Reviews

• 

  odog502

  Apr 3, 2023

  Overall

  I really enjoyed this one, but can't recommend it due to a couple of very big flaws. If it weren't for the camera tracking issues and the fact that the game was left unfinished, this would have been one of my favorite VR titles. Fixing just one of those would probably be enough to bump it up to a "recommended" rating. Another big reason to not recommend this title is that it is a near duplicate of the original, Final Approach. It comes down to this:

  Do you need to buy this game if you already have Final Approach? No.

  Should you buy this instead of Final Approach if you have neither? They each have their own charm, you decide based on the gameplay style you want to experience. (more on that below)

  Is it worth playing if you got it bundled for free with Final Approach? Yes.

  On paper, the game is just about landing planes, but it's made quite broad with the unique locations, mini-games, mission variety, quality visuals and lively voice acting.

  Pros

  Cons

  🟩 Beautiful visuals and sound, lots of tiny details 🟩 Variety of scenarios and mini-games 🟩 Simple, fun gameplay

  🟧 Unfinished game, incomplete levels 🟧 Unobtainable achievements 🟧 Camera follows but doesn't track aircraft

  How's this different from Final Approach?

  Final Approach: Pilot Edition (FA:PE) is an exact copy of Final Approach (FA) with only a couple of key differences in how they are played:

  In FA you play the game standing above an airfield, and land planes by mapping out flight paths with your VR wands.

  In FA:PE you sit in a chair, landing planes by taking direct control of them and flying them via 3rd person view. Everything is done via your gamepad. Your VR wands aren't used at all in FA:PE except to start or exit the game.

  That's basically it. Otherwise, the missions, story, graphics, etc. is all the same. FA:PE and the original FA are both fun, and they feel like different experiences, despite being essentially the same game. If you get it bundled with FA, that's great. It's a fun twist on the original. However if you gotta pick one, I have to go with FA. Its the experience that the software is designed for. And since the games are so similar you really don't need to buy this one too unless you enjoyed the original enough to want to play it again from a different angle.

  Camera Tracking

  Now, let's address the elephant in the room, because it's an understandable deal-breaker for some people. The camera (your VR display) follows, but does not track the aircraft you control. I'll give you an example to illustrate. Let's say you are flying a plane you selected. As long as that plane flies straight, you are right there with it, following in third person. However, if you turn that plane, you need to turn your chair to keep that aircraft in the center of your vision, otherwise it flies out of your view. Doing a 180 with your aircraft requires you to do a 180 with your chair. Yeah, its a little weird, and probably not their preferred design. I'm guessing they had a choice between rebuilding FA:PE from the ground up (to make it a true 3rd person experience) or simply use 95% of the code already written for FA, with some minor adjustments to make FA:PE possible, and they decided to go with the latter. Fortunately, a button on your gamepad can be pressed to re-center the plane in your vision. In practice, this means that every time you are turning an aircraft you are pressing that "re-center" button a few times in a single turn so that you can play the game sitting still without spinning your chair. Yes, it's a hacky mechanism, but I was able to get accustomed to it and still enjoy the game. For some people, this is a deal-breaker. It's nauseating to some, and I can see why. For me, my tolerance for spinning and motion in VR is probably medium. I'm not the strongest nor am I the weakest for that kind of stuff. I was able to adjust and play for long periods of time without issue. It's important to note that this issue only affects FA:PE, because in FA, planes are not flown in 3rd person, they are merely guided like an air traffic controller.

  Gameplay

  As far as gameplay is concerned it's really a great balance of difficulty and fun. Reading the description, a game that's primarily based on landing and launching planes may not sound that great, but it actually is. It can get quite hectic with all the things going on at once: aircraft waiting to take off, engine fires that need to be put out, birds on the runway, aircraft in the air with low fuel wanting to land. There are tons of aircraft to control and each one behaves slightly different in terms of speed and maneuverability, but the learning curve for getting it down is still pretty small. It's meant to be fun, not a simulation. They did fantastic with the core gameplay. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2956807534 While semi-cartoony, it is still excellent visually. You'll find yourself leaning forward occasionally to take a close at all the tiny little details. Each of the 4 locations has a different feel, unique obstacles and different built-in minigames:

  Parrot Island is a simple, laid-back airport and a good place to learn the basics.

  Metro Airport is busy and requires extra effort to avoid collisions on the ground.

