Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Review

After a few hours with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, I unfortunately bounced off and never returned. It was a gorgeous game with deep systems that felt like a reintroduction of the series after an absence of 14 years and it was the first time it was ever on console. It was a giant flight sandbox with the earth in the palm of your hand. Go and have fun is a great concept, but for me, I needed a little more direction. I wanted more than just being able to takeoff from one area and land somewhere else an hour or two later.

To the unknowing, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 might just appear to be a series refresh similar to Madden and FIFA. Flight Simulator 2024 is much more than that and most importantly it offers plenty of structure and direction for those that are looking for it, along with the freedom to go anywhere for those that prefer that approach. However, there is some turbulence and after getting my pilots license in Career Mode, there are plenty of things to talk about with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

COMING IN HOT!

As soon as I downloaded the game and realized that it was only an 11GB download, I was worried. When something seems too good to be true, it usually is. There was a lot of talk about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 improving in many ways. One of the big talking points was not putting so much strain on your Xbox hard drive, but instead streaming the majority of the game from the cloud in real time. If you aren’t flying over the North Pole, why would you need it on your hard drive?

On paper this sounds like an amazing idea in theory, but in practice, servers became overloaded and many hopeful pilots, including myself, were unable to play for the first day, which was unfortunate, but every day since, hasn’t been an issue loading into the cockpit once again.

Once into the game, there are issues that still remain, which we will get into shortly, but there is a swath of new features added to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 including 38 new aircraft for a total of 125 different ways to get into the sky including helicopters with every helipad on earth, which is over 80k. There is a new physics system for a more realistic experience, but also plenty of modes depending on what type of aviation experince you are looking for including a ranked challenge league with a rotating assortment of weekly missions that usually revolve around low altitude flights, races, and precision landings. There are also daily activities, free flight mode, but the biggest, most defining feature of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and why I was interested, is the Career Mode.

Career mode is exactly what it sounds like with you starting your aviation career by first getting your pilots license, which begins with the basics in a small Cessna including taking off, landing, flaps, traffic patterns, proper turning, correct descent and everything in between.

I enjoyed each module of the course as it usually was around 10-15 minutes, which was great to pick up and play without needed to commit the usual long flight time required for Microsoft Flight Simulator. Once you obtain your pilots license, it’s up to you how you want to proceed and to become almost whatever kind of pilot you want to be.

The options are vast from skydiving pilot, to aerial advertising, first response firefighting, crop dusting, and even commercial passenger transport are just some of the plane based careers. Then there are rotorcraft that offer different careers like search and rescue, medevac and aerial construction. Literally, the sky is the limit.

Career mode is laid out like a skill tree, which gamifies the experience just slightly. To start unlocking nodes on the tree you will need to gain experience. This is done by looking at the map at racking up flight hours and skills such as scenic flights for tourists. It’s a good system, but gone are the short modules that I loved. Having the ability to jump into one or two short modules during training was a nice feature that didn’t require large commitments. The daily activities and other modes give causal players the option to jump in for a few minutes.

TURBULENCE

Weeks after the launch, there are still issues that are plaguing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Visuals are often very muddy, textures are having a tough time loading, character models often don’t render fully, and loading times can be lengthy. Some are launch issues that will hopefully be ironed out, but there are some design choices that will likely remain.

The most egregious design choice was the decision to use AI voice for the career mode, which is mind boggling. The better option would have been to hire actual voice actors to do the lines to make it feel more authentic and align with the gameplay. In its current state, the voice acting is jarring, and immersion breaking.

Obviously, the reason you are here is flight, but it’s hard not to be distracted while you are driving around the runway and a van without wheels drives in your path, it’s hard not to be distracted while you are flying passengers around for a scenic flight and their lines are delivered with such awful inflection, tone and they wont stop speaking, it’s hard not to be distracted when you are taking off from the runway and buildings look like mud.

VERDICT

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is still the undisputed king of aviation simulation and with a whole new amount of guided ways to play for a slightly more casual approach, there is a lot to like here for both the hardcore and the slightly more casual.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the revolution that MFS 2020 was after an absence of 14 years for the series. Even though a lot of the issues will likely be ironed out over the new few weeks, there are still some design choices that hurt the overall experience and will likely linger. Nevertheless, when everything comes together, it is still undoubtedly the best the series has been.

8