Until the Last Plane from publisher eastasiasoft and developer CarloC may have you thinking it’s a shoot ‘em up if you just look at the key art but that is very much not the case. The latest indie title from these teams is a World War II game where you’ll be more in control of managing the base and issuing the attacks. Here is my review of the PlayStation 5 version.
Until the Last Plane doesn’t feature a narrative really of any sorts so I’ll just get right into the gist of what I thought about the gameplay of it. This is a management simulation game but one that is very light compared to what you would normally see in the genre. You’ll get to play through three different campaigns each representing a different nation with those being the USA, Germany, and yes even Russia. Regardless of which you pick you’ll be doing a lot of the same things that being managing your airfield.
Each campaign has a few missions for you to take on and six different planes for you to manage. How you go about everything Is lightly taught to you through a short tutorial but I didn’t feel like it did a great job of properly explaining things so instead I kind of had to learn on the fly. The thing is the game isn’t very engaging and quickly feels like you are just going through the motions. You’ll basically just be pressing buttons to send a pilot out on a mission and then click the button some more to select targets for your pilot to attack. You’ll also come under attack from enemy planes and will have to press the button to evade and avoid being shot down.
When you finish missions you’ll need to press a button to fix up your planes at the base so that you can be ready for your next mission. Your planes also have different stats you can view which can help you better select which ones might be better for a mission. You can also spend skill points your earn from completed missions to unlock new perks to make your planes better as well as have your staff craft new parts for them too. As I said though it all gets a tad repetitive and just didn’t really grab me the way I was hoping it would.
Much like the gameplay the visuals and audio in Until the Last Plane also leave a lot to be desired. Whether you are viewing the base or the mission screen, everything in both of them whether it be the planes or the base looks rather basic and very much like a cheap mobile game. The audio features poor sounding sound effects and the same voice lines played over and over which gets old pretty fast. If you’re a trophy hunter you’ll find 13 trophies including a Platinum but this isn’t as fast and easy as most other titles from eastasiasoft and will take some time and effort to earn them all.
Until the Last Plane is a WWII management sim that just wasn’t fleshed out enough to hold my attention. While the game does have quite a few hours of content, the gameplay loop just got repetitive quickly and the rather basic visuals and audio design didn’t help matters. Maybe you’ll try it and like it but for me this is one title from eastasiasoft that is hard for me to recommend.
*Until the Last Plane is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. PlayStation 5 version reviewed. Review copy provided by the publisher for this review.
Until the Last Plane
$9.99
Pros
- Offers quite a few hours of content
Cons
- Tutorial doesn't explain things well
- Gameplay gets really repetitive
- Bland visual and audio design
