It's actually a nice game, price is quite low so I would not expect AAA game and it's not a simulator!
I write this review as veteran of IL-2 series and huge fan of flying games. Squadron 303 is unique, you not only have a chance to fly but also explore your airfield and talk with people, there is a lot of "lore" and you can learn quite a bit about history of this unit and members. Also, playing as mechanic is a nice addition.

I do enjoy this game a lot, it's something new, has a lot of interesting futures and it's really fun to play.

Hope it will be a success and maybe game will expand into new squadrons and missions, maybe even Skalski's Circus ;) or German point of view with playable Bf109. I recommend it but keep in mind that it's indie game for 20$ and don't expect it to be a sim.

After playing for for a bit and doing five missions or so, I believe I have expirienced the gist of the game.

I have closely followed the development of 303 Squadron since it's announcement, and it's pretty much what I expected from an Early Access game.

The game is clunky at this stage, as in EA v1.1.0.

First off, the performance-
Running the game on an Intel Core i7-5930k CPU, GeForce GTX 980 Ti AMP! Omega 6GB GPU and 4x8GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR5 2133MHz RAM, I must say the performance leaves much to be desired.
Looking at many objects at once makes my FPS dip from 60 to around 40- changing the settings does not change anything.
The trees kill frame rates- at least in my case.

Visual fidelity-
The meshes look good, especially the planes, with some faces looking a bit odd.
The textures are nice on the planes, yet interior floors and even some objects look way too clean to really strike realism. They also do look a bit grainy at times, I don't know what it is, especially in the cockpit, but I do believe it could be easily fixed. Faces do sometimes look a little too clean as well, the mechanic for example.
When it comes to use of height maps and such, objects such as brickwork look wonderful yet for example curtains look like flat planes and would definitely need a little tweak, this applies to some objects.
The characters looks too still, like puppets. Some more animations would help with putting them to life- they just sit there,or stand, and look about aimlessly.

Mechanics-
The flying mechanics are the best thing about the game. For this stage of development they do feel quite polished- no pun intended.
Arcade mode is what you would think, just ordinary plane arcade mode but realistic on the other hand, realistic is fun. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but the planes do feel like they have weight to them. If you rush, you will end up fighting with your plane and the forces applied to it. This very fact makes killing very satisfying.
The X-Ray killcam is surprisingly good, at first I thought it was just an annoying gimmick, but when getting into some serious engagements, it can give you lots of satisfaction from knowing that not only you ripped the enemy plane apart, but also you head shot the pilot at the end.
I also like how, quite simillar to War Thunder, planes have weak spots. Shoot ammo boxes, they explode. Damage the engines enough, they explode. Really cool stuff.
One issue I had was with throttle. The only way I could throttle down was to throttle up, which would set me to 0%, and then throttle up again into the desired percentage which totally killed my momentum.
About the mechanic feature, it feels a little underwhelming. Basically a glorified settings tab, but it is cool how you can disassemble your planea and see how it works.

Overall, I do recommend this game to anyone who is into WW2 aircraft combat but is too off put by simulators. Or anyone into the Polish/Czech side of the story regarding WW2. But if you're not any of what I mentioned, I would give this game a pass until the game is finished or further in development.
But be warned if you decide to get this game, this game is REALLY early in development, so you will run across annoyances.
Also as for now (v.1.1.0) you cannot change keybindings nor set the game to Polish language, which is quite annoying. And this is also why I'm not writing about the voice acting, as I do believe Polish dubbing with English subtitles will fix the issue, if it's implemented that is.