  Metro City requires maneuvering around buildings, mainly focusing on helicopters and stunt planes.

  Midway is all military aircraft and aircraft carriers. It even includes some combat. (which is more fun in FA:PE than in FA)

  Each mini-game is wildly different, from sorting luggage to manning an anti-aircraft gun on a cruiser. It highlights the considerable effort in making this game as broad as possible. The variety ensures nothing gets too repetitive. There's a story that's with you the whole way. It's not too in depth, but it's adequate to frame the purpose of each of the 15 missions. Besides the story missions there are challenge missions, and they are definitely more intense. Most of those require multi-tasking and quick reactions. Switching between aircraft and taking control of an aircraft is fluid. Everything you need to do can be done from a standard PS or XBox gamepad.

  Achievements and Completion Time

  My other big gripe about this game is that even though it's not in "early access" it is not yet complete. To be clear, it is complete mechanically and functionally. It's playable, and relatively bug free, but the final levels were never released. Levels 16 and 17 are locked, and are shown as "coming soon". It's been 6 years since the last update from the devs, so it's safe to say that it will likely remain this way for eternity. What makes matters worse is that there are achievements tied to these locked levels. So achievement hunters be warned, it is not possible to 100% this game. If they couldn't commit to finishing the last two levels, that's understandable, but at least roll back the code to only be 15 levels so the achievements aren't eternally stuck. Leaving a game hanging like that really grinds my gears. In order to complete all the currently released story levels, challenge levels, and earn 91% achievements (the rest are bugged or dependent on unplayable levels), I logged about 20 hours in the game. You could easily get through it under half that time though. I spent a bunch of extra time replaying levels, attempting to climb the leaderboards. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2956808039

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• 

  BodyPolitic

  Jun 24, 2016

  The thing to remember first about Pilot Edition, it exists to capture VR players without motion controlls. The reason I bring that up is you will find a lot of the same tricks\modes of the original Final Approach. Stuff like Bird Clearing, queing planes for takeoff, fire duty. But the real core of this game is all about flying. The first ouple campaign/tutorial levels will seem awfully familiar to FA owners. But this is saved by how cool flying is. Even from 3rd person its really great to be controlling this 3d model, and it deals with aero dynamics pretty well, so don't start a straight down dive figuring you can pull up at the last second, you will die.Same goes for slowing down too much . I was reaching for a ballon on a really steep climb in plane not designed for that and the engine started to stall . Just stuff like that makes it a completely new dimension to the game. Its one of the best put togather VR games around right now. If I was a rift owner I'd buy this for sure, I ended up playing about 40 mins on my first go and the time just flew by, the only reason I quit was I had caused a two 747 looking planes to collide/explode on the runway at that big airport where it's all airlines. Otherwise I'd probably still be playing/ For Vive owners it really is best to think of this as just anoher part of a whole larger game, say Final Approach: Definative Edition. Over I'd say I still like the room scale version a bit more. but this isn't half bad and well worth the time
• 

  Marmot

  Jun 24, 2016

  HTC Vive owner... I kept meaning to get the original Final Approach. I finally got FA: Pilot Edition so I'll have both versions. I've just played Pilot Edition so far. It's fun and very pretty. It's got that "I just want to land a few more planes before I turn it off feel". Definitely a really good VR game. Now I want to go play with the original standing HTC Vive version. Pay attention to "controller support" part--it really does want a game controller (my PS4 one worked fine through USB). There are many different kinds of planes, plus helicopters. (My only complaint is that it's challenging to try to stay lined up with the planes as I land. As a result I get a just a tiny bit of motion sickness there--nothing that forced me to stop and I'm pretty sensitve to that kind of thing.)
• 

  Master Betty! MouseNoKeyboard

  Jun 24, 2016

  very simlier to the final approach vive game but just doesn't have anything on it as you dont have 2 hands, your hands are basically were you look lol just look at were you want to use the hose or air horn and press a button on a xbox control, got really board after 1 mission. Was really hoping that you would be able to be in the actual plane in first person when flying but nope thats just thrid person :( i didnt get to were you start throwing there suitcases in the right containers was fun with vive as you actually have to physically pick up and throw them but i can imagen for oculus you just press A,B,Y,X YAWN!
• 

