Glaring flaws are apparent from the first mission. While players
control high-end fighter planes, there's no sense of speed here at all. Even when flying
low over the ground in full thrust, it barely feels like your moving faster than a car.
Destinations or mission objectives can take four or five minutes to reach, only to then
fire one missile to complete the task. It's this type of pacing that feels out of place. While likely realistic, it's hard to imagine this being entertaining. The strategy involved is welcome, especially when it comes to weapon selection. Unlike the standard console shooter, you're limited to what your wings can hold. Many missions will send the player out against more foes than they have missiles for. This will require a long trip back to base to land, refuel, and reload.
Co-pilots accompany the player on nearly every mission. They rarely listen to given commands unless the target you're pointing them to is clearly visible. Shooting down targets doesn't seem to be their specialty either. At times, they make some terrible judgment calls, crashing into your own plane abruptly ending the mission (obviously).
Additional concerns are present, including the effects of G-forces (hence the title) on your pilot. Go over a certain amount of pressure and your pilot begins to lose his vision. You're warned of this repeatedly by a grating cockpit voice. Aside from its sim-like approach, this is one of the few features to set this one apart from its more exciting cousins.
The single player campaign tells the basic war story between countries. The presentation is awful, with barely animated figures going over the basics to prepare for each sortie. In-game graphics are worse yet, sporting abysmal textures on the ground that would have been out of place on the Nintendo 64. A few mountain ranges are the only minor highlights.
Online, two different modes are offered. They come down to basic
deathmatch and team deathmatch. They're generally over fast as one-hit kills are the games
norm. Once the missiles are out, it takes some wild flying to dodge. Inexperienced players
are instantly wiped out. The same can be said for single player, and without using the advanced control set up, dodging incoming shots is nearly impossible. The arcade-friendly controls shouldn't even be in the game. Neither should the option to turn the audio over to 5.1 surround. That should be automatic with the appropriate cables, and it's the only game available that actually needs an option changed to enable it.
Over G Fighters final flaw is an unforgivable stack of glitches. Nearly every time an achievement is unlocked, the game freezes. The problem is that while the achievement is still awarded, it doesn't save the results of the mission. You'll need to replay it and hope it wasn't difficult. It's a glaring problem that never should have made it past testing.
Over G has a small niche audience to appeal to. It's nowhere near complex enough to draw in the Microsoft Flight Simulator crowd, and too dull to aim for the action set. Someone looking for a mix of both will find some of this fun. However, most of the missions feel like a waste of time as you fly through nothing to hit one target. It may strive for realism, but it miserably misses the entertainment mark.
