The Indian Air Force has a game out and it’s no Ace Combat

UPDATE 06-07-2014: after speaking to a few developers, it seems that Google updates Play Store data at a rather slow pace. So while the number of the game’s reviews might be correct, the high number of positive reviews is still circumspect nonetheless.

While traipsing around Google Play this morning I discovered that the Indian Air Force (IAF) has a video game made by developer Threye. Called Guardians of the Skies, it has you in the role of a fighter pilot trying to save India from the fictitious country of Zaruzia.

It’s a blatant attempt at conscripting young men and women to join the IAF, and you know what? That’s perfectly fine. Weighing in at a mere 44 MB I figured it would be worth a download. And that’s when things got hilarious.

So this happened. While the game was running.

For one, it starts off with what can be best described as a set of ads for the IAF. Then I was met with this amusing error message had the game shut itself. A quick reboot later and I was good to go. Finally, I was in-game. And then the ground disappeared. I hadn’t even begun taking off. Another restart later and I could finally play the game.

Assuming this was a problem with my phone (a Nexus 5), I tried it with another (a Galaxy Nexus) and getting in-game was less of a chore, though the ground managed to disappear a couple of times as well.

Trust me sir, I’d like nothing more than to take off, now if you could put the ground back that would be nice.

Anyway, early bugs aside, the controls aren’t responsive and the UI doesn’t scale as well as it should on either screen. There’s a lot of text that further adds to the clutter. Considering the Android population in India is hooked on highly polished experiences such as Candy Crush Saga and Subway Surfers a decent tutorial wouldn’t go amiss either.

What’s odd is, at the time of writing this, the game has between 100-500 downloads. Yet it’s got over 731 reviews and counting with an average rating of 4.8. Probably over patriotic Indians deciding to rate before checking it out. Hopefully it’s not a case of the developer trying to misrepresent its game with fake reviews.

The numbers don’t add up.

It’s great that the IAF are aware of the need to be on mobile devices and even better that it’s chosen video games as a medium to get its message across. A little love and polish would go a long way in retaining anyone who ends up downloading it, let alone fuelling the dreams of young men and women to join the IAF.

Check out other games from India: