Assault Horizon spices up the long running franchise.
While Assault Horizon does try to be more realistic now, it doesn't try to be a flight simulation, the gameplay is still pure arcade shooting which ejects most of the logic and physics out the window. Depending on the circumstances, touching the ground or a structure won't instantly make you explode. Helicopters can also perform barrel rolls to evade missiles, which is pretty hilarious when you stop and think about it, but nonetheless it still does make for some good, fun, and most importantly, awesome gameplay moments.
The environments look great, especially with all of the skyscrapers and other buildings sticking out from what used to be usually just flat terrain. The helicopter missions let you fly low in-between the buildings and alleys, but getting very close to properly examine them will reveal rough textures. Most of the terrain is still painted on though, but that's easily overlooked if you focus on the action in the sky. A lot of effort has been put in making explosions look good, and they can be jaw-dropping so they never get old.
Although there are quite a few aircrafts to choose from, the customization itself is very limited. You get to chose only one secondary weapon and play around a bit with the paint job. As soon as the aircrafts are unlocked they are ready to use, there is no in-game currency to buy vehicles like earlier Ace Combat games had, however you do earn experience which can be used to unlock perks and abilities for online and free mission mode.
Assault Horizon tries to add gameplay variety to the old formula of blasting rockets to distant locked-on targets. Added to the mix are now helicopters and on-rails gunner segments. These however don't hold as well as the true Ace Combat gameplay does, but they do make for some interesting and less hectic gameplay variety in between what seem to be your standard missions. The Dogfight Mode (DFM in short) is a great new addition that brings you close to the action. It's basically a lock-on mechanism which lets you engage high speed chases by getting close enough to your target, the game then shifts to a slightly on-rails experience where you must try and keep track of your target as best as you can while he tries to shake you off. Most of these sequences are entirely scripted, so replaying missions will often lead to exact same set pieces despite being free like a bird, however these dogfights are so fun that you will eagerly be waiting for more no matter how many times you might have seen them already.
Aside from DFM, Airstrike Mode (ASM) is also a new addition to the series. These work similarly to DFM, but are less hectic and more slower, as you don't have to worry about chasing and evading, instead it's all about slowing down and taking out ground forces at your own pace. The interface can cause slight problems occasionally, it's hard to read some of the text that's displayed on screen because it's slightly transparent, very small and thin, especially when there are more targets bunched up and if you're very close to the action.
The story in Assault Horizon is decent but nothing to write home about, it does its job by bringing some context to your actions from mission to mission, but overall it's a very forgettable piece of the package. The surprise twist will be obvious to some, most of the cast are the usual stereotypes and it's hard to care about achieving victory against an antagonists that seems to be underdeveloped at best. The single player mode isn't all that long, but it's also not overly short, it can take more than 10 hours depending on the difficulty you play. Most of the story in Ace Combat games is in the chatter that goes on between you and your teammates while flying on missions, that means you will be needing to pay attention to what's going on at all times if you want to get most out of it, instead of just flying around shooting at random targets. Despite the lackluster story, the soundtrack itself is pure awesome and it amplifies the gameplay experience to incredible heights, making your blood boil and heart pumping as you chase enemies in highly cinematic sequences.
The online modes are a fun distraction and offer four different types of gameplay, including helicopters as well. You can play most of story missions co-op with up to three other friends, or go head to head in 16 player deathmatches. Also available are Domination in which you play a game of "All your base are belong to us" and HQ assault where the teams have to take down the enemies defenses in order to get access to the HQ. All of the online matches have custom rules to apply as you see fit, such as timers, points required, aircraft restrictions etc. Although you need at least one other person to start the match, AI CPU pilots can take place for every empty slot available until other human players join.
Unfortunately online modes do have their own issues, DFM against human players takes quite a while getting used to as you're never sure if they are lagging or just very good at evading, and your loadout tends to reset after every round despite staying in the lobby. The most annoying issue certainly has to be the mysterious twitch lag that occasionally happens, every once in a while the game will freeze and will stop responding for about a second, when it resumes you will find yourself up-side down heading straight into the ground, leaving you no room to respond appropriately before you inevitable crash into the ground.
For some reason, matchmaking with players that use DLC doesn't work properly, so you have to manually download a compatibility patch. Thankfully it's not big and you only need to do it once, provided you take the latest, but there are already more than 5 available. Things like these should be included in the automatic patch as you boot the game up, leaving it like this not only makes it a hassle but also makes it easy to overlook.
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is extremely fun to play provided none of the above issues bother you. It can be a love it or hate kind of experience, depending on why you liked the Ace Combat franchise, you might end up being disappointed by how Assault Horizon turned out, though it certainly still is an amazing game in its own right.