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America - Front

America - Back

Review Scores

VGChartz Score
5.0
                         

Ratings

     

Alternative Names

エースコンバット アサルト・ホライゾン

Developer

Project ACES

Genre

Action

Other Versions

3DS, All, X360

Release Dates

10/11/11 Namco Bandai
10/13/11 Namco Bandai
10/14/11 Namco Bandai

Community Stats

Owners: 22
Favorite: 0
Tracked: 1
Wishlist: 9
Now Playing: 0
 
7.8

Avg Community Rating:

 

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

By Daniel Share-Strom 10th Nov 2011 | 7,869 views 

'Ace' isn't quite how I would put it...
There is a right way and a wrong way to do cinematic gaming.  Ace Combat: Assault Horizon does it the wrong way.  In pursuit of its seeming desire to be an airborne Call of Duty, it puts practicality second in favour of providing you with another big thrill.
The story is certainly good at moving you from setpiece to setpiece.  The plot itself is complete fluff.  It seems a splinter group of Russians called the New Russian Federation have developed a great big bomb called Trinity, and are intent on wiping out the US and all of its allies.  Alternating control between “80s Action Hero” in the fighter, “Token Black Guy” in the chopper, and “The Girl” in the bomber, you’ll go from bombing runs in Africa, to laying siege to an occupied Russia, to an all-or-nothing dogfight right above the good ol’ US of A.
The spectacle doesn’t just apply to the set-pieces themselves, as the moment-to-moment gameplay does its best to frame the action in an exciting manner.  The problem is that what makes for an exciting movie scene isn’t necessarily conducive to entertaining gameplay.  The camera will sometimes slowly pan from left to right during gameplay.  This may look cool, but it also means that for several seconds your aircraft will occupy the middle of the screen, meaning you can’t see anything that’s in front of you.  In fact, in order to hit enemies with any degree of accuracy, you have to get behind them and enter Dogfight Mode, which automatically chases enemies so you can focus on aiming.  The emphasis on wowing the player is even more evident here.  In Dogfight Mode, the enemies follow scripted paths, and no matter how many missiles you hit them with, many cannot even be killed until they’ve blown up a given piece of scenery.
At least you won’t have any trouble remembering what button does what.  In a truly bizarre decision, almost every important action besides firing is tied to pressing the left and right bumpers at the same time.  Want to enter Dogfight Mode?  Get close behind him, then press LB and RB.  Initiate a bombing run?  LB and RB.  Do a somersault?  When an enemy’s locked onto you, slow down until they’re right behind you, then press LB and RB.  Sensing a theme here?  While this may seem to make the game simpler to control, the context sensitive nature of these commands means that you often cannot perform the manoeuvre you want.  Sometimes there will be an enemy right behind you, but you cannot somersault because he’s not targeting you.  The simplicity means that, again, the game can focus on putting more explosions onscreen, but it is a hindrance that could have been avoided had each action been given its own button combination.
With this emphasis on visceral excitement, it’s fortunate that the presentation is pretty exciting.  All the licensed aircraft look authentic, and you’re generally soaring above a pretty massive and detailed environment.  It definitely adds a sense of urgency when you’re chasing a bogey and the two of you swerve just past the Whitehouse or some other recognizable national monument.  Characters look good (if stereotypical), and show an appreciated level of nuance in their facial expressions.  Everything sounds realistic, too, with satisfying explosions punctuating every other second.
To be honest, I couldn’t tell you exactly how long it took me to finish this game.  I want to say it took around 12 hours, but that seems to be a generous number given how many times I was killed.  I admit to not being a flight-simulator aficionado, but as I died death after agonizing death due to the finicky camera and controls that didn’t always do what I wanted, time seemed to slow down.  I’d peg it at around seven hours if you have great reflexes and the game likes you.  Multiplayer is even less fun than the main game, as the excitement is null when everyone is suffering from the same crippled controls.
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon would have made a better popcorn action movie than a video game.  It goes out of its way to focus on cinematic style - to the detriment of the gameplay.  It definitely has style, and it was quite rewarding when I finally accomplished a mission that kept clipping my wings.  That's not enough to make an engaging game.  Overall, I did not find Assault Horizon to be a particularly satisfying game experience.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do cinematic gaming.  Ace Combat: Assault Horizon does it the wrong way.  In pursuit of its seeming desire to be an airborne Call of Duty, it puts practicality second in favour of providing you with another big thrill.

The story is certainly good at moving you from setpiece to setpiece.  The plot itself is complete fluff.  It seems a splinter group of Russians called the New Russian Federation have developed a great big bomb called Trinity, and are intent on wiping out the US and all of its allies.  Alternating control between “80s Action Hero” in the fighter, “Token Black Guy” in the chopper, and “The Girl” in the bomber, you’ll go from bombing runs in Africa, to laying siege to an occupied Russia, to an all-or-nothing dogfight right above the good ol’ US of A.

