Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Review

Ace Combat is a game about jets; you fly jets and blow up other jets. Let’s forget the intro and just jump straight into the review. The fake countries in a near future setting from the previous Ace Combat games have been replaced by a current day setting with the plot written by New York Times bestselling author, Jim DeFelice. I heard he’s a great writer so I’ll just take their word for it, but the story here isn’t anything new.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
Developer: Project Aces
Price: $60.00
Platform: PS3 (reviewed) & Xbox 360

You’ll mainly play as Colonel Bishop who’s your typical protagonist, but you’ll also get to play as a few other equally boring pilots in other vehicles. You start the story in Africa fighting off a rebel force when some Russian mercenaries decide to keep the status quo of being the villains. To keep things short (I’m just joking, this is the whole plot) they have bombs and are going to use them to blow people up. I suppose story takes second place to a game about jet combat, but I was under the impression that a capable author was writing this.

I was never a fan of the Ace Combat games because I couldn’t get into the controls, I preferred to watch my uncle play them instead. Project Aces decided they wanted more people to play their game and have added another control scheme called Optimal. With this setting on the planes control with a very arcade-like feel and everything just feels really smooth. The original controls are still there for Ace Combat veterans (labeled as Original) but the game has Optimal set as default. Everything else feels great and after a few minutes I felt like a pro piloting the jet in massive dogfights and pulling off aerial moves easily. You’ll also be able to select from a good amount of jets with different stats before each mission and what missile types you want.

The major difference to the series is the Dogfight Mode. When you get close enough to an enemy you’ll be able to tap both trigger buttons to initiate DFM where you’ll get an over-the-shoulder view of your jet while it goes into autopilot and follows your target. What you do now is control the targeting circle to shoot down the other guy with your machine gun or rockets in what basically becomes an on-rails moment. It’s cinematic and some moments will have your jet soaring in-between city buildings while everything is exploding around you which feels amazing. Some players will scoff at this ‘casualizing’ the gameplay a bit but there are still many things you have to be aware of while in DFM. You’ll need to be quick to stay in range of your target by making sharp turns or speeding up and the target can feel like the game is having a mini-seizure with it jittering all around the place. You’re also not safe since the guy you’re following can pull a fast one on you and slip behind you and activating DFM against you. Here you’ll have the option of just outrunning him or slowing down enough to let him pass you so you can continue fire on him. If you manage to be near another enemy when you kill somebody in DFM you’ll instantly start DFM against them which starts an assault chain. There’s also a bombing DFM moment where you’ll be put on a set path while you target ground structures such as tanks, missile turrets, towers, etc. These part always felt terrible since I could never tell what my missiles could target or not since I’d have something locked on yet the missile will fly off somewhere else. I found it much easier to just manually fly into the area and blast your machine gun since it’s got a wide-area affect. Kills during DFM feel satisfying with the game slowing down for a moment to show the jet exploding in oily parts and in some cases the pilot hilariously falling out. Oh and let’s not forget that the screen gets covered with the FPS traditional “BLOODY SCREEN” but this time it’s what I assume to be oil from the opposing jet. It makes no sense when this happens, but it does look cool.

Assault Horizon takes things a little differently from previous Ace Combat games in that at times you’ll pilot vehicles other than a jet. You’ll be able to get behind the gunner seat in a helicopter, pilot the chopper yourself, and get your Modern Warfare on in the AC130. It did feel like a nice change of pace from the jet levels and the missions themselves are enjoyable, especially the chopper gunner ones, but these were probably some of the most frustrating with hordes of enemies bum-rushing you in the AC130 mission with no clear objective or enemies popping up on the map magically. The helicopter missions were a little iffy too, but nothing frustrating while the chopper gunner missions were actually a blast to play besides the annoyance of being unable to dodge enemy rockets. You’ve basically got to be aware of where it’s coming from and shoot the rocket before it hits you. The only variety in these missions is that you get to pilot something other than a jet, but after a while in these missions I would start to miss soaring in the air and wishing for the mission to end so I could return to my jet.

Multiplayer is back with competitive and co-op modes. Co-op takes 8 missions from the campaign and reworks them for cooperative play for up to 3 players. The enemies here are much tougher due to the increase in human players and even have new enemies showing up. These missions have a bit of strategy put into them when you and your partners decide what jets you want to take into the battle. Maybe have one guy bring a jet focused on taking out ground forces while your allies keep the skies clear, or everyone can bring the same type of jet and fly together.

The competitive modes include Deathmatch, Domination, and Capital Conquest. Deathmatch is basically a 16 player free for all in a hectic battle as players vie for victory with the most kills. Domination puts you into teams competing for control over various bases around the map. Your team will gain points as time goes on for each base you have. Now Capital Conquest is the highlight of all the modes with players split into two teams with the task of destroying the other team’s capital before time runs out. You’ll be able to pilot a jet, attack chopper, or even a bomber to lay waste to the enemy capital.

The graphics are a bit of a disappointment to me since I came in expecting current gen graphics but got aliasing (jagged edges) all over the place and sub-par textures. The jets themselves look good (besides the edges) but the environments are such ass with flat textures or boring looking environments. The cities are fun to fly in, but most of the time those missions will tell you to go kill the bandits who are away from the city so you don’t spend a lot of time dog-fighting there. I also take back all the jokes I made about Gears of War/Modern Warfare being brown shooters because Assault Horizon has won the crown. Each level is either completely brown or white/blue to the point that if the developers told me the game took place in a playground sandbox I’d believe them. The soundtrack is full of orchestral tracks and rock riffs that fit amazingly well with the action, but feel a lot better during the chopper gunner segments, which are scripted of course, but scripted moments are always easier for developers to organize the soundtrack to it’s full potential.

The Final Word
I’m not sure if Ace Combat veterans will welcome the new changes, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a solid game with a sizable single-player and multiplayer despite suffering from the Call of Duty syndrome. The campaign does have some variety with the different vehicles, but those missions aren’t different enough with objectives still being “blow those guys up but now with different guns”. New players to the series who’ve been turned off before might want to take another shot with Assault Horizon if they’ve been curious about the series.

– MonsterVine Rating: 3 out of 5 – Average