List Price: $39.99
Sale Price: $12.62
Today's Bonus: 68% Off
This review will not concern anyone new to the series because If you have never played an ace combat you will have no idea of what was changed. If you are a new player to ace combat go ahead and pick this up. You will more than likely enjoy it just.
For those who have been playing ace combat since PS2 (only ones I can relate to since I never played it on PSone) here are some things to consider:
Before starting the game:
Make sure you set all settings including invert settings (at least the gunner). There will be an opening credit scene where you need to operate the guns and it will not let you pause to change the settings (which was stupid and sucked for me lol since I didn't know this).
Flight controls:
you only have two options... the new assisted flight option where you cannot roll and the "original" option where you are not bolted to the screen and can roll. The original option is what you will want to use since it resembles the older ace combat games. You get 3 views. Inside the cockpit, a full screen view, and a third person view that shows the aircraft.
For the helicopter the views other than full view are obstructing (for me at least). 3rd person takes up close to half the screen and cockpit view gives you tiny window to look out through.
Damage:
You regenerate your air damage while flying pretty darn quickly in this game which means you really have to be bad if you blow up in the game * will retract this and say latter you will die but usually due to stupid reason...or at least fail a mission*. And you don't ever have to land unless you need restock ammo (which throughout the whole game I never needed to).
Also you can fly away with only critical damage if you hit the ground!?(playing on normal). Now if you nose dive into the ground you blow up however. With the Helicopter you can pretty much bounce off anything without taking damage.
(update)Story:
Finished the game and can concur with my original statement. Story is throw away. You don't feel anything for your team. The characters are kind of awkward really. Especially the ending dealing with your pal Guts. Now you never felt anything for the team in previous ace combat games either but you had a great feel for the cause as to why you were fighting. You don't get that amazing feeling like in older ace combats with some epic music playing while the sky is covered with jets and crowds cheering you on. The story really is stupid.
Gameplay:
Everything in this department has changed.
You no longer buy planes like in past games. There is no longer a map at the end of missions showing you're in game trail of kills and no point/Rank system that I saw. If FORCES you to use the new dog fighting controls for many of the air battles or you will have a hard time destroying the lead targets. You enter the dog fighting mode and need to keep the enemy within the circle or you will lose him. You're on his tail and shoot missiles and bullets till the plane blows up. There are counter moves and flares as well if someone locks in on you. Expect to use this new DFM and various variations of it a lot since there are certain times you must trigger these modes to advance in the mission. Explosions will be zoomed in on which are fun and entertaining but gets repetitive. Most noticeable change that hurts the series is the briefing segments from the past. This isnt present anymore so you have no idea what you will be facing and hence no idea what to what use as your special weapon.
Why the COD reference?
They have clinged to a slogan quote that referring it to COD is underselling it to hopefully sell more copies and you can tell why when you play. You don't feel a sense of pride like you did in the others. There is no heart to the game story wise like the others and there are many ideas, controls, and missions (AC 130 mission very COD4) that resemble COD. Even down to the quick lock where if you are on a helicopter mission you can auto target the enemies much like the same way in COD or the gunner wearing a skull mask.
When all is said and done its still fun but not the same kind of fun as the past. Dumbed down...Yes. Realistic?...No. Ace combat never was (you're kidding yourself if you think that). Something you should consider buying? Yeah it is a good rent or purchase but id wait for a sale. They decided to change things up to try and sell the series better due to the poor sales of the last entry but if they just released the same formula with minor tweaks and shorter missions than the last AC on both PS3 and XBOX 360 instead of just one they would have been fine.
If you are an Ace combat vet hold of awhile on this or rent it to see if its right for you. They have removed a lot.
Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>
Dear Namco,If I wanted to putz around in a helicopter, I would play that POS Apache Air Assault game. If I wanted to lumber along in an AC-130, I would play Call of Duty. What I want is to strap into a 1200mph fighter jet, do a little fancy flying, and overcome the insurmountable odds to become the victorious ace you know, the Demon Lord of the Round Table.
In the Ace Combat series I've evaded Megalith and Nimbus, shot down Skybird and Aigaion, and scrumbled with Yellow Squadron, Strigon Squadron, and Pixy's ADFX-02. Those were good times. And in Assault Horizon you've tossed them all aside in your desperate pursuit to be Infinity Ward. The story, despite being penned by a bestselling author, is barely noticeable. The graphics are better, but to cram them on the Xbox's limited capacity you made extensive use of repeated animations. And the now-infamous Dogfight Mode is a debacle (ps it's a flying game, you're almost ALWAYS dogfighting. You don't need a separate, dumbed-down mode for it).
