Starshatter

Starshatter brings together some of the most popular features of space and flight sim games into a single game. The game gives you the ability to perform air-to-air and air-to-ground missions in the planet's atmosphere with fighters similar to those found in other flight combat games.

It also gives you space combat and the ability to gain more ranks, starting from Cadet and working your way up from there. The higher your rank, the more you can do. You start out flying only fighters in space and on planets. As you progress, you will begin to use other more powerful ships instead, such as destroyers and, eventually, carriers. As you level up, you will control a certain type of ship and will no longer be able to fly the previous types of ships. But don't worry, because the more powerful ships have more things you can do. For example, the carrier lets you control squadrons of fighters, destroyers, and more.

The game also gives you the challenge of taking off and landing on the planet and on other ships without an autopilot to do it for you (except when taking off from a ship). You have full control of any wingmen when you're in the fighters and can request reinforcements as necessary.

There are 11 mission types that you will fly, with each mission being dynamically created based on your rank and how you are doing in your missions. The computer AI is the same as the AI of your wingmen, so be prepared for some challenge.

The game has 3 flight modes to choose from based on your preferences. You can choose to fly in standard flight mode, where you will not automatically slow to a stop in space because there's no drag in space to slow you down if you stop your engines. When flying on the planets, you'll experience a flight similar to that found in a realistic flight sim.

In the second mode (arcade mode), your ship always flies the way the nose is pointing, you slow to a stop if you cut your engines in space. When flying on the planets, you can make flat turns, and there are is no drag or stalls.

The third mode is a mix of the other two. It's the same as standard mode, but with drag in space (cutting your engines in space will slow you to a stop).

In any mode, you can fly with joystick, mouse, throttle, gamepad, or keyboard. And when using a mouse, you can set it to be a virtual joystick where the distance you move the mouse indicates the rate of your turn rather than the distance of your turn. Joysticks and gamepads are supported with up to 4 axes and 32 buttons!

All these flight modes let you have an experience the way you want it. Basically, think of any flight or space sim that you like and see how the flying works, then choose the mode that is similar.