Ace Combat has been a staple console-based air combat game since I can remember as it has always provided an arcade like experience with some great aerial dogfight and flight mechanics. It has been sometime since I last placed an Ace Combat game on any of my consoles, but Namco-Bandai’s latest one, aptly titled Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, is on store shelves now and we got a chance to play the retail version and walked away fairly happy with what we experienced.
Assault Horizon makes a valiant effort at providing you with a story to keep you interested. Your first mission, so to speak, has you flying through a city taking down bandits. It turns out to be a dream, well a nightmare actually, as you perish in the battle, and you wake up to discover the true nature of your story. You are part of an international alliance that is battling a group of rebels in Africa. It is a military based story for sure, but else would you expect here? If there is one thing that is noticeable during the game’s narrative, it was in the way it is presented. I felt like I was involved in an interactive, modern day Top-Gun so to speak. There are quite a few over the top cut-scene moments that keep you focused on key points during the games story. There is some general character development, and it was nice to see that they didn’t just make this game about going from mission to mission without any attempt to keep your attention, just don’t expect a literary masterpiece to come out and woo you away.
Ace Combat has always been about the aerial battles, and Assault Horizon is no different in that you take on other aerial combatants throughout most of the game. Missions are somewhat varied, but they do seem to fall into the “search and destroy” category as you fly the skies looking enemies, engaging with those you come across as you attempt to knock them out of the air. You’ll do this in various forms of aircraft as well, as you are not limited to flying only one type of plane. Missiles and machine guns are your best friend as you use whatever ordinance is on your plane to take your enemy out.
What is new to Assault Horizon is the manner that your battles take place. Once you have found those you are destined to do battle with, you enter a new “Dogfight Mode”. Here the game takes on a very different style than fans are used to as you focus more on the weapon aspect and less on the flying aspect. It is almost, and I mean almost, as if you are playing on rails here given that you need not control your plane during the majority of this time, as you only need to concentrate on locking on and destroying your foe with your weapons. There are times when you’ll need to get out of the “Dogfight Mode” in order to evade enemy fire, and here you once again focus on flying, but in regards to actual enemy battles, they are fought in this new mode.
Purists of past Ace Combat games may not enjoy this aspect of the game, as it takes away from what people have always enjoyed about the series, and that is the pure adrenalin of the aerial ballet where planes try to kill one another. The new “Dogfight Mode” has, for a lack of a better word, dumbed down the experience somewhat. I think this makes the game more open to those who have not played any aerial fighting games in the past, but I can’t help but worry Namco-Bandai has splintered the diehard fans as it is something very new, and takes a lot of control away from them.
Spread across the regular jet based missions is the entry of some new types, such as helicopter and gun-turret missions. During the games helicopter based missions, you take control of such legends as an Apache helicopter and fly around destroying targets while enjoying the new found control of a helicopter that can hover and fly backwards. As for the gun-turret modes/missions, you’ll take on the role of a gunner and destroy ground targets as you light up the ground with a high powered machine gun. These missions are a nice change from flying the skies over and over again, but they are not that deep. Regardless, variety is appreciated that is for sure.
For those looking for a gaming experience beyond the single player affair, Assault Horizon has you covered here too. There is a small but well implemented selection of online options to be found, from cooperative play to adversarial combat.  In terms of cooperative play, up to three players can play online together to tackle the games campaign missions. I have always been a fan of cooperative play and enjoy playing a game’s story or campaign with others as it allows me to have some company.  As for the adversarial modes, there are a few different modes to keep you interested. You’ll battle it out in the self-explanatory Deathmatch and Domination modes. You’ll also have the option to play a mode called Capital Conquest.  In this mode teams (up to eight players) will find themselves attacking enemy targets as they advance against an opposition’s HQ. Players can take on specific roles during this mode as well, such as a bomber, a jet fighter, or an attack helicopter. Each of these roles is important and coordinating your attacks with the different aerial vehicles is paramount.
If I have one big complaint, it would have to be in regards to the overall difficulty of the game, which is not that challenging so to speak. The new “Dogfight Mode” takes away from having to focus on controlling your plane and your weaponry at the same time.  As well, the aiming reticule locks onto enemy targets (moving or stationary) quite easily and I did not feel that there was a significant challenge in this regard.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want this game to be frustratingly hard, but Assault Horizon can feel a bit on the easy side at times, and this is something I think a lot of fans of the series will notice.
Visually, Assault Horizon is a solid looking title. Of course the stars of the game are the planes themselves, and they have never looked better. From F-14s, F-22s, to Apache Helicopters, all the aerial machines look great. There is a lot of detail on each one too right down to the smallest moving part. I for one am grateful that the developers put so much effort into modelling each one as the game is all about what you are flying, no matter what type of plane it is. Add to this that the game’s planes fly with a fairly good sense of speed too. They just don’t look pretty, but the move amongst the virtual sky just as well.
As important as the planes are, the environments you fly in are also just as essential, and just like the airplanes, they too look good. Anyone who has played any previous Ace Combat games knows that most of the locations in these previous stories have been fictional, but not this time around. You will find yourself zipping through the skies of some familiar territory, like Miami and Dubai to name two of the most recognizable. Each area seems that it was recreated with care and accuracy. The first time I found myself flying over the beaches and water in Miami I had the feeling that the visuals were going to be great, and they were.
Technically speaking, Assault Horizon manages to take advantage of the current crop of consoles. The framerate is solid, there was nary a visual hiccup to be found, and there is ample us of special effects, from lighting, to smoke, to some great explosions. I don’t think there is too much for anyone to complain about in this department.
As for the sound, If anything I did feel a bit Top-Gun’ish as I heard the music, and I had this urge to go find a pair of Ray-Ban Pilot Sunglasses. The music does its job and does it well. The voice work throughout the game is also solid, but if I have one complaint regarding it, it would have to be that it can become quite repetitive during the flight combat stages. There is only so much different dialog that can take place as you try to take down, or avoid, enemy planes, and this was very evident as I played. There were more than a few times when I heard the same things from the same pilots, and over the course of the game’s story you’ll hear them over and over again.
I have to say that the planes in Assault Horizon sound pretty good. They have that impactful feeling that that you are indeed piloting a machine with hundreds and hundreds of lbs of thrust coming from the jet engines. Of course there is only so many ways that you can make jet planes sound different from one another, but overall they manage to do a good job here. As for the rest of the sound effects package, explosions manage to rock, machine gun fire sounds effective, and planes and/or ground targets manage to sound as they should when they break up into pieces.
Although Ace Combat: Assault Horizon seems more aimed at a broader audience (e.g. casual), it is not a bad game at all, and I think that those who love their arcade-like aerial combat games should take a close look at this title. The solid graphics and good sound are definitely a plus, but it is slightly hampered by a somewhat easy difficulty level and some repetitive gameplay elements now and then.  Regardless, if you want to go blow up some planes, then this game should satisfy the urge to do so.