  The Maddog

  Jun 25, 2016

  Long story short, this is Final Approach: The "Seated Controller Edition" (aka any VR user without tracked motion controllers). It's basically the original game remade for a seated / xbox controller experiance (or at this point in time, the Oculus Rift). I much preffer the roomscale version but this version is just as engaging and just as much fun to play. Since you currently get both versions for the price of one, you lose nothing and gain everything. Since I already highly recommened the original Final Approach I'll just jump to the pro's and cons of this version since whilst they are the same game storywise, gameplay differs a lot. Pros: Acctually piloting the planes and choppers makes for fun gameplay. Very diffrent to simply drawing out a guideline and in some respects more fun, Cons: Losing the motion controllers detracts in certain elements and is a lot less fun, especially when you go down into the gameworld to perform certain tasks. There's also the the whole camera tracking / VR sickness thing. I seem pretty imune to it but certain elements could induce it, expecially when piloting plans in a 3rd person perspective. Would have been better to acctually pilot directly from the pilots seat but I can see why the devs didnt do this (the original was never designed that way). Overall though it's still big recommendation from me. 2 games for the price of one, not everyone gets VR sickness (and if you do, just wait for your motion controllers and play the alternate version). It's win win for us gamers and we all get to pick and choose which version works best for us. Big thanks to the devs just for throwing out this non roomscale version at no extra cost. Here's to Phaser Lock and all the keep doing in VR.
• 

  Swissy87

  Jun 25, 2016

  get the standard edition. Pilot edition is very disappointing, no cockpit or first person view, makes you feel quite sick. The main game is worth getting though
• 

  Mad Dog Biff

  Jun 26, 2016

  On level 5 at the time of writing this. Just to say it's a lot of fun in this mode. Just as chaotic and a bit harder as doing stuff takes longer. Personally I am enjoying it as much as roomscale but it does make some people a little dizzy. I get just a touch of that but not enough to make me ill. You need to hit the left bumper as the plane turns so you can stay behind it and pull back on the left joystick to slow it down. I think they have done a great job. Cockpit mode would be good but not essential.
• 

  Foxysaux

  Jun 27, 2016

  Not for the weak of stomach... My first time flying ended disasterously, plane after plane would get lost or crash in any attempt to even land would end in fiery death, that is if I could even find where the runway was. I found it jarring that any time I wanted to steer, the plane would fly out of my view, the camera does not follow, and the only way to adjust the plane back into view was to hit the left bumper of my controller. Suffice to say that any turn was nearly impossible to follow and that hitting the bumper only made me confused as to what new direction I was heading, ( some sort of indicator hud as to where the landing zones are would have been greatly helpful in that situation). At this point it was unplayable as I could not even get past the tutorial level... However on my second attempt I found out the much needed accessory that was crucial to playing this game, a swivel chair! Yes, rotating my physical view allowed me to keep the plane in sight while it turned. So simple and yet completely flew right over my head. Once discovering that little tid-bit I got quite good at handling the plane, putting out fires, and tending to the seagulls. However...I was ill-prepared for the nasuea I would feel. Slowly but surely it ate away at my tolerance level (which to be fair isn't that high) until I had to just close my eyes and take off the headset. For those gifted with iron inner-ears(?) this is a pretty fun version of the roomscale one, but I cannot personally recommend it.
• 

  Hector6496

  Jul 4, 2016

  I enjoyed the gameplay of this game. It is an interesting idea that might need a little tweaking to make perfect but I think it is definitely worth picking up. If nothing else it will help you work on your multitasking skills.
• 

  EeveeP

  Jul 14, 2016

  I had hoped the view was more first person but this is still a bit of fun if you want a sit down. Slower pace of play to the stand up room scale game.
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  RED-FROG

  Jul 19, 2016

  As too often mentioned: The weird camera paths make it unplayable. Why can't the camera just lock on the plane?! It even sometimes feels a bit nauseating when the camera "loses tracking" and everything moves in an unexpected way. Flying (""""landing"""") the barely controllable arcade planes is no fun at all. I got the game for free since I bought Final Approach (which is A LOT better). If I had bought it for the asked price of 23€ o_O, I'd just ask for a refund. This whole thing has just quickly been made to serve the Rift users with their Xbox controllers... Had the game installed for a while now, but never launched it, I knew from the beginning I wasn't going to like it... I wonder if mouse&keyboard is possible, perhaps going to try it one day.
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  Luna☭Kisunya

