Project Wingman originally released on Steam in December of 2020. Inspired by Ace Combat, the game features a futuristic setting, and an arcade-sim style to aerial dogfighting. With the promise of delivering intense immersion on the PSVR 2, can developer Sector D2 deliver? We took to the skies and played Project Wingman: Frontline 59, and have our review ready to tell you all about it.

Under-Utilized Headset

The PSVR 2 is a great upgrade from Sony’s original headset. It features bright OLED panels, which offer 2000×2040 pixel resolution to each eye, at refresh rates of up to 120 Hz. Foveated rendering enables razor-sharp visuals wherever you are currently looking, saving resources as the rest of the game is rendered at a lower detail level. Yet Frontline 59 is among the worst-looking VR games I have played in two generations of PSVR headsets. I’m not sure what went wrong here, but I expected to perhaps get a little motion sickness when getting into dogfights. But since the visuals were so blocky, I didn’t even feel that rollercoaster-like twinge in my stomach that I get when flying something, like when taking off in my ship in No Man’s Sky. The Unreal Engine was used for development, which makes the poor visual quality even more confusing.

Bad visuals aside, what’s here is a solid arcade fighter pilot simulator. Two campaigns are included: the original, and Frontline 59. It takes place in a futuristic version of Earth, where there are two major warring countries. The details aren’t too important, and the story progresses in-between missions. Missions are usually a mixture of taking out a certain amount of enemies, or defending some other craft, with the exception of mission four in the Frontline 59 campaign. There are 21 missions in the original campaign, plus the Conquest mode, and six missions for Frontline 59. So for $30 you are getting a lot of gameplay for not a whole lot of money. However, it should be noted that only the new Frontline 59 missions are available in VR mode. This is a baffling limitation that is compounded by the fact that the original game is completely playable in VR on PC. I’m not sure if this is the result of running out of development time or what, but I know it’s disappointing.

Eye Tracking Is Neat

One area of Frontline 59 that really shines, though, is its use of the PSVR 2’s eye tracking feature to let you track and lock-on to enemies. It works exceedingly well, and helps to add to the immersion factor of the game, which as mentioned is otherwise lacking. It feels satisfying to keep your eyes fixed on a target, seeing the HUD lock on, and then following along as your missiles hit their target. Alternatively, this feature makes it easy to switch targets as the situation calls for it.

Combat is as hectic as fighter pilot games get, with threats often approaching you from all sides, and the careful monitoring of incoming fire needed in order to stay alive. Simply swooping in on the enemy without considering how easy of a target it makes you is a quick way to die, even on the game’s normal difficulty level. Controls are a mixture of arcade and sim, with the throttle being controlled with R1 and L1, and rudder pedals controlled with R2 and L2. In another unfortunate limitation, the game is not compatible with HOTAS (thruster and joystick), so your only option control-wise is to use the DualSense controller, as even the Sense controllers are not usable in Frontline 59. Overall, the control options on offer here, or rather the lack thereof, are a limiting factor to immersion.

Verdict

Project Wingman: Frontline 59 is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it is an arcade fighter pilot game in VR, something we haven’t seen much of lately. But the conversion is not complete, and only a small portion of the game is even playable in VR. This is especially baffling as the original release on Steam was completely in VR. Throw in a subpar graphical experience, and the whole package is rather uninspiring. There is a decent-length main campaign in addition to the new bonus VR missions, though, so if you’re okay with soaring in the skies in flat-screen gaming, then it is still a good amount of content for the price.

Score: 7/10

Pros:

• What’s available in VR is fun
• Eye tracking to lock-on and switch targets is really cool
• A healthy collection of missions spread across two campaigns

Cons:

• Visuals are not crisp at all
• Only a handful of missions available in VR
• No HOTAS compatibility

Project Wingman: Frontline 59 review code provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.