There are a lot of Warhammer games out there, especially if you take Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K as one great lump of grimdark, as I generally do. There are shooters and strategy and space combat and even sports, but one thing we haven't seen yet (as far as I know, anyway) is a flight sim.
You can now consider that niche filled, courtesy of Dakka Squadron, announced today by developer Phosphor Games. Somewhat improbably, to non-Warhammer fans at least, the game will focus on the Orks, the green-skinned lunatics who make up Warhammer 40K's most wildly warlike (and funniest) faction. (That's also where the name comes from.)
Players will choose from one of five Ork Clans—Blood Axes, Goffs, Bad Moons, Death Skullz, and Evil Sunz—each with their own unique traits and abilities, and then take to the skies in Dakkajets, Burna-Bommas, and Blitza-Bommas. Starting off as a lowly Flyboy, you'll fight through a campaign of more than 20 missions, unlocking new weapons and upgrades, and ultimately climbing the ranks to become a feared Ork Warboss.
(This is all legit WH40K lore, by the way: Flyboyz are a semi-outcast branch of the Ork Speed Freeks, whose aircraft "are the ultimate expression of a particular mania that can seize an Ork's mind." They really feel the need for speed, basically.)
Dakka Squadron pretty obviously isn't going to be a DCS production, and even the website bills it as a "fast-paced aerial shooter" rather than a flight sim. Even so, I'm actually kind of optimistic about this one. It's a ridiculous premise built around Warhammer's most ridiculous faction, and if Phosphor can serve up appropriately ridiculous levels of gunfire and explosions in an interesting, vertical world, I think I could have a lot of fun yanking and banking and blowing things up in it.
Dakka Squadron is expected to be out later this year.
