DogFighter

The flight model is the whole reason to care. Dark Water's little 2010 arena shooter gets the one thing right that bigger budgets keep fumbling: banking a plane through a canyon here has weight and slip and a lovely wobbly momentum, and the third-person camera swings just loosely enough to make every barrel roll feel earned rather than animated. Weapon pickups scattered around the maps keep skirmishes scrappy and fast, and matches are short by design, which suits it. This is a game built for twenty minute sessions, not campaigns. The trouble is who you play it with. The multiplayer servers have been quiet for years, so unless you can fill a private lobby with friends, you are left with bots that telegraph their patterns within an hour and a single-player offering that never develops past the same handful of ideas. The Mixed reviews are fair. Buy it knowing you are buying a flight feel, an afternoon, and a small cult curiosity, not a living game. If you have three people willing to join a lobby, it is genuinely a good night.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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