Not Spaceghost
Spaceghost
Unmarked spoilers about Ace Combat in general ahead!
Also pardon my grammar, I am typing this from a phone.
Let's give a little preface: I have been a long time Ace Combat fan, ever since playing AC2 on my brand new Playstation back in the day, it was the first game I got when I bought the console because of some in store deal. Here I thought oh this won't be anything special it will just be a lame flight sim. Boy, my body was not ready. Ace Combat introduced me to a world where my F-15 had over 40 missiles, blazing fast speeds, a crazy awesome universe, an amazing sound track and best of all a distinct feeling of an arcade game wrapped up inside a Playstation one black disc. I jumped right into electrosphere where the new UI and the electronic beats took a little to get used to, same with the branching story but it was still the exact same experience I wanted out of the series.
Fast forward to Ace Combat 04, this game blew my mind visually it felt so photo realistic at the time it was incredible, not to mention that the story telling in this entry is still definitely one of the coolest methods of narrative delivery I have seen in a long time, another gaffer whose name escapes me at the moment describes it perfectly as, "The whole story is basically one giant letter to Mobius 1, from a civilian onlooker who has seen war from all sides". It is a story where you play a character who isn't even the main protagonist in the narrative until close to the end, you're not so much a character, you're a goddamn force of nature here to destroy everything that stands in your way.
Ace Combat 5 to me is the pinnacle of the series. It might have had a long and relatively "anime" and cheesy narrative, but the sheer amount of emotion and wave of feels that it forced on me was immense. To this day I have not found a game that has moved me as much as Ace Combat 5. From the mission where you're taking off sand island while you're under siege all the way till the very end where you're flying towards the SOLG at the break of dawn and you all know it's the final mission.
Ace Combat 5 has so many amazing moments, in fact almost every mission contains something memorable but one of them is still hands down my favorite moment in video games. When you're taking off from the Kestrel trying to convince the enemy warships that this is a pointless war and that there is no reason for the fighting, so the background music for the whole mission changes to the "Journey Home" anthem and you watch as the enemy fleet slowly defects to your side. Of course not everyone defects, so when the people who stay on the other side start firing at your new comrades you find yourself almost protective of them, so swooping down and raining death on their decks feels incredible. This feeling is later felt again in the penultimate mission when as you're flying in, fighters from all over and of all nationalities join in formation with you - an unaffiliated squadron simply trying to do the right thing and end this war.
I could talk about Ace Combat Zero because the live action cutscenes and the sound track are fantastic in this entry but honestly I think I've had enough retrospective, it's time to get into this steaming piece of horseshit that dares call itself Ace Combat. This isn't a case of me being a long time fan and then changing the game on me so now I suddenly feel like I have been betrayed. No, this is just the simple fact that Assault Horizon is a shitty game experience, besides you're talking to someone who enjoyed resident evil 6 so I am totally cool with change if I can enjoy it.
I decided to pick this up after enjoying Assault Horizon Legacy, the remake of AC2 on my 3DS. Legacy was fantastic, and it handled the maneuvers system really well because you didn't feel pigeonholed into using it, it just sort of felt like your special attack and the feel of the game was absolutely spot on it was super enjoyable, highly recommendable as an entry point into the series for anyone and I am currently replaying through it a 4th time. Now let's actually stop beating around the bush and talk about Ass Hor.
Dog Fighter Mode: This is what kills the game fundamentally. Shortly after the tutorial mission you begin to realize THEY REALLY WANT YOU TO USE THIS! It becomes almost impossible to hit anything without using DFM, missiles either just don't track or enemies are too agile to be hit. Fundamentally I understand why they did this, because at the end of the day in older Ace Combats you rarely got to see an enemy fighter up close, they were just a blip on your radar and a red missile lock square that turned into a cloud of smoke. This was not the way to fix it, it literally makes every dog fight go from a test of positioning, speed and patience to a glorified quick time event...that is also on rails. At first you think you're in control of your fighter during DFM making you think it's just a camera angle shift like the maneuvers in AC Legacy, but no you are actually on rails and it is incredibly frustrating. There are some cool ideas here but they get lost in a shit hole mess of gameplay problems that arise out of it. I'd rather just see them reuse Legacy's take on the whole thing than try to get overly complex.
When people say this is CoD with fighter jets they are not joking, regenerating health on a fighter is not only absurd but breaks the pacing of an Ace Combat game. Before you would get hit if you truly screwed up and you were just as weak as an enemy fighter in that one or two missiles would drop you. in Ass Hor you get hit ALL THE TIME, mostly because of the horrendous controls (I even switched to optimum instead of classic to see if it made the game better and it really doesn't, even if it did I don't like playing an Ace Combat that way) dodging missiles becomes less of a thing you react to and more something that you have to actively do other wise you will get hit, but if you spend all your time dodging missile instead of trying to get into DFM you will never shoot anything down. Once again, this game is fucking frustrating.
