For those of you interested in the simulation light arcade style air combat, there is no substitute.
Ace Combat has traditionally held the cliché of one country desperately fighting another in a war unsought, and this game is no exception. The Aurellians have been overwhelmed by the military dictatorship of Laesath, thanks to the overwhelming power of its Glepnir aircraft, a super weapon with impeccable firepower and defenses. Previous Ace Combat entries follow the same story line, with the Aurellians eventually overcoming the odds and defeating the invaders, but it does a great job of making you feel out gunned with your back against the wall. The story is told via in mission cut scenes as well as animated stills that track the progress of the war. Though it may have been done many times before, it’s still a great story that everyone can love.
There is no match to the intensity of dogfights in Ace Combat, as everyone in the game clicks to give you a “I’m really there” feeling of soaring through the skies shooting missiles at your foes. The control of the aircraft is perfect for an arcade simulation, handily taking advantage of what the PSP has to offer. On the standard setting, your aircraft has plenty of missiles, special weapons, and gun ammo to complete every mission, but not enough to give you a feeling of invulnerability. The same can be said of your aircraft, as it can take a beating, but not enough to make you complacent lest you be splashed by a well aimed missile. The sense of speed is to be complimented, as your aircraft zips heartily by the beautiful landscape and cities. I could go on, but I’ll simply reiterate with everything clicks.
The game starts you off with a simple aircraft that is serviceable, but nowhere near top of the line. As you progress through the missions and earn money, you can unlock and buy new aircraft, special weapons, and in this version, parts for your airplanes. This allows you to “pimp your ride” so to speak, allowing you to tweak your engine to make it faster but at the cost of mobility, or improve your weapons power at the cost of range. At first it seems superfluous, but then becomes addictive as you mix and match parts for the ultimate fighting machine. There are plenty of aircraft, weapons, and parts for your to buy, and collecting them all is addictive. Each controls differently, so there are strategic choices to be made for every mission, rather than just sticking with the one good plane.
The missions don’t really include anything you haven’t seen before in the Ace Combat series, but then again it doesn’t really have too; there are enough twists and turns in every single mission to keep you on the edge of your seat whether playing through for the first time or the hundredth. One of my favorite missions has you covering a covert rescue operation as you distract frigates and destroyers from sinking the sub, and without ruining the mission for anyone interested in the game, let’s just say things don’t go as planned. It’s thrilling to pull the mission off, even with the hitches, and immerses you even more in the game.
There are a few problems that, while they couldn’t have been addressed rationally, are still disappointing. The first is that there aren’t any wingman commands. While your wingmen are serviceably intelligent and throw down with you in most missions, it would have been nice to give them missions specific orders. The rudders (slight adjustments to your horizontal heading) are mapped to the dpad, which makes using them during a dogfight incredibly difficult. Having to switch back and forth between the thumbstick for your yolk and the rudders on the dpad is an impossibility for making slight adjustments for the gun kills, so your left with either one or the other for control. There also isn’t a function to allow you to look around so to speak, relying heavily on your radar for enemy locations. There also isn’t a previous/next enemy button, triangle cycles all available enemies, so going back to a specific target means going through all available. These may sound like crippling problems, but in reality the system is streamlined enough to allow these issues to sit in the back corner without too much interference. From the planes to the explosions, everything looks terrific on the PSP. Some of the textures appear a bit low res, but for a portable game this is spectacular. The Glepnir specifically is one intimidating aircraft, sporting some wicked looking textures and design. Overall, there isn’t much that could have been done to improve in this area.
Bleeps and bloops are the best of the best, as is common with Ace Combat games. The musical score, missile strikes, panicked wingmen, engine roar, and so forth are the absolute cream of the crop. It goes a long way towards immersing you in the title when your warning claxons are screaming at you while your airmen are warning you of impending doom. If you play this muted, you don’t know what you’re missing.
This game screams quality and should attract anybody looking for a good game. Despite having only ad hoc multiplayer and some control issues, this is one of the star titles for the PSP so far. Without fail, check this title out, it’s something that shouldn’t be missed both as a great game and as to what the PSP can offer in the sim arena.