  Jul 27, 2016

  I thought this game would be like a flight sim, with you in the cockpit flying the plane. But you actually are flying behind the plane. It is very nauseating. I wouldn't recommend this game, I would suggest playing the other version of final approach instead.
• 

  Big Ol' Pupper

  Sep 21, 2016

  Great demonstration of how to cause motion sickness.
• 

  AwwSkiSkiSki

  Oct 2, 2016

  Tried to land 5 planes in the tutorial.. crashed them all. Got dizzy and wobbly.. Cursed... Wrote this review This game is unplayable . The biggest issue being that the camera doesnt track with the plane... I dont know whats going on with that. But you press the bumper and it will put your view behind the pkane again, but as soon as you turn, the camera stop tracking.. This game got me crazy dizzy. I think the only other game to get me feeling ill was Minecraft on Occulus VR
• 

  The Omen ☣

  Oct 7, 2016

  You will WANT to use an Xbox controller for this. A flight stick crossed my mind but I'm not sure if that's possible. I played a good amount of Final Approach. I liked it. Then I tried Pilot Edition. WHOA I love this. I asked my G/F if she's ever played any flight games (like HAWX) and she said NO. (only flying in GTA) So she tried Pilot Edition. She crashed her planes... alot. But she stuck with it! Now she reeeally likes this game. HIGHLY recommended.
• 

  rdelly

  Dec 1, 2016

  Got Pilot Edition free as part of a package. The Final Approach game is really fun, but the Pilot Edition made me really sick. I haven't played it since.
• 

  :SIGMA:

  May 5, 2017

  Nausea!! I don't get it often with VR but this game did it.
• 

  Unheil

  Jun 26, 2017

  First of all, a tip to all the folks having problems with "pilot edition" and camera tracking: I find it very unfair to downvote here! The game was originally the "still standing" version where you draw lines with your touch controller. Now, people who wanted to actually fly them things (and have actual VR legs) got the awesome "Pilot Edition" for free, and all the others complain and downvote this game. Guys, that's life. If you get sick, play the standard edition. Don't downvote for free addons that you don't like. You are teaching game developers here the very wrong story. They will nerf their stuff even further, if they learn they will get downvoted for "non comfort"-features. As a real tip: Don't sit at a table. Take your (hopefully) wireless controller and a rotating chair, and follow the planes by turning the chair. Nausea gone. No to my review: I bought this game at the '17 summer sale for 3,74€, and for that price it's an awesome fun to play. For the full price (currently 14,99€) maybe I wouldn't recommend it, not sure. But, considering the fact that you get two different versions (the norrmal edition, where you draw paths for the airplanes with your touch controller, and the more awesome Pilot Edition, where you fly with your game controller), it shouldn't be too expensive then either. The game gives you a "toy version" of airfields, where you move around, start and land airplanes. There are some mini-games and some dogfighting against UFOs. It's great fun for some hours, and I like the toy-like plastic look and the variety of planes. If you get it on sale, it's a must have. For the full price, still not bad if you like this kind of games.
• 

  Rafport

  Jun 29, 2017

  Seeing other reviews I see I'm an exception, but honestly I liked the Pilot Edition more than the standard one. I bought Final Approach just when launched, at the very early days of Vive avaliability, and yes it was cool but wasn't very impressed of the gameplay itself. The game suffered also of awful performances with lot of missed frames, and I refunded. I'm back today after more than a year, with the Pilot Edition (than include also the standard, if you buy this one you'll get both). I tried the classic version again, the graphics is way more detailed and super smooth, they made an exceptional work in optimizations but still I don't find particulary fun or compelling the gameplay. With my surprise, the Pilot Edition instead fit way more my taste. Where those games are almost identical in contents, the classic version use full roomscale, handtracking and is based on drawing paths in the air: let's say than is closer to play with toys on a tabletop airport. The Pilot Edition instead is a seated + pad experience, something less interesting in theory, but well... now you pilot airplanes with a sweet third person view! It's like a Pilotwings kind of game mixed with managerial elements. Birds and fires are still present, but their weight is reduced, and this also is a good news being both actions repetitive and annoying to perform. I realize than the classical Final Approach was (and still is) a more peculiar and roomscale oriented project, but the Pilot Edition as pure videogame is a better product.
• 

  sivis

  Jun 30, 2018

  There is only 1 camera option - following the airplane and it's only barely playable at best. Phaser Lock Interactive, please add more camera views, for example: First Person View, Proper Third Person View, Topdown View and so on.