The release date of HELIBORNE is set! Fly combat helicopters into action on October 12th and taste victory
Heliborne is a helicopter combat game created by JetCat Games and published by Klabater, where players fly co-operative and competitive online missions set in historical conflicts, from the Vietnam War to the war in Kosovo in 1998. Soon everyone will be able to take the controls of accurate renderings of real-life helicopters, and take part in joint operations between air and ground forces. Watch the newest trailer showing multiplayer combat in Heliborne, and read about the extensive consultations of the development team with a real-life combat pilot below.
Klabater and JetCat Games announce the Heliborne launch date! The game will leave Early Access on Steam and flaunt it’s new features as a full release on October 12thpriced at 24.99 USD. The publisher and developer will provide continuous support for the game after launch, consisting of free patches and paid DLC. Steam Workshop has also been implemented in the game, allowing players to unleash their creativity and customize their machines.
Heliborne offers a great balance between arcade and simulation flight models. During development the creators sought help from an expert, Major Mackevich Valery Genrihovich, a graduate of the top air force school in Russia, with whom they discussed military aspects of the game, including the flight model and helicopter combat tactics.
Major Mackevich Valery Genrihovich is a graduate of Syzran Zhukovsky’s and Gagarin’s Higher Military Aviation Academy. He flew Mi-2 and Mi-24 helicopters and completed theory training for the Ka-27 helicopter. Before ending his military career he was chief instructor-researcher of the Mi-24 helicopter at the Army Aviation Center, training pilots in the Moscow Military District. He is the recipient of the Order of Courage – awarded for selfless acts of courage and valor. He also participated in the planning of military operations with helicopter usage.
“Pilots are people marked by the sky, and their squadrons are big, close-knit families united in this dangerous profession, where everyone has to simultaneously do their job well and have utter confidence in their fellow pilots.
I’d like to see more young people willing to train to become professional pilots. Not long ago even small towns had flight clubs, where boys and girls could learn to fly a glider, a helicopter, or a plane in their free time. They were common back then, but now most of them have disappeared. I hope that games like Heliborne will help to foster a new wave of enthusiasts. Those who will also be marked by the sky, even if it requires great willpower and a lot of training.
If you look at the advice I gave to the Heliborne development team, it wasn’t just about how to create more realistic gameplay, but also how to make the process of flying more exciting. I’d like more people to feel the excitement of controlling such powerful machines, and the beauty of flying together in these realistically depicted helicopters.”
Thanks to the major, Heliborne has a strong focus on realism and historical accuracy, but also manages to couple it with action-focused gameplay. The flight model itself offers over 70 varied aspects of physics and flight specificity with each and every aircraft, including momentum and inertia. The gameplay mechanics in Heliborne are a combination of features typical for simulators. The game boasts outstanding flight physics and perfectly rendered gunships, intense action on the battlefield, with dynamic combat, varied gameplay modes, and progressive missions.
“Heliborne is the first publishing project in Klabater’s history of such complexity – an unusually dynamic game with multiplayer modes and huge market potential. It was not only a big challenge for our team, but also a great adventure working with such passionate people as the JetCat Games team! If you are interested in armed conflict and you want to know how it feels to be sat in the cockpit of an Apache or Mig-24, Heliborne is the game for you” – Michał Gembicki, Skipper at Klabater.
In Heliborne players will fly 50 legendary helicopters, with machines from the 1950s to modern times, divided into three types: combat, stealth and transport. Fans will also get the chance to learn more about the development of rotary-wing aircraft, with the game showing the different historical periods, focusing on the technological innovations that changed helicopter combat over the years. Fly Eastern Bloc and NATO gunships – all available models are shown below:
Players will fight across six open maps, including The Gulf of Tonkin (Vietnam), Operation Nguyen Hue (Vietnam), Badakhshan Province (Afghanistan), Khost Province (Afghanistan), Kosovo and a training map. Heliborne offers three exciting types of gameplay: single, co-operation (up to 4 players), and open maps for competitive multiplayer mode (up to 16 players).
“We are excited and proud to announce the full release of Heliborne. It’s been a long and a tough road from the early versions of the game, to what we have now. Many thanks to our players, who believed in us and supported us along the way. Although we are delivering everything that we’ve promised, Heliborne development will continue after release. We have a long list of great ideas awaiting implementation to make Heliborne the best helicopter game on the market!” – Raman Ulasau of JetCat Games
Heliborne initially launched in Steam Early Access, where it was met with very positive feedback from the players. Over 79% of the reviews are positive, and 27,000 players have already bought the game. It’s also worth mentioning that Heliborne was developed with help from an active game community. Content created by them, including squad names and even voiceover recordings, will be available in the fully released version of the game.
Heliborne has even been acknowledged by fans and the jury at this years’ GameOn conference (Lithuania), where it was picked as the best Lithuanian PC game among all those submitted for the event.
MAIN FEATURES OF HELIBORNE:
- Fly 50 legendary helicopters, including models from 1955 to modern times!
- Equip your gunships with over 100 payload variants.
- Fight across 6 open maps, including The Gulf of Tonkin (Vietnam), Operation Nguyen Hue (Vietnam), Badakhshan Province (Afghanistan), Khost Province (Afghanistan), Kosovo and a training map.
- Test 3 gameplay modes: single player, co-op (up to 4 players), and competitive multiplayer for up to 16 players.
- Ground forces: tanks, troops, and anti-aircraft artillery.
- Support for Steam collector cards!
- Test your skills in historical missions, and in the open sandbox maps.
- Play your way! Heliborne fully supports gamepads, joysticks (flight sticks) and keyboard & mouse.
Heliborne will be fully released on PC on October 12th, leaving Steam Early Access:http://store.steampowered.com/app/433530/. Czechia, Slovakia and Poland will receive a physical edition with some gadgets included – take a look at the contents below.
More information about Heliborne can be found on the official website: http://www.jetcatgames.com/, and on Facebook and Twitter.
