Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5 out of 10
Luftrausers is a side scrolling arcade aerial combat dogfighting game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS Vita and PS3. The game started out life as a popular Flash game called Luftrauser in 2011 before gradually being redefined and having new content built on top of it in between other projects Vlambeer were working on at the time to substantially improve the overall experience.
There are customisable planes, which are provided by unlocks that are earned from reaching the parameters of the mission objectives, which in turn provides skulls that reward players with unlockable parts for the choice of plane. There are no customisable parts at the very beginning until the parts have been unlocked relatively early on, players will definitely start to unlock parts only a few plays into the game with the early unlockable parts including a laser, armour and superboost. Each of the parts have their own advantages and disadvantages, such as the laser providing a continuous beam to the weapons system which pierces through enemies, although the consequence is a slow turn while firing the laser; armour will provide more health to the body of the plane at the cost of slower movement; and the superboost provides very high speeds to the engine with the negative being that it has a slow boost while turning, which are just a fraction of the 125 Luftrauser planes that can be created from combining the unlockable parts together.
The XP and levelling up revolves around the amount of enemies destroyed in the air and on sea as the number of points earned will be displayed next to the plane, battleship or submarine destroyed that was firing on the plane with an increased amount of points provided by the combo multiplier that is brought about by destroying as many enemies as quickly as possible, while further XP is earned for completing mission objectives which range from destroying five fighters in one game to killing thirty enemies in total and scoring over 1,000 points.
The level design is presented in a mission structure along the lines of Jetpack Joyride in which players attempt to complete mission objectives within the same environments and while the situation is not changing; the mission objectives are which still retains the appropriate amount of freshness to the gameplay. The mission objectives vary from killing a certain amount of enemies, killing them while being undamaged or on fire to destroying certain types of enemies and scoring a particular points tally.
The enemy design consists of a range of enemy vehicles that are looking to shoot the Luftrauser out of the sky, such as planes and jets in the air and battleships and submarines in the sea and much more besides with each of the enemies having their own size and shape to them depending upon their type of vehicle, how hard they are to destroy and how much damage they deal from their weaponry.
The stats are accessible after each time the plane has been shot down and covers the statistics regarding the most recent attempt as well as the total of each statistic. The statistics for the players most recent attempt includes the score, the highest amount of points earned from the best combo, the amount of combos, the amount of kills, the length of time players were able to hold out for, and the amount of kills for each type of enemy craft, alongside the total statistics for the best high score, the highest amount of points earned from the best combo, the amount of games played, the amount of kills, the overall length of time the game was played for, the best build, the amount of unlocks earned and the overall amount of kills for each type of enemy craft.
Luftrausers supports cross-buy between the PS3 and Vita, although it unfortunately does not support cross-save, so players will not be able to continue from the previous progression on the PS3 version when playing the Vita version and vice versa. Cross-buy presents a superb amount of value as it means that players will be purchasing both the PS3 and Vita versions of the game with just a single purchase.
The controls are well mapped to the Vita as they are easy to master as the control scheme consists of pressing X, O, triangle or square to shoot; pressing L or R for a short boost of thrust from the engine; holding L or R for a continued boost of thrust from the engine; changing the direction of the left analogue stick or alternatively pressing left, right or up on the d-pad to move the Luftrauser plane; and pressing start to display the pause menu.
The graphics are certainly retro stylised in a monochrome fashion comprising of five colours, although there are some nice touches, such as cloud cover and water splashes, while there is a circular window that closes in on the Luftrauser with the intention of displaying just how close the plane is to being destroyed as the narrower the window the closer the Luftrauser is to being shot down, alongside the general performance which copes rather well even when there are a dozen or so enemies on screen and weaponry being fired from all angles on sea and in the air.
The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main menu, stats menu, online leaderboards menu, result menu, hangar menu, launch menu, options menu and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick, touch screen and rear touch pad, but that is not an issue considering the other methods of navigation that are available. The background of each menu has an appropriate relation to that particular menu, such as the stats menu including a secretary frantically writing on a clipboard, the result menu containing a menacing looking colonel and the hangar menu having a scientist.
The audio consists of sound effects and music with the sound effects mostly being the sounds of the engines from various plans and jets with weapons being fired from planes, jets, battleships and submarines, while the standout feature of the audio design is the retro inspired music, which provides a different theme for each of the 125 customisable Luftrauser planes.
The trophy list includes twelve trophies with seven bronze, four silver and one gold trophy. The easiest trophy has to be the Small Science bronze one for unlocking a part which should take most likely only a few games to achieve, while the majority of the trophy list is made up of much harder trophies, such as the Expert Rauser silver trophy for becoming a feared level 10 Rauser pilot; the Big Science silver trophy for unlocking all of the parts; the Seen It All silver trophy for piloting all of the 125 Rauser combinations; the Master Rauser silver trophy for beating all of the missions; and the You Were Raised On This Submarine For A Reason gold trophy for taking down a blimp. It is estimated that depending upon skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take around twenty-five hours or so to 100% the trophy list.
There are no difficulty levels, although the difficulty curve is rather interesting as it is progressively changing as players earn and implement upgrades to the Luftrauser as well as balancing the upgrades to make sure that the handling and speed is how players would prefer to find the perfect balance that suits the chosen aggressive or defensive play style, which results in the game becoming easier as players get closer to finding the preferred balance, although the game becomes harder and lasts for a longer duration with more enemies hell bent on destruction.
There is no pass the Vita multiplayer, online multiplayer or cross-play local multiplayer, which is surprising as aerial combat is certainly a genre that would suit competitive online multiplayer in a Vita vs. Vita format or cross-play multiplayer between a Vita vs. PS3 with both players choosing their own customisable planes from the unlocked components and fighting in a head-to-head battle for supremacy.
However, there are online leaderboards focusing on the best global rankings and best friends’ rankings with each leaderboard containing each players’ rank, name (PSN ID) and best score with the positioning of each player based upon the highest accumulation of points, while there is also a listing of the closest direct opponents for the four positions above the points tally.
The replayability of Luftrausers stems from over 100 mission objectives which reward players with unlockable parts to create 125 Luftrauser planes with their own unique characteristics upon the successful completion of enough missions to level up the fighter pilot, while there are also competitive online leaderboards that will collectively have players returning for quite some time beyond the initial time with the game.
Overall, Luftrausers is highly addictive and is perfect for short bursts of gameplay, while also possessing enough content to even be just as ideal for long gameplay sessions. If you are a fan of dogfighting or aerial combat games, then Luftrausers is highly recommendable, especially at such value of a £7.39 cross-buy purchase.
Jason Bonnar
Analysis
- Title: Luftrausers
- Developer: Vlambeer
- Publisher: Devolver Digital
- System: PS Vita
- Format: PSN Download
- Cross-Buy: Yes (PS Vita and PS3)
- Cross-Play: No
- Players: 1 (Online Leaderboards)
- Memory Card Space Required: 60MB