Preview – Ground of Aces

The cancellation (or “indefinite hiatus”) of Jumplight Odyssey absolutely bites. League of Geeks folding is a huge loss, but Jumplight Odyssey was aiming to fill a massive hole that I don’t think anyone even realized was there. It was like the good half of Super Dimension Fortress Macross adapted into a management game. And it’s never going to happen. Who else is going to try and adapt Macross into a management game?

Ground of Aces isn’t that; but it is similar. Instead of a harrowing voyage of a starship full of castaways, it’s World War II and… Well, I suppose the Blitz isn’t that far off from Macross, now that I think about it.

You’re put in command of a fledgling air base, which means you aren’t just building buildings and farming farms, you’re also fighting Nazis. Everyone can agree with that. Well… Maybe not nowadays…

ACK-ACK SENDING A GREETING

The demo level starts off in August 1940, which is just before the Blitz starts. For the demo’s brevity, you’re given 28 days to prepare for the arrival of the bombers. This means getting an airstrip built, as well as accommodations for the staff. Screw supply lines, I guess, because while high command will send you some meagre supplies, you’ll need to make the rest yourself.

You’ll have to cut trees for lumber, dig out sand from sandpits and clay from clay pits. You can forage for food, but it’s probably more efficient to build farms. Weirdly, though, you can harvest your crops for seeds or produce, but not both. I’m not a farmer, but that doesn’t sound right to me.

It’s more zoomed in than plopping down a barracks and calling it a day. You construct the buildings like you might in The Sims. You erect walls, slap down some flooring, plop a roof on it, then scatter furniture to keep your little soldiers content. It’s nothing too difficult. They’re all content with their little cots. I’m not even sure if there’s much reason to make buildings out of wood or brick, since I haven’t seen my dudes complain unless there isn’t food. I guess maybe when winter rolls around they’re not going to like the tents much, but it’s Britain, so I don’t know.

GONE FOR A BURTON

I’m kind of wondering about the overall progression. It doesn’t seem like it would take very long to get your resources sorted out. There’s no tech tree that slows you down or forces you to focus on one thing at a time. So, what happens when you’ve built everything you need for your base to function and it just kind of runs itself?

The overall happiness of the base is literally that: the happiness of the whole base. It doesn’t seem like singular peeps are going to get so fed up that they desert. I found that when things started to get a little bleak around the base, I’d just give them more time to sleep, and they’d perk right up.

However, I think that, while Ground of Aces only has one level unlocked, it’s a progression rather than a sandbox. So, once you complete all the objectives on one, you start over on the next with different parameters. Like Two Point Hospital, for example. So the progression only has to be maintained for a brief period of time. Level by level, there would be a different focus. Like, maybe on one you need to defend exclusively against night raids, so you job is to use spotlights, adjust the sleep schedule, and get radar up and running.

Just spitballing. As is, I didn’t get everything done in the 28 days that I was given. Last thing it wanted me to do was build an AA gun, and I didn’t have enough time to figure out how to requisition that from headquarters.

PUT UP A BLACK

You need to stock planes and pilots; the whole WW2 airfield concept. Every once and a while, headquarters radios you with a mission. You then pick the plane/pilot best suited and they depart. You’ll get a mission complete or a mission failed once it’s run its course.

It’s kind of funny. I wonder how the war would have gone if headquarters just radioed airfields with requests, and the airfield could just ignore them. 

You’re then given supplies at the end of each week based on how many missions you successfully completed, which is also funny. As I mentioned before, they don’t send you much, but you can make specific requests… I just didn’t know how to.

You can buy better planes using points given to you from successful sorties. There’s a large variety of them. Obviously, not all of them are unlocked for the demo, but they show off the available planes going all the way up to the late-war jet, the Gloster Meteor. And it feels pretty good when you spend the points on getting more advanced planes. Seeing biplanes replaced by Spitfires, you almost feel that base morale that everyone else is getting. That first big bomber? Yeah. That’s the good stuff. 

I do wonder about the mission variety, though. As far as I see, they’re all pretty interchangeable. A combat mission unfolds in the same way as recon. I’m not sure if pilots have different stats that will make them more suitable for specific missions, but that information wasn’t readily available. At the same time, if you don’t have a pilot suited for a certain mission, that could be frustrating. It would be a bad day for London.

APPLYING BUTTER

If there’s one thing I hope gets worked into the full version, I’d like to see better individuality for the staff. They all look different, and I think they have little traits, but it’s hard to really appreciate the differences. Maybe the traits will come more into play when Fritz comes knocking at the door. Or maybe I just need to play more of it before I can read the personalities easier.

But the reason I feel focus needs to be given to the little people is because this has the potential for every air base to feel like a little team that has to struggle, fail, and succeed together. My mind goes back to Two Point Hospital where the staff has traits that don’t mean a whole lot in practical terms. But you had to train them in certain fields to get the best out of them, so eventually you’d have a few doctors who you know well because they’re the ones really super-good at psychology. Something like that might work here, since then, you’d know who your top mechanic is and who the cook is.

I have a lot of questions about where Ground of Aces is going to go, but I actually enjoyed what was available in the demo. I’m probably interested enough to pick up the full version when it comes around. Managing a little air base is a pretty cozy experience, which isn’t something I thought I’d ever say about a WW2 game, but there it is.

You can try the Ground of Aces demo for yourself, as its demo has been updated in advance of Steam Next Fest. It’s targeting a full release in 2025.