“A Duel of Aces” Ace Combat Assault Horizon
Ace Combat Assault Horizon is the highest rated game I have talked about so far. However, it still has a 78, putting it firmly in mediocre territory. I love this game, however its not without its faults, both as a game and as an Ace Combat game. But inside its last level, lies a perfect moment.
Ace Combat is a series of Japanese aerial combat simulators. Their simulator status is firmly planted on the arcadey side of the spectrum, as opposed to hard core simulation. They also combine incredibly modeled and realized planes and combat encounters, with ridiculous over the top enemies and aces. This leads to an extremely unique and endearing tone, where you jump from a incredibly immersive and realistic combat encounter against real enemies, to a over-the-top, boss battle against ridiculous aces. Another feature that made these games really popular was how it rewarded skill and open ended play. Players were given the option on what plane, weapon loadout, and strategies they wanted to employ against the enemies. Also the games rarely held the players hand, instead forcing them to use their skills and wits to overcome long odds. In terms of plot, all of the Ace Combat games were linked with a connected plot, leading players to feel accomplished when later games acknowledge their previous pilots accomplishments in the field.
Ace Combat Assault Horizon is the 13th game in the Ace Combat series, and it changed a lot of the staples up, some for good and some for worse. Assault Horizon broke from the cannon of the previous games, setting its plot in the real world. While previous games plots focused on exploring the mature themes of war, such as loss and nationalism, Assault Horizon focused on providing an action film plot. As opposed to the air combat being symptomatic of the conflicts of the plot, the plot serves to give explanation for the air combat. This makes some of the plot feel forced. For example, Ace Combat 6: Fires of liberation, told two separate stories. In Ace Combat 6, the cutscenes largely follow a character completely unrelated to the gameplay. At the start of the game, the Soviet Era Russian-esque nation of Estovakia invaded the then peace loving nation of Emmeria, suddenly without warning. This forced the armies of Emmeria to retreat, and fight a war to reclaim their country. However all of the cutscenes don’t follow your pilot, instead they focus on a young woman on the ground. She explores her now fallen country, experience the refugee crisis its created, and the hardships that the liberation efforts have caused, making her debate the value of her countries efforts to reclaim itself. This stands in stark contrast to the story of Assault Horizon.
Assault Horizon tells the story of USAF Lt Colonel William Bishop, a US airforce Ace. The game begins in East Africa, where a combined US and Russian force is trying to fight a terrorist group. While there they discover that a larger Russian Separatist force, led by fighter ace Andrei Markov was using the Africans as a test bed for their new weapon Trinity. The Separatist group then wages war against the world, leading Bishop on a world wide hunt for Markov. Already the scale and logic of the story were vastly changed, as well as the exploration of deeper themes. This was a mixed quality choice, because while it did allow the team to better develop the conflict between Bishop (and his squad) and Markov, it deeply lacked in terms of depth and felt forced.
In terms of gameplay, Assault Horizon added CRA (close range assault) mode. This allowed players to engage in a close range highly cinematic pursuits of enemy pilots. This was a really cool addition, and is used extremely well in some places, but in other places its the games biggest detriment. Throughout the game, the game forces players to engage CRA, as a method of forcing spectacle and setpieces on the player. For example during the first mission, the game forces the player to engage in CRA and chase down an enemy pilot. The pilot weaves between buildings, and quickly shoots under a collapsing crane. However, if you shoot the pilot down, another pilot instantly flies in to take their place, making the scene feel really hollow and empty. However, most of the time CRA isn’t used that way, making it feel like a good addition to the options available to players.
Now onto the perfect moment. At the end of the game, Markov makes one final assault on the US with his now little remaining forces, and his final trinity warhead. The player must hold off his airborne assault, shooting down bombers and enemy jets. The scale and tone of this battle is vastly different to the rest of the game. Most battles were either incredibly small in scope, or either unrealistically large, this one strikes a great balance, making it very immersive. Once the players have fought off several waves of bombers, Markov takes to the field, engaging the player directly in a duel. He uses a directed emp pulse, to knock your and his plane off of radar, ensuring your fight would be one on one “The Colonel and Markov have just dropped off scope, its one on one, a duel of aces!”. The whole game has been leading to this battle. Markov then engages the player in both traditional combat and CRA. As you fight, he taunts you over the radio, and you can hear your allies cheering for you over the radio. In this final fight, everything in the game was used to perfection. Markov is incredibly hard to target in CRA and normal combat, and he plays by a similar set of rules as you. He engages in CRA pursuits on you, and will constantly circle to get on your six. This battle is a perfect balance of skill, avoiding the games set-piece focused issues. After defeating Markov, he fires his final Trinity warhead before dying. Forcing the player to engage in an incredibly difficult CRA pursuit chasing the missile. Once you down the missile, you finish the game.
This final battle is nearly perfect and stands amongst the great moments from all the other Ace Combat games. The game is incredibly OK, but overall it can be a lot of fun, if your not a hardcore Ace combat fan. This ending is a great moment, but unlike the other games its not enough to warrant the purchase of the game at anything more than $5 or $10.
PS: The developers had an extremely interesting video about their approach to “Gore” in the game. They forced planes to explode into oil like blood, and their wreckage tumbles through the sky.