Also the soundtrack is nice. Kudos to the composer.

ok so I have played it enough to get the basics and it is still terrible with the way your plane moves. its a real shame as its good with the graphics and the planes and the X-ray kill cam. like in sniper elite v2. I hope that atomic jelly can improve this game and mechanics. this is what I think

pros

1- great music
2- great plot and story
3- great graphics
4- shooting is good I love the traces and how u can see it.
5- awesome x-ray kill cams and the way planes are shot down is very realistic.
6- I have not seen any bugs so rather I am too late and they have all been fixed from what I have seen. it is amazing. no bugs or nothing

cons
1- the controls are terrible. when on the bike it is fine though
2- it's hard to fly even in the arcade mode. takes like 1 min alone to get in place to shoot enemy plane. it's like the plane controls itself.

overall this game is very good and I am not going to get a refund for now and I have also given thumbs up as I have hope in time the developer will improve the mechanics for flying. and shooting mechanics. I leave this game in my library a couple of months and hopefully, it will be improved

also overall the game is really good. but the flying and shooting mechanics let it down. thank you for making a good game so far atomic. it's very good but just needs some improvements which I am sure is not hard for you as you have made it very good so far

sorry for spelling I have ADHD And Autism I am also using Grammarly I hope my feedback helps people who are thinking of buying it and the hope this helps the developer.

TLDR: "This is not a "thumbs up" but rather a "neutral". 303 squadron isn't bad but needs more time to evolve and to remove its rough edges. The foundation is great and the historical story-telling part makes it stand out from the pack. The devs are very active and always have an open ear for input - so I leave this "thumbs up" review as motivation to further improve their game."

Don't want to read? Here's a 4 minute video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lH10qh_iL8

Complete first impressions:
303 is probably the first game which lets you cycle around a british airfield in the 1940s. You're part of 303 squadron like the name of the game already tells you. It was one of the 16 polish squadrons in the Royal Air Force. It had the highest ratio of shot down enemy aircraft compared to its own losses. You're taking the role of Jan Zumbach, who would become the Squadron's leader a few years later. He also was one of the first allied pilots to engage a Focke Wulf FW 190 in aerial combat. Many of the people you can interact with on the airfield are based on actual historical persons.

This nice take on storytelling is one of the biggests strenghts of the game. Another unique element is the mechanic mode. You're able to dissasemble parts of the plane and install new or modfied parts as time and technology progresses. Each part has its own advantages and disadvantages, like better reliability at the cost of longer reload times.

303 squadron is just about 20 bucks, so I didn't expect high end visuals. Looks are fine but weird glichtes like completely broken rivers on my 1070ti will hopefully be fixed in upcoming patches.

My first real point of criticism: controls are neither arcade nor sim-like. They are somewhere in between which makes aiming a lot more difficult than it should be. Sharp manouvers are easily performed by using the keyboard but controls lack when it comes to precise manouvering. Less would be more here and I'd suggest to the devs to take a look at War Thunder's arcade mouse controls. Tweaking the game towards "point and fly" would make controlling the plane a lot more fun and precise.

So, after getting frustrated with the arcade controls, I plugged in my joystick and throttle to try out the realistic mode. After binding all keys and axes things went a lot better. Realistic mode only allows the cockpit camera but still displays a dynamic aiming reticle. But you can turn it off if you like to aim without support. The gameplay still is very arcady but the Joystick support is well implemented. Now that I had precise controls over my hurricane shooting down the Krauts in their 109s is a breeze.
If you score an epic kill the game switches into some kind of action cam like you might know from the Sniper Elite Games. You can see where your bullets hit the enemy plane and witness its destruction in slow motion. It's another nice feature you're able turn off if you find it too distracting.

Mission design is a bit clunky. And you're going to bed to start a mission which is kinda weird. A brief cutscene takes you into the air and after a little bit of chatter between the pilots something happens. Usually fighters appear out of nowhere. And here's the next issue: the game wants you to shoot down a certain amount of enemy fighters. It won't continue until you scored the required kills - which becomes quite tedious after a while because the AI is dumb like a brick and always does the same manouvers. It's more challenging to evade your fellow pilots because they tend to bunch up on the last target and consistently crash into your plane while you try to shoot it down.