The Story: I hate the real world setting, simple as that. It allows for less liberty in story telling, no more creative super weapons instead we just get a fucking non radioactive nuke. Not to mention the lore of Ace Combat is surprisingly rich, with events that you can feel across all the games, hell the major catalyst of the series is the impact of asteroid Ulysses 1994XF04. It is the reason why super weapons like the V2, Megalith, Intolerance, SOLG and Stonehenge exist! To throw it all away just for wider appeal was a horrible, horrible mistake. The story is boring, cliche, and contrived. You can tell it has no soul put into it. There isn't much to be said here other than towards the end I found myself skipping cutscenes because I just didn't care, it wasn't an apathy that I had from the beginning, it was something that grew from watching this train wreck.
Pacing: Something that should never be over looked, and SHOCKER this is a disaster as well. Aside from DFM the biggest pacing problem comes from the fact that the missions just drag on and on and on and on and on. They never end, I had a feeling something was up when I sortied on my first actual flight and I had ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR MISSILES. That is triple the amount normally given in early Ace Combat missions and double what you see by the end of an older game. The mission seriously felt like it lasted 45 minutes, and I don't even know how long it actually lasted because there is no break up between missions, gone are the amazing mission briefing sequences and mission select screen, now it's just one seamless "cinematic" piece of shit story. Also after the tutorial mission the opening credits start with you as a door gunner for a chopper, this made me go "wtf?" because it was a very long sequence that was also very boring. Not to mention the chopper mission just didn't fucking end and it was also awkward but to be honest I thought it was more fun than having to endure the only DFM fighter missions. At least with the Chopper I felt like I was in control of my motions.
Soundtrack and Audio: I can barely hear my missiles when I fire them, they don't make that distinctive FWOOOOSH when you push O anymore. Radio chatter sucks, it was more entertaining when it was over acted and not realistic, it also kept you in the moment unlike this. The OST also only has like 3 good tracks everything else is rather forgettable which is kind of a huge let down as AC OSTs are always great.
I could probably keep going but I have to stop typing soon my hands are hurting, I might edit with pictures later and possibly for coherence.
Bottom line though: This game sucks, it is not fanboy rage it is just a fundamentally broken experience and should be avoided. I understand the series had to grow, but the growth in AC Legacy was positive, here it feels like a goddamn contortion of what the series is, it's like the sequel to Zelda being about missions instead of dungeons with regenerating hearts. There are directions to take a series in while preserving its core and then there are situations like this where you lose the core completely.
Also pardon my grammar, I am typing this from a phone.
Let's give a little preface: I have been a long time Ace Combat fan, ever since playing AC2 on my brand new Playstation back in the day, it was the first game I got when I bought the console because of some in store deal. Here I thought oh this won't be anything special it will just be a lame flight sim. Boy, my body was not ready. Ace Combat introduced me to a world where my F-15 had over 40 missiles, blazing fast speeds, a crazy awesome universe, an amazing sound track and best of all a distinct feeling of an arcade game wrapped up inside a Playstation one black disc. I jumped right into electrosphere where the new UI and the electronic beats took a little to get used to, same with the branching story but it was still the exact same experience I wanted out of the series.
Fast forward to Ace Combat 04, this game blew my mind visually it felt so photo realistic at the time it was incredible, not to mention that the story telling in this entry is still definitely one of the coolest methods of narrative delivery I have seen in a long time, another gaffer whose name escapes me at the moment describes it perfectly as, "The whole story is basically one giant letter to Mobius 1, from a civilian onlooker who has seen war from all sides". It is a story where you play a character who isn't even the main protagonist in the narrative until close to the end, you're not so much a character, you're a goddamn force of nature here to destroy everything that stands in your way.
Ace Combat 5 to me is the pinnacle of the series. It might have had a long and relatively "anime" and cheesy narrative, but the sheer amount of emotion and wave of feels that it forced on me was immense. To this day I have not found a game that has moved me as much as Ace Combat 5. From the mission where you're taking off sand island while you're under siege all the way till the very end where you're flying towards the SOLG at the break of dawn and you all know it's the final mission.
Ace Combat 5 has so many amazing moments, in fact almost every mission contains something memorable but one of them is still hands down my favorite moment in video games. When you're taking off from the Kestrel trying to convince the enemy warships that this is a pointless war and that there is no reason for the fighting, so the background music for the whole mission changes to the "Journey Home" anthem and you watch as the enemy fleet slowly defects to your side. Of course not everyone defects, so when the people who stay on the other side start firing at your new comrades you find yourself almost protective of them, so swooping down and raining death on their decks feels incredible. This feeling is later felt again in the penultimate mission when as you're flying in, fighters from all over and of all nationalities join in formation with you - an unaffiliated squadron simply trying to do the right thing and end this war.
