Out of the blue comes Nimbly Games and their stunning 2D aerial combat game Altitude. Billed as stemming from a variety of multiplayer heavyweights of recent years, Altitude is competitive without being aggravating. Fast and fun without losing a sense of skill-based accomplishment, Altitude is balanced and nuanced. Altitude shouldn’t be this fun, but it is.
Nimbly Games, comprising of two ambitious gamer-developers, have created a genuinely exciting multiplayer title, falling under the oft-used cliche of bearing old-school sensibilities. Inspired by games such as Call of Duty 4, Erik Measure and Karl Sabo crafted Altitude out of strong currents within the multiplayer arena. While there might not be a visual compatibility between the latest
competitive first-person shooter and Altitude, there are comparable traits in terms of balance and user-defined nuance. Altitude captured the recent fixation of in-game achievements by boasting its own slew of awards. But the comparisons do not help to describe what Altitude really is, so a closer look at this clever little game is pleasantly warranted.
Altitude, like Introversion’s Multiwinia, strips multiplayer gaming right back to the bare essentials. Taking place on 2D maps within the confines of a 2D plane – the dimension, rather than the aircraft – players turn and burn their chosen vehicle across broken city skylines, through cramped caves and over rolling hills, all the while dogfighting with a horde of other players. The action is frantic, tooth-and-nail, and hectically fast. Each aircraft is a markedly different beast from the other, with different speeds, handling characteristics and weaponry – leading to player-driven specialisation. Weapon pick-ups spawn across the map and radically upscale the chaos of multi-plane encounters. Put simply, Altitude does all the right things a multiplayer game should.
The keyboard controls are easy to grasp, with the left and right arrow keys control pitch and direction with up and down throttling the engine. The aircraft can boost with a continued press of the accelerating up key, but at a price of not being able to fire the primary weapons until the gauge begins to recharge. While the player begins with the Loopy aircraft, an excellently manoeuvrable machine, there are five planes in total to unlock, along with a second version of each aircraft. While that might not sound like much, bear in mind each aircraft has its own style and nuance. The Bomber, for instance, has rear-firing machine guns, which creates a hellish time for those in chase. The Explodet features mine-laying capabilities, its plodding pace being balanced by its deadly cargo of hovering bombs. The Biplane is a classic example of how different the feel of each aircraft can be, in firing its forward machine guns, the recoil physics literally dampen the inertia and slow the speeding plane considerably. Each aircraft can be outfitted with an array of unlockable perks, such as added armour, boost chargers and new weapons. These can be equipped and rearranged mid-game, which is also a nice touch, relegating the pre-match configuration – which can still be done – obsolete.
The weapon pick-ups found within each level, while far from numerous, lead to exciting plays. One such item is an electrostatic wall. A player picks up one of these wall items and proceeds to deploy it in strategic places. If an opponent is chasing the player, an idea would be to fly through a tight corridor and deploy the wall just as the player flies out from the confines of the tiny space. The pursuer would collide with the obstacle, unable to manoeuvre around it and begin a stall, crashing onto the floor of the corridor. Another pick-up is the homing missile, a self-explanatory device that needs a slight distance between the user and the target to arm.
The art style of Altitude is a jovial one. Far from the post-apocalyptic 
colour schemes many games purvey, Nimbly Games have produced a light-hearted and cheerful game that anyone but the most emotionally-detestable could enjoy. Bright palettes burst off the screen. The aircraft, though operating on a 2D plane, are rendered in a charming three dimensional style, with changes in direction causing the vehicle to roll its fuselage to cope rather than simply rotate into the desired direction. Streams of smoke trail behind those who have suffered damage, with those who get taken down by an opponent spinning wildly down with gravity. Battles take place in and around shattered buildings, in asteroid fields and over green fields. The game itself has a very Team 17/Worms aesthetic going, in terms of level design. While the game itself does not feature destructible terrain, the Worms franchise and Altitude are aesthetically comparable.
What Altitude also has is a fully-featured map editor, allowing the community to create their own maps to upload to the game server for use by any Altitude gamer. There are already some terrific maps available, but one expects the library of user-created content to fully bloom with more exposure. The online lobby boasts a number of servers specialising in non-official maps, which are worth dropping into just to see the rising level of quality creations coming from the Altitude community.
At the moment, the main modes of play consist of Free-For-All and a team bombing mode, whereby two groups try to bomb the opponent team’s Carrier base while at the same time, trying to protect their own. Both are incredible amounts of fun, especially when user-created content is thrown into the mix. There has been a slight backlash on certain forums at the price of Altitude, presently sitting at around twenty dollars American for the full version. However, for such a polished production, boasting an ever-expanding plethora of maps, items, etc., the price presently is no stretch. As it stands, Altitude is great value, and with a price drop, will be an even-greater no-brainer. The developers are in constant contact with the community via the Altitude forums, with a growing worldwide cast of players. There is a single player mode, but the game is focused squarely on the multiplayer arena – which is where the real value of the game shines. With an astoundingly well-mannered and friendly batch of players online, there is little standing in the way of Altitude being very popular with people from all gaming persuasions.
If a prospective player is still wondering whether Altitude would be their kind of game, the demo – online-enabled with caps on higher tier aircraft – is a perfect way to see what the title is all about. Simple download, install, jump in and take off. Altitude is destined for great heights.
Platform: PC / Mac / Linux
Developer: Nimbly Games
Publisher: Nimbly Games
Released: 2009
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