I mean, I kinda get what you were trying to do. And I understand that after AC 4, AC 5, AC Zero, and AC 6 were all pretty much the same you ran the risk of being labeled stale. Was HAWX breathing down your neck as this went into production? Sure. But you had millions of copies sold and a legion of fans under your belt, so why did you let those things rattle you?
I think you've made a serious miscalculation with Assault Horizon that will alienate loyal players to the series (who will refuse to acknowledge this as AC7, and will just wait for that game) while not making a compelling enough game to attract new players. I forgave you for making me fly around in a trainer plane when I had a perfectly good F-22 in the hanger. And I hoped you'd learned from that misstep. So seriously, get it together for Ace Combat 7, will ya?
Regards,
Mobius One
Best Deals for Ace Combat Assault Horizon - Xbox 360
I ran out and bought Ace Combat Assault Horizon because I love airplane games. And for the past decade it would be a safe statement to say that the Ace Combat games were among the best if not THE best aircraft games available on consoles. I played Ace Combat 6 a lot and loved it. Assault Horizon is just a sad, tragic even, installment for a great franchise.What went wrong? First the flight controls got dumbed down. "Optimum" mode is like flying in molasses and terribly frustrating: it is impossible to roll your aircraft. This mode can be disabled if you prefer better controls. However no matter which controls you use, the new "close combat" system turns the thrilling fights of previous games into hair-pulling frustrating exercises in button pushing. Assault Horizon calls this experience "dog fight mode." In a nutshell if some one is shooting at you slow down and click right and left bumpers all at the same time (as long as some random circles on your screen are lined up) -do all of this and you can evade incoming missile. The same convoluted button pushing is REQUIRED if you want to shoot sown target leaders (basically enemy aces)-no matter how many missile locks, how good your attack angle, or any other factor the only thing that matters is putting the leader in some on screen circle and clicking a bunch of buttons simultaneously. It totally destroys the sense of flight in the game.
Single player / campaign mode is a total bust. There is a faint glimmer of redemption in the online modes. There is a pretty innovative and fun capture the flag mode. But it is currently difficult to find a lot of players online.
At the end of the day, if you were shopping for a flight game for the xbox 360, I have to say stick with (or go find a copy of) Ace Combat 6. HAWX 1 & 2 are also overall better flying games on the xbox. It breaks my heart, but the only honest recommendation I can make about Assault Horizon is SKIP IT.
Honest reviews on Ace Combat Assault Horizon - Xbox 360
I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed this game. For the first 2 or 3 hours at least. And then it hit me. The entire experience has been reduced to a series of... well basically minigames. Fun minigames, yes. With absolutely gorgeous visuals and the beautiful music I've come to expect from Ace Combat. But none of the other stuff I've come to expect from Ace Combat. It's an arcadey series and had no intention or need to change that... but it didn't need to make a massive change TOWARD the arcade either. Dogfight time... lemme click the shoulder buttons... alright now fire when the circle turns red. Oh he's trying to engage me? Lemme line up these arrows and... BOOM shoulder buttons... haha I'm SO good at dogfighting. Alright, took some damage, time for a forced landing. Don't worry about the throttle, just keep this plus in the diamond... PERFECT. Dang I'm SO good at landing! And that's basically how most of the game goes. Dogfighting, landing, airstrikes, door gunner, heavy bombing runs, all made so easy a 10 year old could do it. But I could get through Ace Combat 4 at about that age too. As a matter of fact as someone with (admittedly limited though including landing) flying experience, I started to feel like the game was insulting my intelligence. It was fun, for sure, but it wasn't the series I know and love. It required some skill, but raw reflexes and recognizing simple patterns is required by any minigame. Finally, the story and characters, though acceptable, were seriously underdeveloped.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Ace Combat Assault Horizon - Xbox 360
This game is overly scripted. For example, some enemies are scripted to die by crashing into the ground. If you just so happen to lock onto that enemy, no matter how many missiles you hit him with, he will stay alive until the scripted sequence plays. These scripted sequences completely removes the player's sense of accomplishment. Moreover, in dogfight mode, the game steer you towards the enemy. The semi-autopilot does not feel like flying, more like being pulled along on a string towards the enemy jet.The non-fighter missions are completed ripped off from Call of Duty series. The reason this works for CoD is that you play first on the ground and understand the pain of groundfighting. When you get into an AC-130, you then feel empowered by the 120s annihilating enemies that gave you so much trouble before. The AC-130 in Ace Combat feels mind-numbingly like popping bubble wrap. You pull the trigger when enemies show up, and that's about it.
The variety of weapons that derived from the previous series like the multi-targeting missiles are rendered useless in this version, since they just miss on purpose. They are enforcing the dogfight mode, so rarely do you see enemies die outside of going into the dogfight mode. If you dislike linear cinematic games, this game will frustrate you to no ends.
No comments:
Post a Comment