Review: Altitude

If you're sick of high poly counts and endless shaders, and you long for days when it was gameplay over graphics, this game is definitely for you. (Or, if you've got a low-end machine and want a really fun yet cheap game to play, have a look see)

I'll start by saying this: it's fun, and I mean really fun. The controls are simple, and the gameplay only takes a few minutes to learn (thanks to an excellent tutorial), but several hours to effectively master. It's kind of like TF2, but with planes: There are 5 different planes, each somewhat customizable. Save for deathmatch, the game modes are all team-play based, and are fairly well balanced.

Though multiplayer is the main MO, it also has a skirmish option (under "Training"), and the AI is pretty good. Unfortunately, a 'net connection is required to start the game, even if you're only going to play a skirmish. Online gameplay is excellent, with no noticeable lag issues and a very fast pace.

It's available on Steam for a promotional price of $9.89USD (with paypal exchange rates I payed less than $11), or once that ends, $14.99 USD. It's also available straight from the developers for $10USD via PayPal. The Steam version integrates with Steam Achievements, the non-Steam version has it's own Achievements (and they are mapped 1:1). There's also a free demo which gives you the first 2 planes and 3 hours of gameplay. If you're also the public-bragging type, Altitude also integrates with Facebook.

I should also note that it is cross-platform. It runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac, and one license covers all. It's also fairly easy on hardware: my 2003-era media center machine runs it smoothly at max settings and high resolution, so it should run fine on a netbook.

One small flaw is that there is no joystick support as of yet, it's keyboard and mouse only. I'm used to KB/M controls for gaming anyway, but flying games just feel better with a joystick.

All in all, this game is just excellent. Definitely a worthwhile purchase at the $10USD promotional price, or even the $15USD regular price. Hours upon hours of great fun, combined with cross-platform compatibility, low hardware requirements, and an impulse-buy level price should make this game a hit.

Developer: Nimbly Games
Site: http://www.altitudegame.com
Price: $10USD Promotional, $15USD regular
Platform: WinXP/Vista/7, Linux, Mac
Hardware: 1GHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 64MB GPU