Each mission sets primary and secondary objectives, but once completed, the powers that be have no qualms about reassigning you six or seven times throughout the course of any given battle. Bomb this destroyer, shoot down that bomber wing, make my bloody sandwiches. It’s pretty relentless. But there is a pay-off for all this hard work. At the end of each mission you are awarded new and better aircraft. Upgrading your various aircraft types to sub-models with better guns or faster engines becomes something of a strategic challenge.

The boast from Codemasters is ‘up to 150 airplanes on screen’ and it really can be like that. It’s the best bits from every aerial war-movie you’ve ever seen. Were it not for some hugely irritating oversights and bugs it’d get a top score. But a few things break the spell, like some awkward controls and the occasionally laughable physics that have you bouncing back from head-on collisions rather than sending both planes into the drink.