Aces of Thunder review: The sky is enormous until somebody starts shooting

The big picture

A cockpit is a wonderful place to discover how much confidence depends on being allowed to see everything. Outside, there is an entire sky. Inside, there are instruments, a windscreen, and the growing suspicion that the other pilot has developed a personal relationship with your blind spot. Aces of Thunder makes that enclosed perspective central to its appeal. The airplane isn't a vehicle you admire from behind while performing magnificent nonsense. You're sitting in the thing, and the magnificent nonsense now has consequences.

Gaijin's combat flight game brings First and Second World War aircraft into a cockpit-only format, with optional VR rather than a headset requirement. Its February 3, 2026 release on Windows PC and PlayStation 5 also makes its intentions fairly easy to read: this is a dedicated aerial combat package, not an invitation to spend the first evening figuring out whether the airplane part is buried inside another game. The real question is whether you enjoy the particular pleasure of becoming responsible for something that absolutely should not be upside down at this moment.

A headset is an option, not an enlistment requirement

VR is an obvious fit for this premise. Looking around a cockpit and judging where another aircraft sits are exactly the sorts of activities that make physical perspective meaningful. Interactive cockpits and virtual controls pursue that connection, while HOTAS support accommodates people whose desks already resemble a small procurement scandal. Gamepad support and non-VR play widen the entrance considerably.

That flexibility deserves credit without turning into an imaginary promise about comfort or performance. A supported headset is not a guarantee that every person will enjoy aerial movement in VR. Nor does controller support mean all input methods offer the same experience. Those are separate decisions: whether you like this kind of flying, and how you want to operate the aircraft. Buying the most elaborate equipment possible will not settle the first question. It may merely allow you to be confused using more authentic hardware.

The cockpit-only perspective is similarly a strength with a clear cost. Anyone who primarily wants cinematic external views and immediate visual clarity should recognize the bargain. Aces of Thunder's enclosure is part of the point, not a missing convenience that should be wished away.

More than an online firing squad

Online dogfighting supplies the competitive side, but the package also includes single-player missions and the War Tales campaign. A proving ground and mission editor add other reasons to spend time with the aircraft. That variety matters because practicing a machine and competing in it are different pleasures. Sometimes you want a historical scenario. Sometimes you want another human opponent. Sometimes you want five minutes in which nobody converts your learning process into their highlight reel.

The fifteen maps cover multiple theaters, including Western, Eastern, and Pacific settings alongside WWI frontlines. Their role is to give aerial engagements different backdrops and contexts, rather than to turn the game into a sightseeing holiday. Still, scenery has a useful supporting job here. Flying a period aircraft over a recognizable kind of landscape gives the mechanical exercise a stronger sense of place than hovering over an anonymous training grid.

Walking around the hangar between missions adds a quieter expression of the same enthusiasm. There is something charmingly honest about a combat game making room to look at the airplane while it isn't being urgently damaged. Admiration and survival can have separate visiting hours.

The verdict

Aces of Thunder has a coherent pitch: a focused historical combat-flight collection with cockpit immersion, multiple control options, and alternatives to constant multiplayer competition. The Deluxe upgrade adds aircraft rather than extra multiplayer respawns, an important distinction for anyone weighing the editions. More machines means more choices, not permission to return indefinitely after a disastrous decision.

Its best audience is the player who finds learning an aircraft intrinsically rewarding. The cockpit restriction and simulation priorities won't turn it into a universal crowd-pleaser, and they shouldn't. This is a game for people who hear “check behind you” and consider that an exciting design principle. Everybody else may prefer their sky with fewer responsibilities. Preferably served from a window seat.