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Ace Combat: Assault Horizon - One way to make me a cynical person.

By: RJ (@rga_02)

I am a very forgiving person. There are a lot of games I enjoy that are critically indecisive within the gaming community. However, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon has shown that there are games out there that even I won’t accept.

There was a recent Golden Sale on the PlayStation Network with this game being on sale for around five dollars. I told myself, “why not, I’ll give it another shot.” I remember not enjoying the game the first time around, but I was thinking to myself the main reason why I didn’t enjoy it was because I rushed through it. However the moment I started to dogfight the Russians over the skies of Miami is when I realized is that game wasn’t for me. Now Ace Combat always had some over the top fictional story which made it wonderful. Placing it in the real world as opposed to “Strangereal” as previous titles did isn’t a deal breaker for me as long it carried on that ridiculous story that we all love. However the plot in Assault Horizon is so mind numbingly dumb that it isn’t even passable even if you are playing the game ironically. Yes, the story isn’t even good ironically. The plot in the Call of Duty: Black Ops series has more of a meaningful impact than this game. 

Basically it’s America vs Russians. Oh, and you shoot down some Middle-Eastern rebels too. Something that you would find in every other military shooter out in the market. It is not interesting at all. Everyone knows what will happen during the course of the game. You fight some rebels then all the sudden the Russians shows their true evil self. Now by the Grace of God you must protect your homeland before the Russians destroy us all into oblivion with their new super weapon. Oh and spoiler, you save us all. Like I said earlier, it’s great that it is set in the real world, but c’mon Namco. At least don’t carry over a trope that has been used over and over again in various forms of mediums.

It’s not only the plot that is insulting to the player. It’s the gameplay. There was nothing wrong with the previous control layout found in earlier games. However someone decided to implement a way to have the game play for you. Of course you could say that others developers have done provided a method of having the game play for you such as the gambit system found in Final Fantasy XII. This is different. Sure you can battle enemies in Final Fantasy XII while making some coffee, but to get to that, you have to work your way to achieve those settings. In this game, it takes the fun out of dogfighting in the skies. DFM (Dog Fighting Mode) and ASM (Air Strike Mode) as the game calls it. The former allows you to enter into a “cinematic” dog fighting experience when you press the R2/L2 buttons while you are close to the enemy. Your aircraft will basically fly itself while you try to spam your missiles at your enemy. Perhaps the finest example of sacrificing gameplay for the sake of looking pretty. The latter does the same thing, except you can now guide the missiles down to your ground units. Oh, and forget about disabling such features because they are so integrating into the game that it is near impossible to complete missions without them. Also, regenerating health on your aircraft. I shouldn’t even need to explain why that is awful.

Assault Horizon was one of the few games that made me very disappointed. This is what happens when you take everything wrong with modern videogames and blend it with a great IP. I’m all for attracting new people to a great series such as Ace Combat, if they need to make it “casual” then so be it. As long as it remains an enjoyable experience to both new players and older fans. However Namco failed to do that. Instead of something enjoyable, they offered something borderline insulting to its players. If you are looking for a modern Ace Combat experience, I’d recommend the F2P Ace Combat: Infinity. Which is accessible to both newcomers and old fans. That alone shows how terrible this game is. A F2P experience is more engaging than a full-fledged title.