DogFighter: Hands-On Impressions and Giveaway [Updated]


DogFighter, Dark Water Studios‘ arena-based aerial combat game, took to the virtual skies via Steam about a month ago. Over the past couple of weeks, I repeatedly jumped into the cockpit to assess the fast-paced shooter.

DogFighter’s controls are solid, always siding with fun over realism, and the game’s five different arenas make for entertaining playgrounds. A variety of single-player challenges and multiplayer gameplay modes are available, and the rapid-fire nature of many of the gameplay types ensures very little downtime between respawns.

Power-ups and weapon pickups are littered throughout each environment and hidden in destructible hot-air balloons, adding another layer of fun uncertainty to each battle. Unlimited boost, invisibility, and even a pickup that will disable the engines of nearby enemies can be found, amongst various rockets, rail guns, and machine guns. “Dummy” power-ups that look quite similar to the helpful ones should be avoided, lest you grab one accidentally disable your own radar, or worse.

There are seven different aircraft to choose from that sport different stats in areas ranging from armor to agility, allowing players to choose airplanes that compliments their play-styles. With some very minor tweaking to the controls and sensitivity, I was able to quickly settle on a very comfortable mouse and keyboard setup, though use of an Xbox 360 controller is also supported.

The game’s five different maps are well designed and show a good deal of variety, from the Egyptian-themed “Pharaohs,” an arena surrounded by pyramids that you can fly through, to “Volcano,” a map with a giant lava-filled volcano in the center. The more elaborate maps with hidden tunnel systems stood out to me as being the most fun to fly around.

The single-player experience includes AI-supported Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Free Flight, and Survivor (kill unlimited waves of enemies). The bulk of the single-player portion of DogFighter is called “Tournament,” which pits players against five tiers of challenges ranging from “Cadet” to “Ace,” each with varying match parameters and three different medals to achieve. Sometimes you’ll be relegated to bullet-based weapons only, some matches feature the “instagib” parameter (a one-shot-one-kill mode), and other objectives come in both offensive and defensive varieties. The Tournament mode is much more fun than I expected, but still feels like an appetizer for the game’s meat-and-potatoes multiplayer.

Online matches with up to eight players come in three flavors: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag, and each mode can be modified with the same parameters found in the single-player tournament missions. In it’s current state though, DogFighter’s multiplayer is a bit problematic. The game currently lacks any dedicated server support, which means that trying to locate a match to join often yields few or no results. If you’re lucky enough to find someone hosting a game, latency can vary wildly, based on the host’s connectivity. It’s a shame, because multiplayer is the game’s main draw. That said, I followed up with Dark Water Studios’ Damien Gallagher and fortunately, the issue is being addressed via a dedicated server patch due in the next few weeks. In the meantime, those picking up the game would do well to join Steam’s DogFighter group to help coordinate matches.

DogFighter is quite fun and mechanically sound, but until dedicated server support arrives, I’d recommend coordinating with a few friends if you decide to pick it up, just so you’ll have an easier time experiencing the game’s multiplayer aspect.

Damien was also generous enough to provide me with three codes for a free Steam copy of DogFighter to give away. If you’re interested in a free copy of the game, just post a note in the comments for this post before 12PM (PST) on Friday, July 16. (You’ll need to quickly register and provide a valid email address.) We’ll select three winners at random, and notify them later that afternoon.

DogFighter was developed by Dark Water Studios, and is available on Steam for $16.99.

[UPDATE: Congratulations to readers lowpoly, K13bryant, and RL, the random winners of a free copy of DogFighter via Steam! Stay tuned for more reviews, news, media, and giveaways on the Indie Games Channel.]

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  • lowpoly

    This actually looks pretty damn fun

  • mutantpoo

    This sounds like a barrel of fun. Could very well be the best [ read fun ] plane game since Crimson Skies [ PC ]. !!! Hope I win :o

  • Jerkbot7

    Poast.
    Looks pretty cool! Not really into air combat games but this looks awesome.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/BDKYGCYKOU7AJH3BV7FDA5JI64 AnthonyD

    Could be really fun. Thanks for the quick review.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/fire.esper Draco_2k

    Ah, another drop of fresh water in the sea of stagnation.

  • Lordkane773

    I always liked area air combat games especially as inventive looking ones as this

  • Angryhomelessperson

    Screenshots remind me quite a bit of Crimson Skies, an old favorite of mine. I'd love to give it a try :)

  • Senate5000

    This looks pretty fun.

  • Pewpewblam

    I am a huge fan of WWI era dogfighting and the beautiful planes they used. The flight of those beautiful planes differs so much from later higher powered war birds.
    I would dearly love to get picked for this and play it.

