Aquila Bird Flight Simulator

Aquila Bird Flight Simulator is a very mediocre "flight sim" with a twist... you're controlling a bird. This is an unusual concept that might even work well if implemented well... and here, it isn't. Before we get into just how terrible the flight controls are, it's important to note this is a kind of "sandbox" game with no real objective or reason to want to play it.

Let's talk about how terrible the flight controls are... thankfully there's options to change the control axes but they're still somehow both over and undersensitive at the same time. You'll find yourself erratically plunging into the ground, flying upside down (yeah, birds can't do that).

The controls and game handling are notably very clunky and unsmooth here. It's janky and unsatisfying to play... and any experienced gamer will tell you, the handling, responsiveness and general gameplay feel of the control scheme must be well polished for this kind of game to succeed. Unfortunately, this is something the developer seems to have phoned in, with little to no apparent gameplay testing. They dropped the ball on this one.

From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard.

There's no option to change the resolution and no useful graphics tweaks. There's no way to ensure this is running at the native resolution of your display. There's no guarantee this game will look right on any PC as a result of this hamfisted design decision.

The controls can't be customised, which will be an annoyance for many, but it can also render the game unplayable for differently-abled gamers, or gamers using AZERTY or other international keyboard layouts.

The game features no proper level design or game/story flow/plot, and while some game formats can be ameniable to this, they must be truly exceptional, where this is not. The developers of this game made the deliberate, arguably lazy choice to avoid doing the most important component of game development, content creation, and instead made this an empty "sandbox" game with no goals or point to playing.

The developer hopes gamers can just make their own fun without them having to do any work for it. And sure... a sandbox could be fun, if it had a bunch of things to do like a bucket and spade to make sandcastles... but this game doesn't give you much. It's just a box of sand. There's a good chance the game won't be appealing because of this laziness/lack of effort from the developer.

This was designed primarily for VR (but it will work without a headset, not that anyone would want to try). The VR focus of the game is a major crutch here, because without VR, this compares poorly to professionally developed games. Developers must learn that while VR is great, if the only thing that makes the game great is the VR, then the game isn't great at all.

These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game.

Aquila Bird Flight Simulator didn't appeal much to the people who own a copy of the game, either. It has achievements, and they show us a very clear picture that the game didn't really capture any interest from gamers. The most commonly and easily attained achievement is for starting the game, trivial to get, but less than 39 percent of players bothered to even start it up. Hardly a success story, gamers just weren't all that interested in the game. Yeah, game bundles are to blame for this, but without those, this would never have gotten any sales.

The poor quality of this game is also reflected by how many people spent time with it. At the time of this review, SteamDB shows the all-time peak player number was only 5 players. This is a remarkably low number, and now, the only player activity occurs once or twice a month, presumably someone loading it up to see what it is then quickly uninstalling it. Considering there's over 120 million gamers on Steam and well over 50,000 games for gamers to choose from (over 9,000 completely free titles), the overwhelming lack of interest in this low quality game is to be expected.

Aquila Bird Flight Simulator is relatively cheap at $5 USD, but it's not worth it. Given the defects and quality issues with the game, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend. For comparison, the $5 asking price for this game could get you games like "Payday 2", "Mass Effect" or "Left 4 Dead 2". Quality, professionally made games like those are frequently on sale cheaper than this. There's also thousands of free, superior quality games on Steam.

[quote]Developer Response![/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the Developer Usage Rules for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]

The developer admits they didn't hire a team of talented staff to produce the game and tried to do the whole thing on their own, instead. This is a lot like boarding an airplane, and halfway through the flight, having the pilot come out and serve peanuts then sit down and watch the in-flight movie. It's going to end in disaster. It requires a team of competent people to do a complex job properly, and that's not what has happened here... another explanation for the poor quality of this game.

The developer tries to excuse the many defects with the game with the simple and understandable "I didn't know what I was doing" excuse. Huh? That's not an excuse!

The developer even goes to acknowledge a defect in the flight mechanics of the game (the sole purpose of the game, by the way), and then goes on to say there's no reason to fix defects in games. WTF?

The developer whines that they don't have any time to spend developing the game. Why is that our problem? This is a for-profit product on a retail store!

The developer then argues, seriously, that because he is an amateur who didn't know what he is doing and didn't hire enough staff, allocate enough budget to make the game properly, that therefore it's okay for him to change the same kind of money that you could get games like Mass Effect for. WTF WTF WTF???

The developer argues with my suggestion that the defects in the game are a result of laziness. If it's not lazy, and the developer worked hard to produce a game of such terrible quality, then it's incompetence. This is not better than laziness, it's worse.

