protagonist Zumbach is voiced pretty well, but for some strange reason all the other primary characters – mostly Poles who should speak with Eastern European accents – are voiced by British actors who did not even try to play the role, they just speak RP! It causes even decently written scenes to sound absurd. Why not just make the Brits speak British English and the Poles (along with their Czech friend) with Slavic accents as they should? At least the rest of the audio design is acceptable, the sound effects are quite good and the music is actually great thanks to composer Paweł Błaszczak of Wiedźmin (The Witcher) soundtrack fame. Overall, you get a fairly adequate amount of content here for a not so highly priced product: over 6 hour long campaign with 51 achievements and a custom flight mode. It is a shame then that most of this content is passable or worse. All those insipid intermissions of walking/cycling around RAF Northolt could have been used to develop the characters more. Instead of talking about loss and partying to forget it all for a moment, let us see Josef and Jan living life to its fullest when they knew each next assignment could be their last. Why tell us about the tensions between various groups or the love affairs of refugees when it could all be shown? In the end it feels like wasted potential. If you are a diehard fan of WW2-era warplanes then you will get some enjoyment out of this, but for any others who want to learn more about the UK’s most effective foreign guardians I would recommend the Polish-British film Hurricane (known as Mission of Honor in the US) from 2018 or indeed any of the myriad of historical sources written about them.
• gamedeal user

  May 25, 2018

  I had high hopes for this early access but unfortunately it was a disapointment. Pros: -Nice to move around the quarters -Basic "plane mechanic simulator" -Bullet slow motion with x-ray vision Cons: -No support to Flight Sticks(at least for now) -Not able to change key bindings (untill some update) -Bad textures -NPCs around the quarters have bad models, textures and voice over -Bad scenario design when compared to other flight games My review is based on the game set on max settings. Due the short EA period as stated on game's page (only 4 months) I dont have hopes that those issues will be fixed before the full release and thats why I am refunding this purchase. For those who want a basic "plane mechanic simulator" and a flight game not comparable to games such as 'Wings of Prey' and 'Cliffs of Dover Blitz' so this game may be for you, in my case I was expecting a flight game a little closer to a flight sim. I am considering to change my review case I see improvements in the game and case I decide to buy it again. My Rig: Ryzen 1700 GTX1080Ti 16Gb RAM DDR4 3200Mhz
• gamedeal user

  May 25, 2018

  After playing for for a bit and doing five missions or so, I believe I have expirienced the gist of the game. I have closely followed the development of 303 Squadron since it's announcement, and it's pretty much what I expected from an Early Access game. [u] The game is clunky at this stage, as in EA v1.1.0. [/u] [b] First off, the performance- [/b] Running the game on an Intel Core i7-5930k CPU, GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Omega 6GB GPU and 4x8GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 2133MHz RAM, I must say the performance leaves much to be desired. Looking at many objects at once makes my FPS dip from 60 to around 40- changing the settings does not change anything. The trees kill frame rates- at least in my case. [b] Visual fidelity- [/b] The meshes look good, especially the planes, with some faces looking a bit odd. The textures are nice on the planes, yet interior floors and even some objects look way too clean to really strike realism. They also do look a bit grainy at times, I don't know what it is, especially in the cockpit, but I do believe it could be easily fixed. Faces do sometimes look a little too clean as well, the mechanic for example. When it comes to use of height maps and such, objects such as brickwork look wonderful yet for example curtains look like flat planes and would definitely need a little tweak, this applies to some objects. The characters looks too still, like puppets. Some more animations would help with putting them to life- they just sit there,or stand, and look about aimlessly. [b] Mechanics- [/b] The flying mechanics are the best thing about the game. For this stage of development they do feel quite polished- no pun intended. Arcade mode is what you would think, just ordinary plane arcade mode but realistic on the other hand, realistic is fun. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the planes do feel like they have weight to them. If you rush, you will end up fighting with your plane and the forces applied to it. This very fact makes killing very satisfying. The X-Ray killcam is surprisingly good, at first I thought it was just an annoying gimmick, but when getting into some serious engagements, it can give you lots of satisfaction from knowing that not only you ripped the enemy plane apart, but also you head shot the pilot at the end. I also like how, quite simillar to War Thunder, planes have weak spots. Shoot ammo boxes, they explode. Damage the engines enough, they explode. Really cool stuff. One issue I had was with throttle. The only way I could throttle down was to throttle up, which would set me to 0%, and then throttle up again into the desired percentage which totally killed my momentum. About the mechanic feature, it feels a little underwhelming. Basically a glorified settings tab, but it is cool how you can disassemble your planea and see how it works. Overall, I do recommend this game to anyone who is into WW2 aircraft combat but is too off put by simulators. Or anyone into the Polish/Czech side of the story regarding WW2. But if you're not any of what I mentioned, I would give this game a pass until the game is finished or further in development. But be warned if you decide to get this game, this game is REALLY early in development, so you will run across annoyances. Also as for now (v.1.1.0) you cannot change keybindings nor set the game to Polish language, which is quite annoying. And this is also why I'm not writing about the voice acting, as I do believe Polish dubbing with English subtitles will fix the issue, if it's implemented that is. Also the soundtrack is nice. Kudos to the composer.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 3, 2018