I could talk about Ace Combat Zero because the live action cutscenes and the sound track are fantastic in this entry but honestly I think I've had enough retrospective, it's time to get into this steaming piece of horseshit that dares call itself Ace Combat. This isn't a case of me being a long time fan and then changing the game on me so now I suddenly feel like I have been betrayed. No, this is just the simple fact that Assault Horizon is a shitty game experience, besides you're talking to someone who enjoyed resident evil 6 so I am totally cool with change if I can enjoy it.
I decided to pick this up after enjoying Assault Horizon Legacy, the remake of AC2 on my 3DS. Legacy was fantastic, and it handled the maneuvers system really well because you didn't feel pigeonholed into using it, it just sort of felt like your special attack and the feel of the game was absolutely spot on it was super enjoyable, highly recommendable as an entry point into the series for anyone and I am currently replaying through it a 4th time. Now let's actually stop beating around the bush and talk about Ass Hor.
Dog Fighter Mode: This is what kills the game fundamentally. Shortly after the tutorial mission you begin to realize THEY REALLY WANT YOU TO USE THIS! It becomes almost impossible to hit anything without using DFM, missiles either just don't track or enemies are too agile to be hit. Fundamentally I understand why they did this, because at the end of the day in older Ace Combats you rarely got to see an enemy fighter up close, they were just a blip on your radar and a red missile lock square that turned into a cloud of smoke. This was not the way to fix it, it literally makes every dog fight go from a test of positioning, speed and patience to a glorified quick time event...that is also on rails. At first you think you're in control of your fighter during DFM making you think it's just a camera angle shift like the maneuvers in AC Legacy, but no you are actually on rails and it is incredibly frustrating. There are some cool ideas here but they get lost in a shit hole mess of gameplay problems that arise out of it. I'd rather just see them reuse Legacy's take on the whole thing than try to get overly complex.
When people say this is CoD with fighter jets they are not joking, regenerating health on a fighter is not only absurd but breaks the pacing of an Ace Combat game. Before you would get hit if you truly screwed up and you were just as weak as an enemy fighter in that one or two missiles would drop you. in Ass Hor you get hit ALL THE TIME, mostly because of the horrendous controls (I even switched to optimum instead of classic to see if it made the game better and it really doesn't, even if it did I don't like playing an Ace Combat that way) dodging missiles becomes less of a thing you react to and more something that you have to actively do other wise you will get hit, but if you spend all your time dodging missile instead of trying to get into DFM you will never shoot anything down. Once again, this game is fucking frustrating.
The Story: I hate the real world setting, simple as that. It allows for less liberty in story telling, no more creative super weapons instead we just get a fucking non radioactive nuke. Not to mention the lore of Ace Combat is surprisingly rich, with events that you can feel across all the games, hell the major catalyst of the series is the impact of asteroid Ulysses 1994XF04. It is the reason why super weapons like the V2, Megalith, Intolerance, SOLG and Stonehenge exist! To throw it all away just for wider appeal was a horrible, horrible mistake. The story is boring, cliche, and contrived. You can tell it has no soul put into it. There isn't much to be said here other than towards the end I found myself skipping cutscenes because I just didn't care, it wasn't an apathy that I had from the beginning, it was something that grew from watching this train wreck.
Pacing: Something that should never be over looked, and SHOCKER this is a disaster as well. Aside from DFM the biggest pacing problem comes from the fact that the missions just drag on and on and on and on and on. They never end, I had a feeling something was up when I sortied on my first actual flight and I had ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY FOUR MISSILES. That is triple the amount normally given in early Ace Combat missions and double what you see by the end of an older game. The mission seriously felt like it lasted 45 minutes, and I don't even know how long it actually lasted because there is no break up between missions, gone are the amazing mission briefing sequences and mission select screen, now it's just one seamless "cinematic" piece of shit story. Also after the tutorial mission the opening credits start with you as a door gunner for a chopper, this made me go "wtf?" because it was a very long sequence that was also very boring. Not to mention the chopper mission just didn't fucking end and it was also awkward but to be honest I thought it was more fun than having to endure the only DFM fighter missions. At least with the Chopper I felt like I was in control of my motions.
Soundtrack and Audio: I can barely hear my missiles when I fire them, they don't make that distinctive FWOOOOSH when you push O anymore. Radio chatter sucks, it was more entertaining when it was over acted and not realistic, it also kept you in the moment unlike this. The OST also only has like 3 good tracks everything else is rather forgettable which is kind of a huge let down as AC OSTs are always great.
I could probably keep going but I have to stop typing soon my hands are hurting, I might edit with pictures later and possibly for coherence.
Bottom line though: This game sucks, it is not fanboy rage it is just a fundamentally broken experience and should be avoided. I understand the series had to grow, but the growth in AC Legacy was positive, here it feels like a goddamn contortion of what the series is, it's like the sequel to Zelda being about missions instead of dungeons with regenerating hearts. There are directions to take a series in while preserving its core and then there are situations like this where you lose the core completely.
(too bad those games aren't well emulated on PC or even PS3, I'd kill for an HD collection)
