Project Wingman

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Project Wingman is a 2020 flight action game for PC (with 2021 port to Xbox One and Series X/S) developed by indie studio Sector D2 and published by Humble Games. It is a Spiritual Successor to Ace Combat, having been funded on Kickstarter during the drought between Assault Horizon and Skies Unknown, and wears its inspiration on its sleeve while having its own twists on the earlier series' formula.

On an alternate Earth, a worldwide volcanic cataclysm now known as the "Calamity" knocked human civilization back centuries, but also uncovered the geothermal energy resource known as "cordium". In the wake of the Calamity, a multinational polity situated around the Ring of Fire called the "Pacific Federation" rises to superpower status by banking on its control of cordium deposits.

The present year is 432 After Calamity (AC), and technology has returned to and even surpassed 21st Century AD levels. The United Cascadian Republic, a Federation member state located in western North America, declares its independence from the Federation and hires mercenaries to aid its fight against Federation forces bent on crushing the secession movement by force. The player character is Hitman One "Monarch", a pilot in the Sicario Mercenary Corps. As the war progresses, Monarch's prowess earns him notoriety and the enmity of the Federation's elite Peacekeepers, particularly their star Ace Pilot Crimson One, and things speed towards a conclusion no one may like.

In addition to the campaign detailed above, there is also a Roguelike Conquest mode where the player builds up a force to conquer Cascadia with.

In October 2023, it was released to PlayStation 5 with PSVR2 support and Frontline 59, an exclusive set of six missions from the perspective of Federation pilot "Driver".

Tropes used in Project Wingman include:

AKA-47: Due to lack of licensing, planes instead go by modified names like F/E-4 (F-4 Phantom), Sk.25U (Su-25) and Accipiter (Harrier).
Batman Cold Open: The very first mission has Sicario working an unrelated contract with the Creole Republic, albeit one that provides some Foreshadowing.
Bittersweet Ending: The Federation has given up on trying to retake Cascadia and the fires of liberation have been lit in other member states in response to the war crimes committed. Furthermore, the Mercenary difficulty bonus ending confirms that everyone in Sicario survived. However, Cascadia's major cities have been destroyed, leaving its future in doubt.
Bond One-Liner: The Final Boss will say "Predictable" if he kills you.
Boss-Only Level: Mission 21 is just you and the Final Boss, no one else unless you use non-canonical settings.
Guy in Back: One of the game's selling points is that the weapon systems officer found on two-seater planes is a fully-realised character of her own, Robin "President" (Prez) Kuo, rather than a nonentity like in AC.
Hit So Hard the Calendar Felt It: After the Calamity wreaked havoc on the world, the calendar now uses "After Calamity" to mark years.
Hope Spot: At the end of Mission 20, the Federation has signed a ceasefire with Cascadia and given up on trying to crush the independence forces. It looks like peace is finally at hand. Then Crimson One suddenly returns in a prototype superfighter and burns Presidia to the ground with a barrage of cordium missiles. Cue Mission 21 and the Final Boss.
Never My Fault: The Final Boss keeps blaming those darn mercenary dogs for everything going wrong even after personally unleashing Fantastic Nukes in defiance of the just-signed ceasefire.
The Quisling: Crimson One, leader of the Crimson Team of the Federation's Peacekeepers, is a Cascadian serving the Federation in thwarting his homeland's rebellion against them.
Sequel Escalation: Insofar as a Spiritual Successor can be considered a sequel, Project Wingman takes several AC staples Up to Eleven:
- Those Airborne Aircraft Carriers or supermassive flying wing bombers that serve as mission or arc bosses once or twice a game? Now Giant Mooks that can appear in numbers in the same mission.
- Some planes can have up to three special weapons instead of only one.
- Some AC games involve fighting to prevent WMDs from being used, or at worst are used on desolate rural areas like in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. Here, they are successfully used on cities, and several missions involve fighting over the immolated ruins.
- The Final Boss superplane leaves everything from AC in the dust agility-wise and gains special weapons as it Turns Red rather than merely swapping them out. It starts with Macross Missile Massacres like the CFA-44 Nosferatu, adds railguns, and then airburst missiles like the ADFX-01 Morgan.
Shout-Out:
- This is not the first time that a place called Prospero was burned.
- At one point Frost will say "You fired up? Come shoot me down."
Shut UP, Hannibal: In Mission 18, Diplomat delivers the shut up equivalent of a Cluster F-Bomb to Crimson One when the enemy pilot tries to blame them mercenary dogs for everything.
You Rebel Scum: The Final Boss calls you and yours dogs for most of his earlier appearances, but it culminates in his spending all of Mission 21 ranting about how none of this needed to have happened if the damn ingrate rebels you're fighting for hadn't tried seceding.

You're a slave to history. Even after Calamity, you fight against the only order that can guarantee the safety of your people. You, solely, are responsible for this.