  For me, this is not ready BUT it may be a game you chose to support and purchase. If that is the case, go for it. Not a bad investment, just not one for me. Devs need money for R&D and their time etc. I support that. The premise..great. The idea..unique. So, I will not list the negatives as they are already noted in other comments as are the postives. I will say that some of you may chose to support this dev and that would not be money wasted. To the Dev: Keep at it, you have something here. I will be back and will follow the development of the game in the future. It is not terrible, just not ready. Well done. Toxsic.
• gamedeal user

  Sep 8, 2018

  I have been watching the development of the game for some time and have been looking forward to the release. Quite surprised it had come out of Beta (seemed unusually quick to me?) but I was keen to give it a go so committed to buying it. Overall, great concept and idea but I'm not 100% convinced it was ready for full release. I'll certainly keep playing it and I'm looking forward to continued updates and development but there are some tweaks needed. [h1]Not so great points[/h1] [list] [*] Although looking good, movement around the airfield feels a bit 'clunky' - you can make the bike jump using spacebar for example. [*] Key bindings need some changing, having to press a button to lean into the sight is a gameplay mechanic pain. I can understand, from a realism perspective, why perhaps the devs chose to do it that way though. [*] Flight dynamics seem a bit too 'arcade' - although I am more of a purist flight simmer though. There's no wing drop or shaking before a stall for example. [*] A very frustrating issue is once you are near the end of a mission, and you have one or two enemy aircraft to take out, your 'teammates' swarm on the targets. If you happen to be up front leading the attack, you will get caught in a hail of friendly fire causing lots of damage. [*] I'm not keen on the gun sight with dragging aimer for 'aiming off' when targeting an enemy. I don't believe they had those sights in 1940, just reflective sites. I would argue removing that feature or making it optional would make the player experience better and encourage the growth of player skill in aiming off without it. [*] When wondering around the airfield, there's no information on who you are talking to. Name tags or floating names would be useful. Additionally ... where on earth was the carrot?? [*] You go to bed to start a mission ... perhaps that could change to going to the aircraft which would make more sense? [*] I don't think some of the ranks are correct. Lots of Sergeants around being called 'sir'. That's not how it works in the RAF. I don't think I've seen any officer uniforms. [*] Not very much information about the game's protagonist. [*] Mouse (or VR I assume) is used to 'look around' the cockpit and its movement is mighty sensitive. I can't make a POV switch on a joystick work for this purpose. [h1]Great points[/h1] [*] Mind blowing concept - what a great idea to have a free to roam airfield set in the 1940s. [*] Love the historical aspect and 'notes' you find around - brilliant part of the gameplay with an educational edge. Would be useful to have more in-game mechanics to provide clues as to where they are. [*] The engineering/mechanic aspect is brilliant. What a great addition to the game. Really changes how you play the game and gives a broader, more interesting player experience. [*] Gameplay is intense and good fun, although the controls are challenging to master. [*] Kill cam is a brilliant concept - love that. [*] The conversations with other characters adds to the immersion and very slowly helps you buy into the characters. Although I think this is an area that needs expansion so the player can connect with them more as characters and understand who they are - as the pilots themselves would have done. Looking forward to seeing how this develops over time. Will certainly keep playing in the meantime. A massive, well done to the devs - it's turning into an excellent product. Thank you. Please keep up the work on it. There's clearly a fanbase already building, having read some of the other reviews.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 9, 2018

