Vincemus - Air Combat

TLDR: If you want to play a casual ww2 air combat game without an expensive joystick or get sick of warthunder because of grind and server issues, this game is for you.


First impressions so far:

EA : Game is early access and it shows by lack of content. But it has much more content than its competitors like "aggressor" and "tiny combat arena" so it feel much more like a game rather than a tech demo. If you can't decide between them this one has much more meat.

Gameplay : If you have played warthunder realistic battles, it plays very similar to it. Controls with keyboard and mouse was responsive and almost same as warthunder.

Bugs : Havent encounter a game breaking bug. Only one visual bug where wreck of some planes floats in mid air.

The Conclusion : Fun little game for a cheap price in its current state.

I've been looking forward to this one for a little while, and here are my thoughts.
This game is very early access. It's pretty bare bones right now, but that's okay because it's an early access game and it only costs 15 bucks. In the words of the developer:

"The Game
Vincemus is an WW2 arcade semi-realistic air combat shooter, with the aim of having a balance between realism and arcade, developed for the use of mouse controls. Its goal is to give large expansive maps with multiple combat experiences fighting air, ground and naval targets of different origin."

This is a simple WW2 era combat flight experience that controls nice and feels good with a mouse and keyboard, more so than any other flight sim I've played yet, and that's what matters. I think the developers have done a great job with making a solid foundation here for an affordable combat flight game that's easily accessible for those who don't have the space or resources to keep an expensive HOTAS setup around, and those who want a light and fun combat game that doesn't take 6 months of Youtube University classes to learn or hours at a time to play. I'm excited to see how this one develops and I'm happy to give this one a thumbs up.

The devs make it pretty obvious that this game was designed for use with a mouse and keyboard setup in mind, and for now that's probably your best way to play and enjoy this game. Leaving a negative review on a $15 early access game because it doesn't work well with your Thrustmaster T-9000 is a lot like giving a negative review to Cities: Skylines because it's lousy to play with a Rock Band Drum Pad. There are plenty of realistic sims out there that will work just fine with your nice HOTAS setup, so maybe you should go and play IL2 or DCS instead of dropping a lousy review on an indie dev team because you couldn't understand that they made their game to be played with a mouse despite them clearly stating that fact in the description.

EDIT: Not only is this game now MASSIVELY improved in apperence and gameplay, but the developer has demonstrated an INCREDIBLE amount of initiative and responsiveness about fixing any difficulties that EA players had with their rewards. All you had to do was say "hey man, my planes didn't show up" and your codes were passed out within minutes.
PLEASE support this developer... he's an absolute mensch.

Once upon a time, there was a sim publisher called "Dynamix".
(Yes, i am dating myself a bit here.)
They made the "Aces" series of sims, Red Baron, and A-10 Tank Killer.
You had dozens of aircraft in each game, and each aircraft had unique weapon and handling characteristics. Graphics were very good (within the limits of the hardware of the day) and gameplay was involved enough to require a good understanding of your weapon system. What they DIDN'T force you to do was worry about prop pitch, fuel/air mixture, starving a carburetor, or managing turbo lag. You got in your aircraft, pointed the front towards the enemy, and went into battle.
Yes, this vastly oversimplifies air combat.
Yes, this is an enjoyable way to play a flight sim.
Anyone could play these games, dropping themselves into legendary aircraft and trying their hand. Sadly, combat flight sims have drifted farther and farther into the realms of specialty games since IL-2 that games like this no longer exist. You either have pure cinematic BS or something that requires you to have a couple hundred hours of solo time in a high-performance prop plane to understand.

'Vincemus - Air Combat' seems prepared to remedy this situation. You can enjoy it in minutes, get decent in a couple of hours, and thoroughly understand it in a couple of days. It also provides you with a good variety of aircraft - all included in the base cost *GASP*... what a novel concept! It seems to want to be a spiritual successor to those "F'lite' sim" games of olde.
Now, it's not perfect.
It's still EA and unpolished.
LOD models are little above the standards of "Aces" and the ability to pick out a target is hampered by that. The names in the HUD also often cover up the target. The camera gets off-center easily during hard maneuvering, and recentering doesn't seem to work. There is no first-person view option (a sorely missed feature). The AI needs a bit more work (but what game can honestly say theirs doesn't).
But even with these issues, the game is JUST PLAIN FUN.
It's worth the price for sure, and this is doubly true if the developer pushes this project to its full potential.
Please support this guy.
He's doing the Lord's work for gamers.