People act like: oOh ThIs GaMe Is So UnReAlIsTiC!!!1111!1!!!!!!11 like OHH THANKS FOR YOUR AMAZING OBSERVATION!!! I TOATLLY DIDNT KNOW THAT IN A GAME WHERE AN A-10 CAN DODGE MISSILES WAS UNREALISTIC!

No but really tho, this game is amazing and we don't play it for realism, we play it to escape it.
10/10, Highly recommend.

I played this game for twelve hours and got through the campaign on normal. I personally got some enjoyment out of it but I don't think most people should buy this game.

I really wanted to like this game. I like flying games and everything to do with dogfighting and, to be fair, that part of the game was enough for me to get through the campaign. However, the writing is distractingly awful. I'm not talking about the plot, that's fine, I'm talking about the the dialogue and the characterization. The combat chatter felt somehow both stilted and cliche and none of the characters felt likable or compelling with the minor exception of AWACS Long Caster.

I hated the hero worship of the silent protagonist. Instead of making me feel like I was good at flying, it made me feel like all of my allies were incompetent. I'd dodge a missile by turning to the side and they'd act like I'd turned water into wine. There were some moments in the game where I thought the praise was warranted but by that point there was so much glazing that any praise heaped onto me after said moments felt like background noise instead of genuine praise.

By the end of the campaign I was just playing on mute to have fun dogfighting with the cool planes. That was enough for me to enjoy the game, but unless you really really like aerial combat I don't think this game was worth buying. I will try out the multiplayer for a bit to see if that's worth anything but this is a pretty old game at this point so I'm assuming the multiplayer is either dead or filled with sweats.

Half my playtime was cutscenes, the other half was subpar gameplay. The controls have a noticeable delay, the FoV is low and cannot be changed, the HUD is lacking and looking around is difficult and very restricted.

TL,DR: Get Project Wingman instead.