Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Review

First things first, we weren’t given a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 review copy. However, this has no effect on our rating or thoughts of the simulator game.

Now, it’s been many years since I’ve played any type of Flight Simulator. The last one I played for more then a couple of hours was Battle Over Europe. So, I’m no flight sim pro.

When I initially pre-loaded the game, it turned out that it wasn’t a full download and I had around a 95GB download on launch day. Once it downloaded, the game crashed on the first UI around five times. I almost gave up but, after the startup menu questions, I haven’t experienced a single game crash.

Now… plane crashes, I’ve had more then a few of them in the game.

Let’s get to the technical details before we start our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 review. The latest flight simulator launched on 18 August 2020 on PC and later on Xbox One. It was developed by Asobo Studio on the ACE Engine and published by Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Review: Gameplay

While I’m not really a “Simulator” fan, I did find myself going back to Microsoft Flight Simulator after working on my game Neon Sword or after playing more stressful games, I think flying over your own home or to a place you could only dream to visit acts as some form of relaxation for me, even when the warning and alert sounds are ringing because I’m too high or too low at high speeds.

The flight simulator game provides decent gameplay, with solid mechanics. You sometimes forget you’re playing a game as your soaring above the clouds. I must say, the wait to play this game for our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 review was worth it.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Review: Visuals

Visually this game is stunning and receives a high score in our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 review. Flying over Mount Fuji or The Grand Canyon is amazing and definitely should be done.

Just don’t visit The White Cliffs of Dover or my local bridge, The Humber Bridge. It’s very underwhelming compared to the real-life counterpart. On another note, I have a pretty decent PC but I found, while playing on high specs, that the game did have the odd stutter here and there. It happened mainly over larger cities such as San Francisco (which has a fully modeled Golden Gate Bridge, which isn’t too different from The Humber Bridge).

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Review: Sound

While I’m no expert on how a plane sounds at 250mph at max altitude, I found the sound very immersive. While sat in the cockpit, you can hear the wind whistle and the rain hit the windscreen, and every bump of wind makes the plane rattle around you.

It’s probably the most immersed I’ve been within a game in the last few years based on sound alone. It’s another aspect of this Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 review that I’m giving a high rating.

Conclusion

While Microsoft flight simulator won’t be for everyone and it sure as hell isn’t a fast-paced game, I think if you want to chill out and relax, it’s well worth getting. For only a few quid, it can be picked up on the Microsoft Store with the Xbox Game Pass.

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