Altitude

Altitude is a multi-player 2-D aerial combat game developed by independent software developers Erik Measure and Karl Sabo. The game was released on May 1, 2009 for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It became available on Steam on December 4, 2009.

Gameplay
Players control one of five customizable aircraft and battle in teams across 2D landscapes. As a player gains experience in battle they unlock new planes and customizations called perks. The game has been described by the press as a cross between Teeworlds, Team Fortress 2 and an RPG.

Altitude is primarily an online game with some offline skirmish options and bot support. There are several modes, and plane customizations.

Free For All
The players compete in a timed Deathmatch, competing for the highest number of kills.

Team Deathmatch
The players are divided into two teams, competing for the highest kill total in a specified amount of time.

Team Base Destruction
In Team Base Destruction or TBD, the objective is to use a special bomb to destroy the opposing team's base while defending your own. Each base is surrounded by a number of destructible turrets and players always spawn near their own base. Bombs spawn either at each base and are only able to be picked up by their respective teams, or the bombs spawn in the middle of the map and can be picked up by either team.

Ball
Ball mode utilizes a single persistent ball and a goal for each team. Every time a goal is scored all planes are reset and the ball is given to the team that just conceded the goal. At the beginning of the match the ball is placed in the middle of the map. The winning team is the team that reaches 6 goals first.

Reception
Altitude received favourable reviews at Metacritic, where it scored 78% on average (over a small sample of five reviews, however).

PC Zone magazine in the UK commented that it is "a great little indie game, it's cheap and you really should play it."

IT Reviews called it "the perfect lunch break filler, with its fast paced action and quick turnaround matches."

AceGamez said that "Altitude's simple premise hides behind a deceptively difficult game, but one that's easily learned and enjoyable to engage in." The site added "more might have been better, but what is here does last, just so long as it's taken in the right doses."