Published 22.12.2023

AirportSim Review

AirportSim is an Advanced Airport Ground Handling Simulator with true-to-life visuals and operations, licensed planes and vehicles, real airports and live weather conditions.
Enjoy the many tasks alone or with friends, making this experience unforgettable.

Have you ever wondered what those grounds people actually do in an airport? Here in AirportSim, you can be just that as a one-man army with a huge array of vehicles and different skills at your disposal.

Be it a simple Bus Terminal Driver, or refueller of an aeroplane, in this game you'll experience all these jobs as you are the only soul roaming the airport.

Play with up to 4 friends in multiplayer, or handle the scenarios on your own.

The choice is yours.

Gameplay

When playing this game, I would highly advise doing the tutorials, because if you don't you will become just as lost as I was when I first loaded up the game.

The tutorials will cover almost every aspect of the game and will explain each job in the airport that you will most likely encounter. The tutorials alone will set you back an hour or so to complete.

In the main menu, you are faced with a couple of options. Freeroam, Scenarios or Challenge modes, with a set of missions that you can try and complete. For this review, I played in Scenarios.

In Scenario mode, you are given a shift and a whole list of tasks that you must complete within a time frame, it's OK if you go over that time, but you'll lose some points.

AirportSim is definitely not easy, and there is a lot of information to take in at once. If you have friends who also play, the time limit is much easier to achieve.

The first set of missions takes place in the pitch-black dark, and in the very early hours of the morning, here is a helpful hint... You have a flashlight, something that I didn't find out until much later in the game, it was a huge face-palm moment for sure.

You are tasked with picking up planes using the "Follow me" truck. Let me be the first to tell you that you'll need patience.

It takes a full 10-15 minutes in real time to cross the terminal by going the speed limit, if you go faster, the plane stops following you. Thankfully, there is a cruise control button, so go take that quick toilet break or grab a drink while you wait.

There really is a lot to remember, main thing is to keep at it and try to be quick and efficient, one small mistake can and will cost you points.

The graphical quality is pretty good if I'm being honest, the detail that went into the different vehicles and the planes is astounding.

The sounds are well made too, with the addition of Airport headphones, you can dull out the sounds which makes the realism that much better.

What's better than that? Perfectly working reflective mirrors, that's right! You can see in the side mirrors when driving in First-Person mode, which again adds even more depth to that all-important realism.

I'm here to warn you, be sure to give yourself enough time in real time, because each scenario can last up to 2 hours. It was so unexpected, you'd think that with the list of things you need to do on the work tablet, it wouldn't take that long, but it does.

Not to mention that they can be doing the job at any time of day, in any weather forecast, from overcast to a storm.

There are many different job roles you could potentially be doing, when you hit the 2nd scenario, you will have to do everything.

Everything means everything, 36 luggage cases that need to be off-loaded onto trolleys, refuelling the plane, loading the plane with catering services, aligning the jetway to the door, positioning all your trucks in your arsenal to maximise efficiency, loading the plane back up with luggage, and then finally disconnecting everything and pushing the plane out of its terminal ready for take off.

There is so much work to do, for one little guy like yourself.

Want to take an extra challenge? You can create your own custom scenarios too, I tried to make it work and ultimately failed in the process, there are also custom Steam workshop projects that you can make or find for additional liveries for planes or other content that you might enjoy.

Final Thoughts

Generally impressed with the way this game turned out, if I had more time on my hands, I would have happily spent the day just being an outright badass on the airport field.

There were some complications with bugs, however, like when using the truck to push a plane out or correctly aligning the stairways, catering truck and jetways to their correct position, it's a little touchy in places, but with experience, you can probably nail the manoeuver each time.

It's worth taking the tutorial classes, or if you already have experience in an airport, you can simply dive in deep.

I love the depth and realism, and the way the game sucks you into the immersion of playing, I can't say how many times I lost track of time.

Rating

4/5

(5 being the absolute best)

I rated it like this simply because of how long it takes to travel, the finickiness of the different vehicles and the bugs that broke my plane, also there is no saving the game, you must complete the entire scenario.

AirportSim Review

Gameplay

Rating

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