WARNING: Sky Rogue is currently in Early Access and has not been fully completed by the developers yet. As such, this review may become partially or fully incorrect as time passes. If you're reading this weeks or months from now, it is likely that this review will be outdated, and parts of it are most likely to be incorrect.
So, first off, what is Sky Rogue? Well, the shortest description I can come up with is "Ace Combat as a procedurally generated rogue-lite". Basically, you take off, kill enemies, complete objectives, earn money, upgrade your plane and weapons, then get shot down and use the tech points you earned to research new planes and weapons.
You start off with the Rogue Medium Fighter, a well-balanced multi-role jet that's good at everything but spectacular at nothing, and a handful of basic weapons including a simple machine gun, some standard micro-missiles, light unguided rockets and a flare discharger. Your humble Rogue also comes with a built-in system for evasive dodge rolls, which is standard on every player aircraft(though strangely, enemies never seem to use it).
So let me break down your plane classes and weapons before I get much further: Bombers are the ones designed to take the most punishment and destroy ground targets with massive payloads of bombs, Fighters are the multi-role jets designed to out-maneuver everything they meet, and Interceptors get superior engines and avionics to let them run down enemy aircraft and nail them with long range missiles; and aircraft come in four varieties in each class, with Light planes that are more nimble and faster but have less capacity for weapons and are more fragile, Medium planes that are well-rounded and reliable, Swing-Wing jets with slightly less toughness than Mediums but more speed and variable handling, and Heavy planes that are capable of carrying the most firepower and are more durable but slower and less agile.
And for weapons, there's quite the variety: rear-aspect Infrared missiles, short-range all-aspect missiles, medium- and long-range air-to-air missiles, an air-to-ground missile, multiple different varieties of bombs for taking out ground targets, three different sizes of rockets mostly used on ground targets, and an array of different machine guns and auto-cannons because dakka.
The planes and weapons all have their purpose and feel good to use. Mission with lots of enemy Bombers to shoot down? Grab an Interceptor and some good air-to-air missiles and bring them down. Enemy buildings like Factories and Command Centers to destroy? Fly a Bomber with either rockets or bombs and pound them back to the Stone Age. Need to be flexible because of enemy aircraft attacking you while you're going for ground targets? Take off in a Fighter loaded with both air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. With all the different variations of aircraft and weapons to choose from, there's sure to be something that will be effective on the mission you're heading into.
The flight is very arcade-oriented to say the least, but I find it very enjoyable and exciting. The dogfights are fast and frantic, with enemy jets circling around to take their shots at you while enemy ground defenses fire everything they have. The only complaints about the enemies that I really have are that 1) enemy Bombers have no means of fighting back against the player when attacked; 2) enemy Fighters and Interceptors are always trying to joust with the player, when there's really only one plane designed for that; and 3) enemy Flak turrets are very damaging to the player, especially the Flak-Burst guns encountered later in the game.
And lastly, the game has Steam Workshop mod support. You'll find all kinds of things in this game's Workshop: two different versions of the old Geo Metro, various different real-life jets and old prop planes, fictional aircraft from various sources including a multitude of Star Wars ships and player crafts from various shmups, and recently custom mission support was added. Someone actually recreated "Operation Countdown" from Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies.
In all, this game is worth every penny. I've played it for over 300 hours already, and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. If I had to give this game a score, I'd say a solid 90/100.
So, first off, what is Sky Rogue? Well, the shortest description I can come up with is "Ace Combat as a procedurally generated rogue-lite". Basically, you take off, kill enemies, complete objectives, earn money, upgrade your plane and weapons, then get shot down and use the tech points you earned to research new planes and weapons.
You start off with the Rogue Medium Fighter, a well-balanced multi-role jet that's good at everything but spectacular at nothing, and a handful of basic weapons including a simple machine gun, some standard micro-missiles, light unguided rockets and a flare discharger. Your humble Rogue also comes with a built-in system for evasive dodge rolls, which is standard on every player aircraft(though strangely, enemies never seem to use it).
So let me break down your plane classes and weapons before I get much further: Bombers are the ones designed to take the most punishment and destroy ground targets with massive payloads of bombs, Fighters are the multi-role jets designed to out-maneuver everything they meet, and Interceptors get superior engines and avionics to let them run down enemy aircraft and nail them with long range missiles; and aircraft come in four varieties in each class, with Light planes that are more nimble and faster but have less capacity for weapons and are more fragile, Medium planes that are well-rounded and reliable, Swing-Wing jets with slightly less toughness than Mediums but more speed and variable handling, and Heavy planes that are capable of carrying the most firepower and are more durable but slower and less agile.
And for weapons, there's quite the variety: rear-aspect Infrared missiles, short-range all-aspect missiles, medium- and long-range air-to-air missiles, an air-to-ground missile, multiple different varieties of bombs for taking out ground targets, three different sizes of rockets mostly used on ground targets, and an array of different machine guns and auto-cannons because dakka.
The planes and weapons all have their purpose and feel good to use. Mission with lots of enemy Bombers to shoot down? Grab an Interceptor and some good air-to-air missiles and bring them down. Enemy buildings like Factories and Command Centers to destroy? Fly a Bomber with either rockets or bombs and pound them back to the Stone Age. Need to be flexible because of enemy aircraft attacking you while you're going for ground targets? Take off in a Fighter loaded with both air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons. With all the different variations of aircraft and weapons to choose from, there's sure to be something that will be effective on the mission you're heading into.
The flight is very arcade-oriented to say the least, but I find it very enjoyable and exciting. The dogfights are fast and frantic, with enemy jets circling around to take their shots at you while enemy ground defenses fire everything they have. The only complaints about the enemies that I really have are that 1) enemy Bombers have no means of fighting back against the player when attacked; 2) enemy Fighters and Interceptors are always trying to joust with the player, when there's really only one plane designed for that; and 3) enemy Flak turrets are very damaging to the player, especially the Flak-Burst guns encountered later in the game.
And lastly, the game has Steam Workshop mod support. You'll find all kinds of things in this game's Workshop: two different versions of the old Geo Metro, various different real-life jets and old prop planes, fictional aircraft from various sources including a multitude of Star Wars ships and player crafts from various shmups, and recently custom mission support was added. Someone actually recreated "Operation Countdown" from Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies.
In all, this game is worth every penny. I've played it for over 300 hours already, and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. If I had to give this game a score, I'd say a solid 90/100.