A dogfight in VIPER 11 is two jets, a gun, a few missiles and a handful of flares. You fight from the cockpit, with the HUD, the radio calls and the missile warning tone, and the fight ends in a short replay of the kill from outside.
- 3AI skill levels
- 3set-ups
- 1v1ranked
- Liveshared sky
Against the AI
Pick a bandit, Rookie, Pilot or Ace, and a set-up: a head-on merge, an offensive start behind him, or a defensive one with him on your six. The AI flies the same flight model you do, so it bleeds energy in the turn, runs out of ideas when you go vertical, and presses for a guns kill when it has you. Pick his jet too: an F-16, an F-35C or a Super Hornet.
Guns, missiles and flares
Every gun round is a tracer, and the gun symbology on the HUD leads the target. The AIM-9X needs a lock and a shot inside its envelope. When one is fired at you, the HUD calls it, and a flare program fired at the right moment, about two seconds before impact, decoys it. Fire too early or too late and the HUD tells you which. A close pass slows the game for a moment so you can see the other jet go by, canopy to canopy.
Against real people
Multiplayer is a shared sky: everyone online flies the same airspace, and you can start a merge with another player. Private rooms let you fight your friends with a link. Ranked is 1v1 against real players, with seasons. Gold, Emerald, Master and Marshal each unlock a paint scheme, and badges and auras are for ranked players only. Rewards come back every season.
In the campaign
Several of the 12 missions are dogfights with a story: an ace on your six in Hunted, a four-ship furball, enemy escorts in Bomber Stream, and Last Missile, one AIM-9 against an ace while you are low on fuel.
What you need
A browser and a few minutes. Keyboard and mouse work, a gamepad is better, and a stick and throttle are best. The gun is on Space or the right trigger, and the missile is on F or the left trigger. Every control can be rebound.