The spectacle doesn’t just apply to the set-pieces themselves, as the moment-to-moment gameplay does its best to frame the action in an exciting manner.  The problem is that what makes for an exciting movie scene isn’t necessarily conducive to entertaining gameplay.  The camera will sometimes slowly pan from left to right during gameplay.  This may look cool, but it also means that for several seconds your aircraft will occupy the middle of the screen, meaning you can’t see anything that’s in front of you.  In fact, in order to hit enemies with any degree of accuracy, you have to get behind them and enter Dogfight Mode, which automatically chases enemies so you can focus on aiming.  The emphasis on wowing the player is even more evident here.  In Dogfight Mode, the enemies follow scripted paths, and no matter how many missiles you hit them with, many cannot even be killed until they’ve blown up a given piece of scenery.

At least you won’t have any trouble remembering what button does what.  In a truly bizarre decision, almost every important action besides firing is tied to pressing the left and right bumpers at the same time.  Want to enter Dogfight Mode?  Get close behind him, then press LB and RB.  Initiate a bombing run?  LB and RB.  Do a somersault?  When an enemy’s locked onto you, slow down until they’re right behind you, then press LB and RB.  Sensing a theme here?  While this may seem to make the game simpler to control, the context sensitive nature of these commands means that you often cannot perform the manoeuvre you want.  Sometimes there will be an enemy right behind you, but you cannot somersault because he’s not targeting you.  The simplicity means that, again, the game can focus on putting more explosions onscreen, but it is a hindrance that could have been avoided had each action been given its own button combination.

With this emphasis on visceral excitement, it’s fortunate that the presentation is pretty exciting.  All the licensed aircraft look authentic, and you’re generally soaring above a pretty massive and detailed environment.  It definitely adds a sense of urgency when you’re chasing a bogey and the two of you swerve just past the Whitehouse or some other recognizable national monument.  Characters look good (if stereotypical), and show an appreciated level of nuance in their facial expressions.  Everything sounds realistic, too, with satisfying explosions punctuating every other second.

To be honest, I couldn’t tell you exactly how long it took me to finish this game.  I want to say it took around 12 hours, but that seems to be a generous number given how many times I was killed.  I admit to not being a flight-simulator aficionado, but as I died death after agonizing death due to the finicky camera and controls that didn’t always do what I wanted, time seemed to slow down.  I’d peg it at around seven hours if you have great reflexes and the game likes you.  Multiplayer is even less fun than the main game, as the excitement is null when everyone is suffering from the same crippled controls.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon would have made a better popcorn action movie than a video game.  It goes out of its way to focus on cinematic style - to the detriment of the gameplay.  It definitely has style, and it was quite rewarding when I finally accomplished a mission that kept clipping my wings.  That's not enough to make an engaging game.  Overall, I did not find Assault Horizon to be a particularly satisfying game experience.


VGChartz Verdict


5
Acceptable

Read more about our Review Methodology here

Sales History

Total Sales
0.22m
Japan
0.30m
NA
0.16m
Europe
0.07m
Others
0.74m
Total
1 142,489 67,479 10,453 13,567 233,988
2 21,376 20,153 6,244 5,092 52,865
3 8,646 13,335 5,264 3,861 31,106
4 4,239 10,096 4,008 2,948 21,291
5 2,480 5,783 5,481 2,832 16,576
6 1,897 4,604 4,955 2,492 13,948
7 1,576 7,605 6,250 3,351 18,782
8 1,415 6,035 9,605 4,152 21,207
9 1,740 6,495 9,172 4,094 21,501
10 2,509 8,082 7,511 3,825 21,927

Opinion (5)

Cold Light posted 05/03/2012, 06:57
Already better than Ace Combat Zero on PS2. Now between Zero and AC3 (my favorite installment).

So, not too good, but not bad at all. About 1M across all platforms (including 3DS) for now.

I hope we'll see AC7 sooner or later and it'll be awesome. Love this series! ;)
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Munkeh111 posted 22/10/2011, 10:02
I don't think it will quite reach the sales that some of its predecessors did, but this is an okay opening between PS360. Personally, I expect to be picking this up at Christmas, but I can't do now due to proximity to U-day
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-girgosz- posted 21/10/2011, 11:36
Rugby game sold more than this in EMEAAA? :O
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Icey7 posted 17/10/2011, 10:01
This was a quite fun. Missions are a bit too long and some game elements don't work so well but it was a fun arcade style flying shooter. I hope they continue to refine this series.
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ThePS3News posted 08/07/2011, 07:41
This will be the first ever ace combat on the PS3. hyped since AC is my favorite flight game. :)
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