Now, you take all these ridiculous positions from the "developer" of this train wreck, and suddenly it becomes very clear what's going on. Aquila isn't for gamers. The developer doesn't give a rats behind about gamers. Aquila is for the developer, because he's the main character.

When developers arrogantly put themselves before gamers and the gaming industry, when they suffer from main character syndrome, it's harmful to gamers, resulting in defective products like Aquila that have no true value for PC gamers.

And don't take my word for it... Steam DB doesn't lie. Peak player count of only 5 gamers... and that only happened once. Gamers who play this game do so once and don't come back. The court of public opinion has spoken.

Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this game to anyone.

Flying in VR sounds like a dream, but unfortunately this is just clunky enough to be more frustrating than uplifting.

Very cool and immersive. Actually feels like you're an eagle. You flap your wings with the Vive controllers and it's actually a workout too!

I like centering the camera slightly behind the bird for more of a 3rd person view because the model for the actual bird looks awesome. Amazing feeling being perched in a tree...as a bird.

This game is great fun for anyone that likes the idea of gliding around like a bird for a while. The controls have a bit of a learning curve, but the experience has been well worth it to me. My arms are tired after a few hours of flying today, but I'll be back again another day.

Stars received: 1.3/10 _ Note: v.5 [0.0 to 1] = personal impressions

[0.3] Controls & Training & Help
[0.2] Menu & Settings
[0] Sound & Music
[0.1] Graphics
[0.2] Game Design
[0] Game Story
[0.1] Game Content
[0] Completion time (level/game)?
[0] is it Enjoyable & Fun?
[0] Could it hold a spot in Favorites? (& if the Game can be repeatedly played again)
[0] BONUS point: Multi-Player related
[0.4] BONUS point: Review for VR
[N] - if Registration is required with providing PII

Game description key-points: Bird flight Simulator

Overview:
nothing to see and admire, a bird over a muddy landscape

game only accepts a Gaming controller!
feels easy to play, but no benefit in VR

I was confused as to whether Id be able to properly work Aquila because of my physical disability which affects my hands as well but i saw what the purchase money goes towards and I was very much onboard then on.
ive not played it a lot purely because i have bought a few other games at the same time as its a new gaming laptop but the positive points i want to make are, the responsive, fluid controls-my laptop keyboard and a madkatz RAT 5 mouse are perfect for Aquila and it didnt take long at all to get used to flying,landing and so on.
the birds themselves and the weather and water effects are stunning!

i personally though woud love to see more varied textures on the ground,other bird breeds and predators but i think its already a very promising simulation and i love the fact you are dedicating all the money to where you volunteer,i hope the fundraising goes well and i shall be promoting Aquila to anyone i know who has a half decent laptop/PC.

Updated: It's working! Finally got it working with my xbox controller! Lovely game, I just needed to reinstall and disconnect my touch controllers. Gliding through the air at an alarming pace, this game makes your adrenaline run.


original:I'm sad to not recommend this, as it is clear a lot of work went into it, but the controls don't work in vr. Switches between my headset and my pc sometimes as well. No input from my touch controllers, nothing from an xbox controller, both wired and wireless, so the only thing that worked was keyboard and mouse which doesnt work well in vr. I have no idea about the normal mode, but vr is super broken.

I have played this game a lot and really enjoy it. The developer is adding new features all the time - just recently rain and other weather were added and before that, fishing! Would be great if we can get even more players for the group flies as that's really fun.

Some tips:
Press o to see a third-person view and keep toggling o for more views. Good for screenshots.
Press t to teleport to a random tree. Good for getting to other players on the public server.
Practice ridge lift! Ridge lift is a good place to do aerobatics in and such!
Right now you can only fish in a couple lakes. If you play in Scotland, fly left from the starting point up the river valley to the big long lake. That will have fish in it! Hold down R+L triggers to catch fish in the lake while flying over one. You can even drop fish on other players by releasing triggers! (These are for xbox controllers)

I'm very sorry I have to give this game a "not recommended" rating while clearly a lot of effort went into it. For me, it is just no fun. True, I'm playing without VR or a controller, but after getting a hang of the controls with the mouse and the keyboard, I think I'm pretty proficient. However, the game keeps throwing logs under my feet - an eagle could not flap its wings to get higher? It can't flap its wings while banking? I just could not get up. Wind behaves in a strange way - I was hoping to use a ridge lift to stay up but no such luck. I thought I saw thermals, but then they disappear. You start flapping, and the clouds disappear.

