Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Review

A guilty pleasure of mine has always been flight games, be realistic simulator games or action arcade titles, there is something that feels good about (virtually) flying around in the skies. It was this guilty pleasure that lead me to the Ace Combat series which I came to love the most.

The series continued to get better with every iteration, at least that was until the PS2’s Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, a prequel to the events that happened in the fictional Strangereal world in which the series took place in. Ace Combat 6 felt like a step back for the series, while the Call of Duty inspired Ace Combat: Assault Horizons left me worried that we would never get a return to form – mainly because I thought there would never be another Ace Combat.

But Bandai Namco proved me wrong with the release of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown releasing on PS4 and Xbox One. It was the return to Strangereal, back to a dramatic war story about pilots doing their job to protect their country that still leaves you wondering if you were on the right side. More importantly, it was back to the skies and more intense than ever.

Ace Combat 7 takes place after the events of Ace Combat 4 and 5, and set in the fictional “Strangereal” world, where the nations and governments of the world is fictional but most of the technology exists in our world. Players take control of ‘Trigger’, an Ocean Federation Peace keeper pilot. Players are thrown quickly into combat when Erusea declares war and attacks using multiple UAV (drones) which are quickly used to take over the Usean continent.

During a rescue mission, Trigger accidentally shoots down a valuable target and is court-marshaled and is transferred to the 444th air base, a penal military unit. To redeem himself he is thrown back into battle as part of a newly form squadron of outcasts who must attempt to push back the Erusean forces.

While the Trigger’s story is told via mission briefings and conversations with co-pilots, what is happening around the world is told by news reports and a member of another prisoner at the 444th Air Base via cutscenes. It’s not hard to get lost in the story, especially if this is your first time experiencing an Ace Combat game or the Strangereal world, as it really does a good job at trying to tell who to blame in the war.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a return to form, gone is the “Bleeding Metal” close range machine gun battles to focus on the fast pace airel battles that the series has been known for, and while it would be easy to say that fans of the original would be able to pick up and start kicking ass, there are several new updates to the game that help to deliver the most intense dog-fighting yet.

One of the additions is the improvement on the enemy pilot AI, this also kind of works its way into the story with the focus on Drones. After diving myself though Ace Combat 5 in preperation of 7, I noticed very quickly that the drones and other fighters used more techniques to help maneuver in combat. High G turns, loops, spins, stuff that the normal difficulty pilots in 5 were not doing to avoid becoming targets for me, which made the fight become more exciting as had to dodge and weave as missles attempted to lock on.

The other big factor was the weather, as it felt like it actually affected your plane and how well it controlled. The major factor in this was Clouds, which messed with targeting systems and provided turbulance which made the plane more sluggish, while providing cover and possibly icing up the engine, making the plane stall and fall to the ground.

These are two improvements that make a world of difference to the series as everything else seems to be intact. Players can pick from a large assortment of fighter jets, along with their selection of sub-weapons to take on Air-to-Ground or Air-to-Air targets, and players are able to customize each plane with additional parts to up certain stats, as well as cosmetic decals and skins.

Another cool addition is the inclusion of VR on PS4. There isn’t enough praise to give Namco Bandai and the Aces team for their work on the VR as it was easily one of my best VR experience, despite using the DualShock 4 to pilot my craft, I truly felt like I was blasting through the air to take down enemy fighter. (I’m only assuming it would be even more immerse if I was playing with a Flight Stick.)

However the VR is a bit bittersweet as there is a limited amount of missions and lacks a lot of variety from seek and destroy missions. Still, getting into a dog-fight at high speeds is both nauseating and exciting, it’s an excellent showcase for what the PSVR, and VR in general, can do.

Multiplayer makes a return from Ace Combat 6 and its long absence has made it much better. Currently we have only two multiplayer modes, Battle Royale and Team Deathmatch. It’s important to note that the Battle Royale mode is more in line to Classic Deathmatch, where it is everybody against each other and no teams, however there is the ability to respawn.

Both play by the same rules, whoever reaches the score count or holds the highest score by the end of the match wins. Points occur when players do damage to an enemy ship or shoots them out of the sky. Maps are filled with natural obstacles including mountains and clouds, as well as the option to change the weather and time of day affects viability and makes things more interesting.

While the multiplayer is fast-pace and a blast, but my biggest complaint is how long it takes to get a match going in the game. I’m not sure if I can count this as a fault to the game itself as it uses rooms instead of a quick-play function, however my experience with the multiplayer had players taking a long time hanging out in their Hanger updating planes and gear and never readying up for a match – even after they do most of the people ready for a match have left due to the match taking to long to start. In the few hours time I had set aside for Multiplayer for this review – I only got to run two to three matches.

When I got into those matches, everything that I loved about the series went up a notch. The dog-fights in multiplayer was intense, with players teaming up to shoot down other players, using death-defying maneuvers while the environment and weather played a heavy part in the battle. It made the wait to get everyone in the game worth it.

If you were a fan of the Ace Combat series prior to Assault Horizon, then Ace Combat 7 is exactly what you need. Everything is slicker and faster pace while still having everything we love about the series. I do wish there was more to the VR missions and possibly a better matchmaking system for Multiplayer, but there is enough content in the single-player to keep t