Fighter Ace features 16 World War II aircraft, with four models from each of the major participants in that conflict. These British, American, German and Soviet fighters contest the skies in Arcade, Realistic and Private arenas that provide various game setups.
Pilots suffer from information deprivation, however.
There are only three working performance instruments, airspeed, altitude and a tachometer. As pilots make kills and progress in rank from Cadet towards General, they are locked out of the beginner arenas and moved into competition with more experienced pilots. Right now the game offers only dogfighting, a disadvantage when more aircraft and various other types of action are available in other online flying games. Still, this newcomer provides an entertaining experience, and a year from now Fighter Ace may well have more to offer than simple furballing. With the detail options at maximum, the game runs very smoothly on a 166MHz Pentium.