Controls are just plain bad. I don't want to watch a youtube tutorial to find out which keys do what. Instead of the fancy (well, 90's kind of fancy, so corny) menu, I would have accepted a couple of simple, drop down boxes and a frame with all keyboard controls. Also, the weirdness. Press right shift to switch off autopilot? Why?

Clearly, this game is a work in progress, but either I'm not understanding the intention of the creator, or there is none. No clear-cut idea of what this game should be.

Overall, a frustrating endeavour for me. Sorry.

I've only dipped my talons, er, toes into this game but I'm giving it a recommend because (a) the dev is clearly a great guy and very responsive and friendly to the user base, and (b) bird flying games are just insanely cool and everyone should try one and (c) the game may not be quite there yet, but it shows awesome promise. Everyone should have a bird flight sim in their VR library. Or two. Or more. This one is clearly still in beta, but coming along with active coding happening, frequent updates, and a lot of nice communication with players.

What it has: Multiplayer. Good Physics. Nice Bird Models. Three different terrains. Day/Night Cycle. Good VR support (at least with Oculus Quest 2 which is what I'm using). Random Weather. Pretty Skybox. Ornithologically Accurate Controls. A Tutorial. User Configurable Options. Fish You Can Catch (no kidding!). Convection Updraughts on Ridges (and sometimes other places where maybe they shouldn't really be, but hey, who's counting?). Mountains. Water.

What it hasn't: Terrain Detail. Realistic Vegetation. Sync of Ctrlr to Bird Avatar Animation. Intuitive Controls :-) Any species other than Eagles various. Bird Sounds.

What's the competition? In Pancakeland: Feather (and maybe AER, if you disregard the mode changes from human to bird). In VRland: DreamFly. Why go for Aquila vs DreamFly? It has a tutorial and some user-friendly features to get you started, whereas DreamFly is just "in at the deep end, hope you enjoy crashing a lot, the learning curve is nearly vertical." OTOH I happen to like DF's wing/controller physics better, they seem a bit easier and more realistic especially near the ground or when landing. Both have equally counterintuitive and crazy-making steering, so that's a tie :-) But I have about 30 hours on DreamFly I think, and only 1 hour on Aquila, so I'll have to update this review when I have spent more time in Aquila.

DreamFly is more fantastical, with an emphasis on sporty/aerobatic flying and a weird play park of heavenly objects with their own internal gravity, hovering in the sky far above the terrestrial landscape. It has only one environment, but it's big: a large island with miles of beaches plus mountains, hills, lakes, etc. Surface detail is actually quite pretty with fairly rich vegetation including grassy meadows with flowers, oak-ish trees, etc.

Aquila is more barebones, a mostly bare minimalist landscape (low rez when you get close to it) with many clones of the exact same conifer for trees, no grass, no geological details, and some oddball cutplane and popin behaviour. DF also has a bit of popin, but mostly on the scale of small rocks; and no cutplane weirdness that I've noticed. Aquila offers three different environments. DF only the one as mentioned.

DF has zero user interface, I mean zero. No main menu, no menus at all. Launch the game and you're staggering around on the ground as an eagle, good luck! Aquila holds your hand from Step 1, with autopilot assist and a friendly, reassuring voice-over guiding you through the tutorial. Aquila also has a very civilised (and decorative!) main menu with user settable options, selection of difficulty level, bird model, flying region, etc.

Frankly, I would say if you don't like suffering through a few hours of frustration and cussing to get good enough at a game to actually play it instead of (in this case) just crashing all the time, skip DreamFly and get Aquila. It has training wheels.

OTOH if you like prettier scenery with a touch of the fantastic, DF's scenery is more interesting, varied, and fun. But ideally, get both! They are different experiences -- Aquila is more about gliding, DF is more about stunting and travelling -- but both give you that huge VR thrill of flying with your own body instead of just sitting in an aircraft. Riding the thermals in Aquila at about 5000 ft, gazing calmly down at the mountains beneath, is one of VR's great experiences and incredibly calming and restful after a hectic day.

I've been fond of Dreamfly for some months now, but I'm sincerely impressed with Aquila -- it's far more smoothly packaged and developed than DF. Given a tweak or two, some cosmetic enhancements to the built world, and a bit more experience on my part so I stop cursing the control mechanics, I think it will displace DF in my affections within a few weeks. Kudos to Graeme (the dev)! Nice work.

Tired of spending your evenings picking bits of mouse out from under your toenails? I was, but now I don't need to go to extreme lengths to experience life like a bird of prey!
This simulation/game is great, especially when meeting up with others for a bit of flying around some beautiful scenery together. The developer has done a great job.
My only suggestion would be to have a button that lets out a screech from a set of calls applicable to your bird. If I keep having to do it myself my wife is going to leave me!

