![]() Once or twice that annoying loop-the-looping happens here, usually when fighting tough enemies, like ace pilots or ludicrously agile drones. The variety on show here is a joy compared to the Ace Combat I remember, which was mostly about flying in endless circles chasing the tail of your foe as they simultaneously chased yours, turning aerial combat into an ouroboros of boredom. I’m glad to say dud moments like this are the minority, though. Spotted by a light? Mission failed, back to the start. But then it turns out to be of the insta-fail variety. One level is a stealth mission in which you pilot through a twisting gulch full of spotlights, which sounds excellent in the briefing room, because you are basically doing a sneaky Death Star run. Hello, says a third mission, shoot down this sea base by flying through the narrow struts and blowing up each supporting column like some sort of airplane god. These SAM sites are all hiding in a hard-to-navigate canyon, says another. Clouds can ice up your plane but they also protect you from missile lock-ons, says one mission. Each one introduces some new set piece, some new environment or enemy type or challenge. The missions themselves are happy-go-lucky shooting ranges, and they come and go at a blistering pace. But I will say this: Ace Combat 7 is the best JRPG so far this year. I won’t say why this line is uttered to you, because one of the biggest joys here is laughing out loud at the wall of batshittery that hits you with each mission, like a volley of missiles. “Your mission,” says your new commander, “is to atone for your crimes.” At one point you, a professional fighter pilot called “Trigger”, are relegated to a prison base, yet still expected (and trusted) to pilot an immensely expensive instrument of war over hostile AA guns. Because very soon, the story explodes outward like an expanding foam, into a complex sequence of nonsense and counter-nonsense. They hate being confused.īut in terms of complications, the naming conventions of the opening are the least of your worries. Imagine explaining to an alien that Australia has attacked Austria and they are fighting over the region of Australasia. I hope you got all that, because although this “Strangereal” universe is known to fans, it will be completely baffling to new or lapsed players. The nation of Erusea has attacked Osea and they are both now fighting over the continent of Usea. This is gung-ho zoomy plane action all the way. There are advanced controls that let you pilot with a bit more “realism” (you get more control over rolling and so on) but I stuck to the controls for dummies (using an Xbox controller) and felt perfectly capable of pulling sharp turns and launching last-minute bombs at radar trucks. ![]() ![]() It’s more arcadey than simulator, despite its sim-like good looks. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. I’ve been absent from Ace Combat since the PlayStation 2 days, but I’m so glad to be back in this dumbass cockpit. I celebrated this crossover by laughing my bum off. This sentence marks the moment I went from sensibly playing this dogfighter with a reviewer’s eye, to being inescapably absorbed in the joyous idiocy of its mid-air showdowns and ultra daft plot. “We need to make it to the space elevator” was not one of them. All the familiar phrases of aeronautic warfare, hissing through the high-altitude static, predictable and safe. Radio call-outs that any good fighter pilot might recognise. I expected to hear many sentences in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the latest in the long-running series of jet fighter games.
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