Jump to content
Awoo.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon


Badnik Mechanic

Recommended Posts

Ace Combat has been going on for years, I remember picking it up for the original playstation, back when it was called 'Air combat' it's a series that I really love and the only Ace Combat I don't own is Ace Combat 6, on the grounds I don't have a 360.

Well anyway. Ace Combat Assault Horizon is an attempt to 're-boot' the series, although it's debatable if the series needed re-booting.

Now Ace Combat had a demo out recently, and it didn't do itself any favours, picking it up I hated it, the only saving grace was the helicopter mission, in fact the demo was so bad, I nearly cancelled my pre-order for it, but I kept it anyway after some thought.

And how glad I am that I didn't cancel! I got the game last friday and since then I've not put the game down! It's just so much fun to play.

If you've played previous air combat games then you'll know what to expect, only they've added one very big change to how you take out enemy planes.

Typically in air combat type games, you have to fly around in a circle and hope that eventually you end up behind and enemy and then lock on with missiles, what usually happens, especially with the multiplayer is that the air battles just end up being "Fly around in a circle, the one with the best plane and the best special wins."

However, how they've added something called "Dog Fight Mode" what happens is that if you get close enough to an enemy plane, you can effectively stay on his tail at very close proximity and engage him in a dogfight. But... doing so has it's problems, for starters you are exceptionally vulnreable to enemy aircraft. It's not an instant win move.

acecombat_ah_small.jpg

Also the way this dog fight mode works allows for the person being chased to perform special counter moves, but... the person chasing can react and perform an anti counter (this is not an easy thing to do) to still take you down.

It means that air battles are a lot more intense than previously, you're always on your toes and watching for enemy players. Whilst some planes are better than others, it now brings more focus on the ability of the player as apposed to the ability of the plane, yeah most people are using F-22's in death matches, but that doesn't mean they'll win, the skills of the pilot thanks to DFM greatly influence the course of the battle.

There is a story to the game, which isn't a great one, but it keeps things interesting and unlike previous Air Combat games theres no big huge fortress or flying battle ship to destroy in which two armies are fighting each other, it's a battle between two enemy squadrons which eventually comes down to a battle between you and the other squad leader.

But as I mentioned before. You're not just flying jets this time, theres a selection of different mission types such as flying close ground support as a helicopter...

091511_ace_combat_assault_horizon_helicopters_t.jpg

... in another you're flying a B-2 Stealth Bomber and you have to target ICBM's from the air and you also take the role of a gattling gunner (those big mini gun things on the side of troop helicopters) who provides very close support to a seal team aboard a ship full of enemy troops.

acecombat_ah_small.jpg

Oh yes and you can also be one of the many gunners on an AC-130 gunship, which is quite awesome!

Now one thing that they've added, which is cool at first, but slow gets annoying, when you enter Dog Fight Mode and take out an enemy plane, the camera zooms in on that plane, time slows down and you see it explode/blow apart. In some cases you also see the pilot fly out of the plane as it falls apart... kinda disturbing.

The sound track on this game is really good, it fits so well with each specific mission and at times it changes beat as the battles intensify or as the mission updates.

But... one thing about the game that I love... is that you can decorate your planes and even take them online. Now whilst Namco are releasing more themed skins over the next few weeks, I'm having far too much fun piloting an experimental Russian Stealth Fighter that I've painted pink.

pinkpunisher.jpg

I call it the Punk Punisher.

It's also highly ammusing destroying people online with the pink plane and hearing them rage because the pink plane destroyed them.

prettymissiles.jpg

Yes... it can fire yellow missiles... Because the pink missiles don't look as nice. No plane is safe... from the Pink Punishers yellow missiles...

blobnik.jpg

I call this one Mr Blobnik.

But I can't stress this enough, definately give this game a chance because it's great it really is, the demo doesn't do it any favours at all because it doesn't show off what the game can do at all, (well the helicopter mission does but the jet one is kinda bad).

Nukes

There is a nuke in the game... sorta... it's not called a nuke, it doesn't do the same damage as a nuke, but it pretty much is a nuke, and yes you can use it in free mission mode... and it is a weapon that you can use online (8 kill streak perk), it's more a show off weapon than anything else, chances are you won't kill anyone online with it (well maybe 1 player at the most), offline it's great to see it detonate and take out ground targets. It also looks stunning then fired from a distance.

