Pretty graphics, horrible gameplay.
Everything else about this game stinks. For a game that takes itself very seriously, the story is laughably badly written. A wildly improbable yarn with 'insurgents' everywhere and armed with all manner of high-tech weaponry. Russia resurgent then victimized by a coup d'etat by militarists. Hack writing at its worst. Given the pretty visuals in-game, the cut scenes feature some second-rate work that looks like the stuff that came out at launch years ago.
You take the role of both an American and loyal Russian pilot in all this. The missions alternate between boring 'drone' piloting mission and actually flying various planes. But there's no meaningful difference in the planes you fly (other than top speed) and load outs are pre-determined. Missions are long, but have a few checkpoints scattered through them (but you cannot save the game at a checkpoint).
Missions are unimaginative, linear, and design problems crush almost all the fun of them. While your plane carries dozens of missiles, rockets, and/or bombs, you only carry 2 - 5 flares to defend yourself. While pursuing an enemy, don't be surprised to see it drop flare and flare or do an instant, magical 180 degree turn and begin spamming you with his missiles and guns. Don't worry, though, while you die if you crash into the ground, you can fly right through enemy planes.
Likewise, expect enemy missiles to come from anywhere as they often pop up from invisible ground targets (even better, at one point you're told they're RPG teams shooting at you). They rarely miss unless you drop flares or do a 180 or more degree turn when they are near. And enemy pilots will ignore everyone else (even their supposed targets) to spam you with missiles. Winning is a matter of trial and error and plenty of luck. No real skill is required at any point. It's like they spent all their time and funding on making it pretty but then realized they had made a tech demo so they spent their last week of work slapping together story and a few missions so they could sell it as a game. Shoddy, lazy, thoughtless, crude, slip-shod hack work that Ubisoft should apologize for selling at the AAA price point.
Multiplayer is similarly unimaginative, though better than the single player. There's an RPG-style level system that unlocks various perks and planes but it's just not worth it. There are much better games out there. Pick this up in the bargain bin in a few weeks or rent it for a weekend but it's not worth anywhere near full price. Better yet, pop in Ace Combat 6 (or even the original HAWX) and forget about this steaming mound of shlock altogether.