  TLDR: "This is not a "thumbs up" but rather a "neutral". 303 squadron isn't bad but needs more time to evolve and to remove its rough edges. The foundation is great and the historical story-telling part makes it stand out from the pack. The devs are very active and always have an open ear for input - so I leave this "thumbs up" review as motivation to further improve their game." Don't want to read? Here's a 4 minute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lH10qh_iL8 Complete first impressions: 303 is probably the first game which lets you cycle around a british airfield in the 1940s. You're part of 303 squadron like the name of the game already tells you. It was one of the 16 polish squadrons in the Royal Air Force. It had the highest ratio of shot down enemy aircraft compared to its own losses. You're taking the role of Jan Zumbach, who would become the Squadron's leader a few years later. He also was one of the first allied pilots to engage a Focke Wulf FW 190 in aerial combat. Many of the people you can interact with on the airfield are based on actual historical persons. This nice take on storytelling is one of the biggests strenghts of the game. Another unique element is the mechanic mode. You're able to dissasemble parts of the plane and install new or modfied parts as time and technology progresses. Each part has its own advantages and disadvantages, like better reliability at the cost of longer reload times. 303 squadron is just about 20 bucks, so I didn't expect high end visuals. Looks are fine but weird glichtes like completely broken rivers on my 1070ti will hopefully be fixed in upcoming patches. My first real point of criticism: controls are neither arcade nor sim-like. They are somewhere in between which makes aiming a lot more difficult than it should be. Sharp manouvers are easily performed by using the keyboard but controls lack when it comes to precise manouvering. Less would be more here and I'd suggest to the devs to take a look at War Thunder's arcade mouse controls. Tweaking the game towards "point and fly" would make controlling the plane a lot more fun and precise. So, after getting frustrated with the arcade controls, I plugged in my joystick and throttle to try out the realistic mode. After binding all keys and axes things went a lot better. Realistic mode only allows the cockpit camera but still displays a dynamic aiming reticle. But you can turn it off if you like to aim without support. The gameplay still is very arcady but the Joystick support is well implemented. Now that I had precise controls over my hurricane shooting down the Krauts in their 109s is a breeze. If you score an epic kill the game switches into some kind of action cam like you might know from the Sniper Elite Games. You can see where your bullets hit the enemy plane and witness its destruction in slow motion. It's another nice feature you're able turn off if you find it too distracting. Mission design is a bit clunky. And you're going to bed to start a mission which is kinda weird. A brief cutscene takes you into the air and after a little bit of chatter between the pilots something happens. Usually fighters appear out of nowhere. And here's the next issue: the game wants you to shoot down a certain amount of enemy fighters. It won't continue until you scored the required kills - which becomes quite tedious after a while because the AI is dumb like a brick and always does the same manouvers. It's more challenging to evade your fellow pilots because they tend to bunch up on the last target and consistently crash into your plane while you try to shoot it down. Now, what's my conclusion? 303 Squadron is not a bad game but it isn't good either. But not because it is inherently bad - It rathers feels like having been pushed out of early access too early. The game also suffers from a lack of focus. My suggestion would be: ditch the realistic mode - which isn't realistic anyway - and focus on a better arcade flight model, the story-telling aspect and technical improvements. These combined efforts could improve the game a lot and turn it onto an enjoyable experience. Right now it's too rough around the edges. And it sits in an awkward place between aracade and simulation mechanics being neither fish nor fowl in the end. The historical aspect on the other side is brilliant and could be a good starting point to expand upon. So if you want to support the devs then get the game. One thing is for sure: it has lots of potential and may be a diamond in the rough. Chances are good because the devs are very keen to get feedback and they responded to almost every single review on steam so far. With that said: some of you may enjoy the game right now as you can see by the many positive entries here in the reviews section - so don't let my mixed review irritate you too much. As always: don't rely on a single source and always form your own opinion. Hope I could help a little bit - cheers and fly safe! :)
• gamedeal user

  Apr 2, 2019

  The controls in this game are some of the worst i´ve ever seen. I thought he other reviews were exaggerating but jesus christ. I spent a good 4 minutes trying to get guns on a plane going literally straight in arcade mode in the first mission, and mouse controls are inverted by default in realistic mode with no way of changing it. The flight physics aren´t anything to write home about either, which tells me this isnt´t the type of game you´d want to play with a stick. I´d say stay away from it unless they completely redesign the control scheme.