Ace Combat Assault Horizon Review

The Ace Combat franchise has been around since the early 90s on the Playstation.  Known for its fast, arcade style flight combat, fictional storylines, and dramatic plot lines.  It is a formula that has been pretty successful for the series thus far, so it surprising that this newest version of the game adds changes to the formula that ultimately makes the overall experience dull, awkward, and sometimes shallow.

One of the first things you’ll notice when playing Ace Combat is the inclusion of the all new Close-Range Assault system.  Stay on an enemy’s six for long enough, then you’ll have the ability to enter a closer, more intense dog fighting mode.  The camera will zoom into an over the wing shot and you’ll have the ability to fire missiles that have a greater chance of hitting the target.  While this sounds like it should make combat more exciting, the camera jitters around too much and sometimes makes it extremely difficult to get a clear lock on the jet in front of you.  The fact that the game also requires you to perform this maneuver in order to destroy some of the elite pilots is also disappointing.

Missions are laid out as they normally are, which means what you initially started with will not necessarily be all that you’re required to do.  Start off on a regular patrol, and eventually that mission may involve protecting a helicopter squad or clearing the way for ground troops.  The flexibility is a nice way of changing the challenge during one of these missions, but it can also drag on the mission for too long and eventually cause a player to lose focus or become bored.  This is mostly due to the fact that most fighting follows the same routine–get an enemy within range, wait for the tone lock, and either the target is destroyed or you repeat the process.

In an effort to spice up the story, Namco enlisted New York Times Bestseller Jim DeFelice to write-up the backdrop for all the barrel rolls and missile evasion.  Strangely enough however, the story seems remarkably similar to any given modern Call of Duty story.  What also does not help shake this feeling are the number of simliar game mechanics imployed in Ace Combat.  There is an on-rails gunner mission, an AC-130 mission, and a plot twist taken directly from Call of Duty Modern Warfare.  And that all happens within the first hour of playing.

Ace Combat Assault Horizon has also included attack helicopters and stealth bomber missions for the first time in the series.  Much like the rest of the game though, this doesn’t feel all that natural or that it fits in with the rest of the game.  There was never a sense of urgency during these missions and at least in the case of the helicopter missions, they were not all that intense, either.  As long as you have a line of sight on an enemy, you can pull the zoom button and your target reticule will automatically lock on to the nearest target.  What this means is the mission just boils down to circling an area filled with enemies, zooming in and shooting at anything that is locked on until the area is clear.

The one bright spot for this game is that it does look fairly good.  Explosions are massive, you will sometimes get close up visuals on your destroyed enemy, and the overall look of the game is better than its predecessors.  While there was some noticeable stutter during some of the more involved sequences, overall the game looks and sounds passable.

During a time when sequels seem to be dominating the market, companies always try to keep their franchises new and exciting.  Sometimes these changes pay off, breathing new life into an older franchise.  However, in the case of Ace Combat, these changes have done the complete opposite and taken the franchise in a direction that will alienate fans of the previous games, and will not entice new fans to jump into the action flight combat camp.  Most gamers would be better off trying one of the series previous installments if they want to enjoy this series.

A copy of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon for Xbox 360 was provided to us for this review from Ubisoft.