2019 Game of the Year Countdown
#2: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
Playstation 4 (2019)
We had to wait 12 years between Ace Combat 6 and this entry, so âhighly anticipatedâ would be an understatement. I just wanted to fly my MiG-29, but it was very surprising that they included the F-104 as well (which Iâm certain all of three people were asking for, but hey, I wonât disapprove)
After a terrible foray into whatever the heck Assault Horizon was supposed to be (I mean, in a series built upon flying at breakneck speed, why would we want to fly a bomber that crawls and canât maneuver??), AC7 delivered what I consider the best gameplay in the entire franchise, which stretches back about 25 years. All the jets handle extremely well, and the levels are designed very well. We have the classic âfly through this canyon because it reminds us of the Death Star,â but also some of the most challenging pilot AI that the series has seen. Missiles in some of the more recent games have really taken to the âfire-and-forgetâ mentality, so the fact that some of the hardest enemy pilots almost required you to use the gun meant that dogfights took skill and precision.
The addition of high-G maneuvers was also really cool, although I never really flew any of the jets that were capable of it because theyâre kind of like pushing the Easy button and I prefer a bit of a challenge. I usually stuck with the MiG-21, MiG-29, and Su-27, or the Su-34 if I really needed to do some damage. Call me a Communist, but the Soviet jets are just so sleek!
The soundtrack was good, albeit maybe a half step down from what 04, 5, and Zero gave us, but still good. Especially the song that plays during the huge, dramatic finale: Daredevil.
The story was kind of insane and didnât make any sense at all, though. Which is a bit of a departure from the Holy Trinity of the PS2 era, where the stories were really good and had a lot of depth and lore. But the game looks so pretty and the gameplay is so great that it made up for what the story lacked.