Now, what's my conclusion?
303 Squadron is not a bad game but it isn't good either. But not because it is inherently bad - It rathers feels like having been pushed out of early access too early.
The game also suffers from a lack of focus. My suggestion would be: ditch the realistic mode - which isn't realistic anyway - and focus on a better arcade flight model, the story-telling aspect and technical improvements. These combined efforts could improve the game a lot and turn it onto an enjoyable experience.

Right now it's too rough around the edges. And it sits in an awkward place between aracade and simulation mechanics being neither fish nor fowl in the end. The historical aspect on the other side is brilliant and could be a good starting point to expand upon.

So if you want to support the devs then get the game. One thing is for sure: it has lots of potential and may be a diamond in the rough. Chances are good because the devs are very keen to get feedback and they responded to almost every single review on steam so far. With that said: some of you may enjoy the game right now as you can see by the many positive entries here in the reviews section - so don't let my mixed review irritate you too much. As always: don't rely on a single source and always form your own opinion.

Hope I could help a little bit - cheers and fly safe! :)

I'm glad i bought this on sale. I want to fly and shoot down Germans and instead I have to run around an airbase and collect mushrooms. Upgrading the plane is, at best, a confused mess. The flight controls took some getting used to but still, not very good. I really wanted to like this game, but I simply don't.

On sale, it's a gem, though somewhat rough in the execution. If you see this on sale, I recommend grabbing it, IF you are a fan of the genre and willing to put in a bit of work to make it playable. (control configs)

1. This was clearly a labor of love.
2. It has some flaws, but overall, it actually has much more detail* and heart that AAA flight games.
3. worth playing for lovers of dog fighting, in some ways it's lack of polish makes it more realistic.
4. Only "Realistic" mode if playable, imo, the other way doesn't feel like a flight game at all, it's hard to even notice that you are moving, if you absolutely must play it in 3rd person, the best way is using the mouse to steer, Q/E to roll, W throttle, etc, the pre-set config will just make you angry.
5. It feels somewhat dated, as if it would have been cutting edge during the PS2 era, but the flight itself shines, it's and challenging, without being overly complex, but the plane it affected by things most arcade flight games skip altogether. (overheating, the effect of G's on the engine, the need to aim with the plane.)

Haven't tried a HOTAS, if that does work with this game, it will make me quite happy, will update when I know.


*what I mean by this, is the ability to free roam the base, on a bike no less, and it is absolutely massive... I wish these guys had the budget and time to just put more life into this world, but I digress.

Imagine you successfully shoot down 99 out 100 enemy planes and all of sudden you crashed with another plane, yeah not good for a rage quit because there is NO CHECKPOINTS in this games. Combat Wings can do better than this.

Alright, I love the setting, wish there were more games set at this point of the war and overall I enjoy how the game plays.

However, one thing I can't get away with is the fact that in the first mission in which you encounter bombers the Squadron Commander shouts over the radio "PRIORITISE BOMBERS.". Then I'm hit with the realisation that none of my comrades are actually attacking the bombers, just the fighters. So it is up to me to deal with them. I send them crashing and burning, but this keeps happening in other missions.

Not to mention that it seems my comrades in the sky don't seem to actually hit anything.

I want to feel part of a team, like each enemy shot down matters and not feel like I am the only one who can do something like in CoD or whatever.

I'll up vote it in hopes that the devs work on this.

Very simply, neither 360s, joysticks or keyboards map properly, so the game is unplayable. The Devs keep promising an update, but nothing has happened. The counter says I have played for 71 minutes. I haven't. For 71 minutes I have been trying to get the controls to work.

For me, this is not ready BUT it may be a game you chose to support and purchase. If that is the case, go for it. Not a bad investment, just not one for me.

Devs need money for R&D and their time etc. I support that.

The premise..great. The idea..unique.

So, I will not list the negatives as they are already noted in other comments as are the postives. I will say that some of you may chose to support this dev and that would not be money wasted.

To the Dev: Keep at it, you have something here. I will be back and will follow the development of the game in the future. It is not terrible, just not ready.

Well done.

Toxsic.