Not as interesting...
User Rating: 7.7 | Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War PS2
Graphically it looks better than Ace Combat 5. It has just about the same sound effects and etc. as Ace 5 as well. The Game Play is terrific for a flight simulator. The controls are very good and easy to use. Matter in fact it's exactly the same as Ace Combat 5. Difficulty can be very easy or very hard depending on what you chose. The way the maps are designed like the way your suppose to do things is different. Like you have different types of missions. So instead of just kill all the enemies instead they incorporate stuff like escort the planes for a parachute landing(which never happened in ace combat 5). The game is very interesting in it's own way on it's approach when it came to game play. The game itself is good but this is where I start listing the cons. The story all in all is rounded fairly badly. Ace Combat 5 had a much better story. If your trying to learn about the Belkan War well this back story did not teach you it very well. You play as an ace pilot called the Demon of the Round table. It's a stupid name and not as cool as Razgriz. The sad thing is is that your playing the character in game right?, but the bad thing is that story wise people are basically describing you through the cinematics. Which is lame cause it feels like your not even there once the cinematics starts to kick in. All people ever do is describe what Demon Lord did or whatever. The game feels different from 5 it doesn't feel as engaging the story much less your not necessarily in the present like Ace Combat 5. It's just like re living a memory. So everything that's going on your playing everything it's like reliving the past not like playing through the present. Which makes a huge impact and a difference between Ace Combat 5 and Ace combat zero. You don't really learn much and the plot isn't as back winding and interesting as Ace Combat 5. Another sad thing and a bothersome thing is that you never meet any of the old Ace pilots like pops or captain Bartlet of the Ocean Air force throughout the game. You know it would've been nice to hear a familiar voice? The game doesn't have that yes or no command while your playing. So it feels like you don't do any talking or what not. Matter in fact people just say stuff but you don't get to say anything back. So it gave you another feeling of well emptiness. Anyway the final verdict is that the game lost it's moment story wise and the way the story correlates compared to when you play the game does not mix well and in the end lowers the score. Another thing that you should know is that the game is short I beet it under 10 hours. Otherwise this is a fairly good game it has very good dubbing and everything else. But if your into a experience where your actually going through a storyline instead of reliving an experience then this game is really not worth spending $50 on. If you want to just give it a shot just rent it or buy it once it gets a price drop. Personally I was kinda disappointed in the way that Namco tried approaching the game... Almost there but not quite they tried very hard to make a game just as good as Ace Combat 5 but in my opinion not quite.
