First off, my experiences with the Ace Combat franchise is somewhat limited. I first came to this series with Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception for the PSP. I'd never been one for air combat simulators or even arcade style games a la After Burner. I do have a couple of air combat-type simulators but I can name those with just my right hand.........that's an expression right? Anyway, I have Top Gun II: The Second Mission on the NES, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron on the N64 and Star Wars: Rogue Leader on the Gamecube. The genre just never really held much of an interest for me. Then I played ACX.
But this review is about AC:AHL, so let's get back to talking about that game. Break it down!
Graphics
Holy crap! The graphics are pretty amazing. Having played two other Ace Combat games on the PSP, I was expecting something similar but not as clean and crisp. Half the time I forget that I'm playing on the 3DS, which actually has a pseudo better screen size and resolution than the PSP (800x240 pixels vs 480x272 pixels & 32 bit color vs. 24 bit color). The only time I feel that the game looses a bit of the graphics quality is when I'm using the after burners and the wind blowing by and the waves of heat behind the plane blur the crispness. Basically the game looks beautiful in 2D as well as 3D, which brings us to:
3D Effectiveness
The 3D in AC:AHL looks great! Have I used that adjective yet? I've only played a couple of games that support 3D effects (what of it, I have a lot of DS games that I need to go through before I only start buying 3DS games) and this game, at the moment is the best looking game I've played. I'll occasionally switch between 2D and 3D graphics just to see what the difference is in level design and how the missions play.
For most of the game, I'll play in 3rd person view instead of the cockpit view or the HUD view, this is because I like having as much visual space around me as possible. The cockpit view though looks fantastic in 3D and in replays, I'll switch to that visual just to look at how the cockpit glass stretches out and the control panel "comes to life," for lack of a better metaphor.
The only problems I had with the screen blurring, was when I was either trying to avoid enemy fire or trying to catch up with an enemy as they were banking around me. During this, I would either lean in the direction I wanted to go or tilt the console. So not a problem with the game, just being a gamer.
All in all, great us of the 3D.
Game Play
The game play is pretty similar to the previous two Ace Combat games on the PSP. You have the standard/easy control scheme, which is what I usually play in lieu of the more complicated scheme of using the directional pad for the plane's yawl. It's just something that I'd rather not deal with when the computer controlled opponents obviously don't have to deal with it either.
Something new in this iteration of Ace Combat is a meter in the lower right part of the screen that fills up and lets you do some sweet-ass maneuver in order to lock onto an enemy plane. At first, I thought this was a cheap gimmick in order to "dumb down" the game for Nintendo's "younger, less advanced crowd." I thought that at first. Then I started using it and boy-damn is it fun and sometimes necessary, as in there are some enemies that you will never lock onto and hit with a missile if you don't use this. In a similar vain, you can now perform defensive maneuvers in order to dodge enemy missiles. Again, I thought it was cheap at first, but enemies use it too, so fuck it, I'm going to use it too. It's not absolutely necessary to use the dodging technique, but again, it's fun.
About 1/4 of the way through the game, you're given the option of flying with another pilot at the cost of the points you earn from previous missions. I like the option of having computer controlled companions since the idea of a single plane taking on and entire armada of ships (is that redundant?) and squadron of planes (again?), while is pretty heroic, is a bit far fetched. I've yet to use this additional pilot as I don't want to spend the extra points/credits, but later when I don't care so much, or if it becomes necessary, I'll vie for one of the two options.
Aside from the main story mode, there's also a challenge setting and extra missions that lets you play levels that you've unlocked for an arcade-type game. You play through a level that was in the main story line with some minor modifications and try to get a high score. Scores are based on the number and types of enemies you kill, and the amount of time you took to pass the level.
So overall, the game play is what you would typically find from the Ace Combat games if you're familiar with the PSP titles, which again, are the only games in the series that I've played. For some reason I feel like I need to mention that every so often because there's the Ace Combat Fan Boy who would say, "Nuh-uh, the controls in AC:5 were so much more fluid and more realistic, you don't know what you're talking about! You mom's a fuckwad."
Story
The story isn't too involving, at least compared to ACX, which I found to be pretty awesome. The story in Ace Combat: Joint Assault, which was so uninspiring that it's kept me from continually playing the game to buy additional planes. So the story in AC:AHL is that you're part of a squadron that's trying to quell a rebellion from a government that as far as you know, is full of bad people. Until you read some of the bios about the squadron leaders that you just shot down/killed, as in one of them has a family, children and is flying their last mission so they can settle down and retire believing that they're doing the right thing. That's shit's harsh, but I'm still going to shoot the guy down when I replay missions.
After beating the main campaign on the easy setting (which I'll do just to see the differences in how the enemies are stacked against you in the harder difficulty levels), I found out that there was a whole intro movie that explains events leading up to the beginning of the game. I only found this out because I hadn't pressed any buttons. This is a pretty cool looking rendered movie with amazing graphics; in my opinion anyway. I don't see why the movie wasn't played when you start a new game in story mode. Just my thought.
One thing I wish was different was that when you're given the option to choose between missions, that they affect the game somehow. As in, taking control of an enemy supply depo gives you extra count of your special weapon, or some minor change in the story. Ultimately there is no change in how the last series of levels play regardless of which path you decide to choose. The lack of this "option" isn't going to make me like the game any less, it's just something that I wish had been included.
Music
Apparently the music in the Ace Combat games is something to write home (or online) about. The music in ACX wasn't so great (I turned the music off) and in AC:JA, I thought it was significantly better. Here in AC:AHL, the music is pretty good. I guess that's really all I can say about the music except that after beating the campaign, you're given access to the soundtrack, which I've yet to go through, but I will once the game no longer distracts me from playing it.
Final Thoughts
I think Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy is an incredibly fun and beautiful game. Yes, it proves that blowing up enemy planes in clouds of fire and debris can be beautiful. It has a lot of replayibility (not a word), especially since different difficulty levels with throw different enemies at you at different times or elongate a mission.
Some reviews comment on the games short campaign, which is somewhat true. A single playthrough on easy took me just over four hours to complete. But that was on the easy difficulty setting, and only a single playthrough. As with other games in the AC series, there are multiple paths to take during the campaign missions, so in order to play through all the levels on easy, it would take an additional four hours, making it eight hours for a complete run through. But as mentioned earlier, levels change slightly depending on the difficulty setting, so four difficulty settings multiplied by eight hours a piece and now have a game that would take 32 hours. This doesn't take into account the amount of time it would take to earn/buy all the planes, which I'm not always in the mood to try and do. But, 32 hours to complete a game doesn't sound "short" to me, regardless of the genre.
All in all, a really fun game that was definitely worth the $19.99 I paid for it.
P.S. And I just found out that AC:AHL is a remake of Ace Combat 2, which absolutely doesn't change my opinion of the game at all. Except now Namco should remake all the other Ace Combat games for the 3DS.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Obligatory Top Gun Quote Goes Here