  • K13bryant

    Has potential.

  • UKCerberus

    Was in the beta for this and got 14 of the achievements named, but now i cannot afford it and I so want to get the achievement “that my friend is the smell of inevitability achievement so I can fill my ego XD. Really good game

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/powersauce DrWaffles

    I wonder if there's a demo — I have not been able to find one. Looks like it could be worth checking out for a Shacknews Shackbattle.

  • derek

    I'm a huge fan of crimsons skies and really love these kind of games. The game looks like it has heaps of potential with arcade style fun.

  • deimos

    Looks good and fun.

  • Kazazercan

    Looking good. I love multiplayer flight games and want to try this.

  • Lukio

    I actually just looked at this game yesterday but missed a demo on Steam.

  • Mfanucci

    I really wish this game had a demo, it looks really interesting. I'm just not willing to drop $20 without a demo, though.

  • ST3ALth

    DogFighter = Fun gameplay + Great graphics + Beautiful visual style

  • JT

    Dogfighter is lots of fun. Survivor, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the flag are all in there. online leaderboards too which cranks up the competition.
    pickups are standard mariokart like with a few novel ones thrown in.
    flight controls are arcadey rather than simulation (yay!) and xbox controller supported out of the box.

    upcoming patches announced with joystick/joypad (older ones) support and dedicated server.

    good game, plenty of potential and community is growing. worth getting into.

  • http://liberatedsoftware.wordpress.com/ LiberatedSoftware

    I wanna win a copy! And if I don't, I wish they'd release a demo!

  • http://twitter.com/christian_mad Christian M

    Ohhhhhhh looks nice!! Looks like a 3D version of Altitude!!

  • Vertdang

    I've been having a lot of fun playing Altitude lately, this looks like it'd be a lot of fun too.

  • Turbinator

    I would love to get a chance to play this game, it looks incredibly fun.

  • Dwolvin

    Looks very interesting, is it an 'arcade' flight sim as the Crimson Sky, or a bit more realistic? From the clip on Shacknews I think it might be pretty simplified… But it does still look very fun.

  • tomgarz

    does look like a fun game….

  • Narrator

    Cool

  • Darthfusion

    3rd Person Flight Game (with a Hud^^)

    Looks Great^^

  • persuxe

    I'll give them a try if they release a demo and dedicated servers.

  • RL

    I had a go at this when it was in beta. Should probably get it at some point.

  • http://twitter.com/Kenuzara Chris McClean

    Looks like a lot of fun, heard a lot of great things about it too!

  • http://www.forgedpixels.com Indiechannel

    Looking really nice, I should nab this to fill my air combat void…

  • dan

    I'm really looking forward to this, always like aerial combat games. :)

  • DRM

    I can't wait, looks like it will take lots of my time up.

  • David Ho

    DogFighter looks good, play style is awesome and the story is fast paced.

  • joe j.

    now with dedicated servers and joystick support!

  • Tristan85

    Type your commenDark Water Studios’ DogFighter has received several updates since beta and the controls were re-worked since about version 1.0.2.2.

    So anyone who reviewed it ( @disposable157 ) before that, may need to give it a second looking over.

    In its current version (1.0.2.5 as of Oct 30) the controls using either Keyboard + Mouse (WASD – my standard preferred method) or Joypad / or Joystick (Thrustmasters and all that) or Xbox 360 controllers, the game handling is brilliant.

    And if….somehow….you still dont like the controls….or the sensitivity….you can…believe it or not….TOGGLE them to your liking.

    Apart from that (historic and fixed) issue the game is running well, the dedicated servers are solid and after the big sale this week on Steam Im finding more and more DFighters out there to clan up with.

    Haters, do yourselves a favour and have another look at the updated, latest version.

    Good job Dark Water. Go Indie GO!t here.

  • halcylon

    reviews on metacritic looked gooood so i picked it up a 4pak. Plays Great^^ its got Crimson Skies in the mix but also some Counter Strike.

  • hayward00

    Brilliantly blurs between arcade racer and fps-action, Dark Water has established itself a refreshing franchise that is sure to see sequel after sequel.

    A definging template that is sure to see a plethora of me-too titles from the bigger studios.

    more user reviews here:
    http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/dogfighter/user-reviews

    Remember Dark Water did it first!

    88%.

    Hayward.

  • SNaylor

    Nifty indie title. really little excuse not to buy DogFighter – especially as they’ve added the revered and holy dedicated servers. A B+ title for sure.
    -SNaylor.

    -SNaylor.

  • Great_game

    great game and getting better updated demo has some more planes and the tutorial really helps.

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/42500

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