Sucks that you can only recommend or not recommend. I think at the stage this is at, it is borderline.
I chose recommend in the hope more work gets done to it and staying optimistic.
Cool to soar. One of the most attractive things people might find about this is the ability to fly with others. Just needs a little work.
A first time play vid
https://youtu.be/Nhpu2w_qbpE

The recent update has left me unable to control using wasd and right shift. Not sure if it's just me. Otherwise I can't wait to see where this game will go.

It is interesting and worth a sale price indeed. I recommend it to most people looking to fly as a bird! Even though it has a very limited selection of birds to choose to fly with/as. VR and non-VR support for either type of gameplay. I don't have/use a VR headset and can play it. Copoka makes for a more interesting game as it has a short story and a bit easier to fly your bird, which is also have/own/play. 8 out of 10, a very good game

Good thing I wait till the big discount! Apparently this has been abandoned! After several attempts to use different controls! I think It's going to set a while till I have more time to look at the roots of this game and better understand what makes it tick! At first I can fly about 20 mtrs or so before setting back on the ground. I have Birds that like to fly in a circle rather than a straight-line. I try turning to the left and they are going to the right! See no options to calibrate any of my controllers! in Other programs I have for flight I haven't had any trouble. Must be a GLITCH! OK for less than a Dollar!!!

Well, I keep crashing (from flight) but that may be down to me rather than the game.
It looks good and doesn't have Ubisoft spyware installed with it, so it beats their eagle game hands down.
4/5

played with 4gb ram the miniuem and reccomended requirements i believe are too high but i will change to positive review

To be honest, i did not practised that much yet, but, i think i can tell, this simulator has potential. Okey, here and there its behavior is quite strange and the landscape is a quite simple textured surface, but hey, its early access - and i am very happy to be able to try it right now.
The first thing i hat to do is disabling the comfort-options, otherwise it felt absolutely wrong. It is quite challenging to get used to the controls and spreading your wings .. eh, i mean arms, with the controllers in your hands for a longer time is not that easy too, but you have to go through that. With eagle flight - which might be my favorite game for now - i leaned to move freely in a 3 dimensional room, but that is "just" a "simple" point and fly, i think this simulator is or will get more realistic. Even if it looks very stupid for the first time you learn to fly here - move your wings.. arms in a circular pattern, this might come quite close to what real birds have to do to fly.
Sitting on a chair in the real world might be saver, but it does not feel "free" anymore. Maybe you should do it anyways before getting used to moving in the third direction.

All in all, very nice. Absolutely worth it :)

=== Review UPDATE 28.Feb 2018 ===
I feel i have to post an update to my review, not because the original is wrong, but because i learned a lot since then. Since there is an answer already, i'll leave the original untouched above :)
Well, this is more a report about my progress until now.
First of all, do i still recommend this game?
Well, it depends. If you are looking for a fast game that you buy, start and have instant fun, this might be not for you.
But, if you have the endurance to learn flying like a bird does, than, definite yes, get it!
The love to the detail of how the bird is behaving is incredible and the "flat environment" (yet?) does not hurt that much if you are up in the air.
In my original review i refereed to eagle flight. In that game i was about 55h in the air before i tried this, so i thought, i got used to flying - but i was wrong. Sometimes this game was behaving very strange. Maybe its because its still early access? - Nope, now i know it was my fault. Simply i was not able to fly, or more correct, i can not fly yet. Of cause i tried to use the motion-controllers the first time, but with these i was able to try about 3 - 5 minutes, then i had to stop because it begins to hurt in my arms. But in that short time it is absolutely impossible to get into the complex physics of this game. Its not only, how to flap your wings, there is also wind for example, and at the the mountains this wind can make you a lot of trouble.
Then, there was this valentine challenge with a steam achievement and i want to get it. With the motion controllers it was impossible for me to be in the air for that long to find them, so i got out my xbox-controller, put in fresh batteries, set the controls to headset and began to fly. After some time in the air i noticed that the strange behaviors i mentioned are not bugs, i was just fighting against the physics - very bad. But my flying skills got better over time and i was able to keep me in the air for a longer time without crashing.
What ... it got night? There are stars! Not focusing on the controls anymore, i was able to get into a quite relaxing mood under the dark sky at night - forgot about it - and i crashed. Actually i imagine that the wind at night is different than at day - which might be an indication for correct thermal winds(?). But, ok, again, the night (in the simulator) passed by and it got morning there. Being a free gliding eagle in the sky watching this wonderful sunrise where the sunlight touches the the mountains - impressive. Don't know, something happend with me at this point. I forgot the challenge and just enjoyed it. :)
The next real world day, gamepad and focus to solve the challenge. I did not crashed anymore (that much) while flying with gamepad, looks like i was able to learn it? So, it seems to behave correct? And i solved the challenge! Jipi ;)
The next time, i tried to use my wings again, ehh, i mean the motion-controllers again. I did it like a chick. No, it is impossible to fly with these. But, it should be possible and for me its even more impossible for me to give up :) So it tried, and tried ... and again ... and i was successful! At least a bit. Very badly, but yes, it seems to be possible to fly with these wings. I was able to keep me up for a while at least. Control was a different topic, but i can fly! Next day, i remembered this the whole day, i've overdone it, it hurts in my arms.
Now i spent about 10h in this game, sessions are limited by my wings... arms, but getting longer from time to time, so it might be correct, it is an exercise :)
In another review i've read "no story" - that might be correct, but, its still an early access, i'm sure there will be added additional content later :) For now, lets use our imagination: You are a very very young eagle. Of cause, in this young ages everyone have one wish - since you see these adults can fly where they want, they can do what they want. No one is telling them what to do and what not to do. You want to be an adult, right now! ... Your wish comes true. You are a adult right now. But, still, you have to learn to fly! You have to get something to eat, you have to improve your flight and nobody is helping you. You are on your own. There are other eagles far away, you can see, looks like they respect and tolerate you so you don't get into conflict with them. But, again, you have to learn to fly, no matter what. (the game starts now! :) )

