elio_q said:
^^would you say that the last Ace Combat is the better game?
Eh, I didn't play that one much because I didn't like it. I haven't truly enjoyed an AC game since AC5.
The story is pretty bland. We're given no motivation for why the rebels are rebelling or why the Russian mercs are helping them - at least not until before the final two missions. So it feels like you're fighting a senseless war. And a lot of the plot developing dialog occurs in combat with no subtitles. Maybe you can turn them on, I didn't bother to check, but the dialog comes over the radio and is barely audible over the sounds of battle. And what plot there is, is fairly predictable.
The characters are...well it's a stretch to call them even "one note". There is absolutely no emotional connection to any of them.
The gameplay was fine I guess. I'd probably give it a 6.5-7, only because Dog Fight Mode and it's bomber counterpart ASM (can't remember what it stands for) are interesting enough, but don't blow my mind away. These modes essentially put your plane into a loose "on-rails" sequence. You're not completely restricted like a true on rails sequence (except for the missions where you play a door gunner on a Black Hawk), but there are a few instances where the game does the flying for you while you're engaged in DFM.
These cases play out much like the part of the demo where you're tailing a fighter and the fighter shoots down a crane to try to lose you and you fly under it or where you follow a fighter through sky scrapers. There's no chance of hitting these buildings because the game takes over for you. And during these sequences it doesn't matter how many missiles or bullets you pump into the enemy fighter, it won't go down unless the sequence has played out. They're scripted moments to be sure, but when every other fighter jet in the game goes down with two missile hits, it takes you out of the role of being an ace pilot and reminds you that you're only playing a game.
Where AC6 had enemy Aces, AC:AH has Target Leads. These planes are essentially Aces (but not THE rival Ace) and can rarely be shot down without engaging them in DFM. This forces you to utilize a mechanic that is not entirely without joy, but for sure is less satisfying than knowing you were responsible for banking and weaving your jet until you had that perfect firing angle. Also, DFM can somewhat defy the laws of physics. As you near a target with an acceptable line to that target, a circle will grow outward from the target letting you know that you're able to initiate DFM. Once you do this, your plane will "snap" to the tail of the target. This sometimes happens by way of the plane making a turn that is impossible even when freeflying the plane, but would likely shear the plane in half as well. No where is this more apparent then on the bombing runs.
Instead of DFM you initiate ASM by approaching a triangle that marks the start of the bombing run. As long as you stay within the boundaries of the run you are given the advantage of guns that won't overheat and bombs and missiles that recharge faster, enabling you to take out every target on the run in one pass, which for one mission is actually a requirement. And in that mission you're given the choice between a B-2 and a B-1B, both of which aren't exactly nimble by aircraft standards. But you can approach the ASM entry point a near perpendicular angle and all the sudden the aircraft can turn on a dime.
The attack chopper missions are just fine, I suppose. Although there is little to no penalty for running your chopper into a building. And since the flares are on the same button as the button combo for the evasion rollover, more often then not I deployed flares and was hit by the missile anyway because I was expecting my chopper to roll on its own and was not moving it. And since the chopper missions are mostly keyed to ground attacks, the few times you do run into an enemy chopper you're left with unguided rockets and a chain gun that will overheat almost twice before you put enough lead into the enemy to down it.
All in all, I enjoyed it enough to play the entire campaign straight through and I might go through a second time to pick up any achievements I might have missed. It's fun, but it doesn't hold a candle to AC5 in my book.