Online I've even flown to the very top of the map, fired one directly down, just to watch it detonate from 40,000 feet, it's quite an epic sight.

nuke.jpg

That is a weapon you can fire in game.

Trailer

About the Limited Edition

Theres two limited editions of the game, theres one called 'the helicopter edition' (Which I cannot find for sale anywhere) which comes with an RC helicopter.

But the one you'll probably see a lot of is the normal 'limited edition.'

It's priced the same as the game is right now, so if you fancy getting the game theres no harm to the wallet. The content isn't amazing, it's very basic, and the notebook has a bit of a 'how did they miss that' spelling mistake in the back.

The plane DLC is just rubbish, it's probably the worst plane in the game all things considered don't be upset if you don't get the limited edition and miss out on the plane.

However you do get the OST (on disk) with it, so it probably is worth it for that alone.

You can see my actual reaction to the Pilot Profil in that vid.

Edited by Hogfather
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 6
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Badnik Mechanic

    2

  • Axl.EXE

    2

  • Phos

    1

  • Remy

    1

Top Posters In This Topic

I don't like Dog Fight Mode because it's faking what this game should be doing for real. Post Stall maneuvers, the influences of high angle of attack, the aperture of your radar, ECM, those kinds of things. Instead we get shaky cam and thinly veiled autopilot. They also really need to tone down the number of missiles you get per mission, what made Ace Combat 5 great was not killing a million things every level. That is, in fact, what made Ace Combat 6 so boring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Bout time this series got some recognition here on SSMB. biggrin.png

I'm looking forward to getting this game, honestly. The Dogfight mode (And I will get flak for this) is actually rather fun once you get used to it. It also emphasizes the skill of the pilot over plane. Now, you probably CAN kill that F-22 in your MiG-21 (Or the Fencer <3) if you work at it. You still have to watch your tail while doing it, which makes it a challenge.

As for the helicopter mission, from the demo alone I can tell it'll be a blast. The rockets are useful and great for hammering the crap out of the checkpoints (I've even shot down one of the Hinds with the rockets), and the missiles are great for taking out things on the buildings. And the gun, oh God how I love that gun. Once you lock on to the target, it follows the target for you. This is great because otherwise it'd be a pain in the ass trying to follow a moving target with the gun.

Now for the graphics. One word: Beautiful. The Raptor, hell, all the planes look amazing. So do the buildings. And the terrain. But, then, considering I only have 5 and Zero, it's understandable.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is one thing that the Dog Fight Mode does do well which the old games could never do.

Theres a few missions where you have to shoot down bombers, only thing is, the bombers tend to take a million missiles and on higher difficulties theres one bomber that always deploys counter measures so your missiles either miss or can't lock on.

So your only option is guns.

Now in previous games it was a balancing act to fly almost perfectly behind the bomber and take it out with guns, hoping that it didn't suddenly slow down otherwise you'd plow right into the back of it, or an enemy plane would lock onto you and you'd have to start the whole thing again.

With DFM, not only can you lock onto the bomber, but you can also target its individual engines which not only slow the bomber down, but act as a way to take it out more efficiently than launching loads of missiles at it. Whilst you're still at a risk from enemy planes, it does mkae it a bit more interesting to target specific points of the plane to damage it and take it down.

And it's not and instant win thing either, you still need to work to control your aircraft so it targets the right spot, whilst you follow the bomber the gun target doesn't auto target, you do need to aim yourself.

As for the helicopter mission, from the demo alone I can tell it'll be a blast. The rockets are useful and great for hammering the crap out of the checkpoints (I've even shot down one of the Hinds with the rockets),
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

An update because I got Assault Horizon for Christmas.

Ripped it open and played all through campaign in two days. On Pilot, which feels like somewhere between Normal and Hard on the old difficulty scale.

Those tanks in Moscow, man. I used up all my rockets before reaching the Kremlin. Which made attacking the Kremlin that much harder. Which sucked, because apparently you can get killed in a chopper by tanks shooting at you now.

Must... Resist.. Urge... to... make.. robot.. unicorn... PAK-FA

The F-15E carries more ground-attack weaponry than the Warthog. wut. But it's good, as it makes the Strike Eagle a multirole can of whoopass. Better than the F-35, that's for sure. Screw you, stealth, I have 200+ 4AGM!

Edited by Axl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

You must read and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue using this website. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.