So, my recommendation as a young part-time-bird now: Sit on a chair at first, get a gamepad, use the assistance the game provides, like comfort-mode, level wings, autopilot and get used to the game-physics. If you think you can manage them, disable the assistance options, step - by - step ... slowly, take your time. You don't have a clock, you don't have any appointments, you are not in a hurry. That's all human problems, but as a bird, all these problems and limitations are gone. Just don't think about - simply enjoy. If you feel ready, you can switch to the motion controllers. Again, take your time, it is a complete different method of control, seems not designed to be easy, it seems to be designed to be more realistic.

P.S.
this review is about VR (HTC Vive) only. Never tried it in desktop mode (but should be possible :) )

Not very Good Kept Crashing Into Mountain side Plus I Was Inside The Eagle . I Like The Idea Of Soaring Like A Bird , but This Was Not It

I'm playing this game on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers and this game can be quite exhilarating and frustrating. It takes a while to learn how to glide and especially with touch controllers, your arms will get tired. However, it's very majestic to "glide" in the air and just experience the wonder of the terrain. However, I keep crashing to the ground (but there are options to make flight easier). The graphics are not the best, but they are good enough to give you that feeling of wonder. With just a few tweaks this game could be perfection.

I hope the dev keeps improving this game. It's off to a great start and I hope it only gets better from here. Given the price, I highly recommend this game. I felt absolutely no nausea during the 30 minutes I played this game and can't wait to get back in the air. Just need to nail down the gliding so I can experience more of the game. But I needed to give kudos to the dev for the solid start to this early access game.

Rating 8/10 (could be 10 with future updates)

suggestions to dev, please work on the tutorial and the UI, it's not easy to follow; also please make a city landscape; also maybe some prey to hunt and maybe even a nest to get back to

EDIT:
So I played around more, this time with a controller. Flight is super easy with a controller. I could never figure out how to get back from the ground using the motion controllers, but all you do on the controller is move the right stick. However, I definitely do not recommend this game using contollers even though flight is much easier because you lose immersion. Using motion controls, I felt like I was an eagle. I didn't feel that with a Xbox gamepad.

However, using the gamepad, I did notice a few things that should be updated/fixed if possible. The terrain really needs to have higher textures. Everything is static except the bird animations. The terrain is photo-realistic, but with low resolution textures. So it ends up looking like streaming 360 videos. Also the draw distance is noticeable on my i7 1060 GTX so I imagine this would be the case for most rigs. It would be great if the water flowed and wasn't a still photo, and in fact, your bird can walk on water LOL. The night sky is amazing, but there are some distractions to its beauty. The moon moves way too fast and for some reason, the direction you look causes a shadow to happen on the sky. The day night cycle should be slowed and maybe some weather effects added.

Also would be nice if there were more sounds. The sound of air as you fly around is great. But that's the only sound besides the built-in music. You should at least be able to make your Eagle screech when you want. There should be other ambient sounds. Also, I'd like to listen to my own music because the built-in music is not so great.

I definitely will practice flight with the touch controls and the 3 maps allow for decent flight time. I enjoyed the Canada map the most, it is very beautiful. I have felt no nasuea and it's just fun to fly like an Eagle.