(Takes around 3 - 4 hours to complete)
This is my favorite game of the ace combat franchise and one of my top 5. Although it isn't nearly as grand as AC 5 or as good-looking as 7 it certainly makes up for it with its story.

As with others in the series, it's unconventionally told through the perspective of a documentary, the focus of which is the ace pilot Cipher. Between the cutscenes, you play as Cipher. This allows for two things: first is receiving information your character shouldn't be able to obtain and having a deeper understanding of your enemies, since the only people who truly know Cipher are his wingman and the people who fought him. This is done through a series of interviews, showcasing how the war and their battle against Cipher has affected them. You have the ability to affect what they say about you with a morality system.

Since it is a PS 2 game, the graphics are by now outdated. However, the cutscenes have been spared due to them using live-action.

Good mission pacing and solid gameplay. There are fewer planes than the previous game, and you can't choose what your wingman flies, but for me these things didn't affect my enjoyment. Somewhere where the game does improve is the AI of your wingman. Finally, it feels like you're actually part of an elite squadron rather than having to win every battle yourself. Also, it isn't that difficult. I managed to beat it entirely with one of the starter planes on the “hard” difficulty.

The soundtrack is also excellent. The flamenco guitar (Spanish guitar) makes it very original and memorable. My favourite part is "Zero".

Overall, a great game and probably the best arcade flight sim out there.

This was my first Ace Combat game.
Not gonna be my last.

I wanted to get into the franchise because I heard it was Metal Gear in the sky. While I think this is certainly true, I don't think it would have been enough to hook me. Funnily enough I stayed for the gameplay.

The controls in this game are pitch perfect. There aren't many games which utilised the PS2 controller and it's progressive buttons to the fullest. This game certainly does. The Dogfights play razorsharp, the steering is just right and the weapons feel satisfying as hell.

The missions are well paced and offer much variety. They also have a fantastic way of escalating the difficulty in my opinion.

The Soundtrack is fucking amazin. Holy shit, I can't believe I never heard any of these tracks.

I could keep gushing but I'm just gonna get back to playing the game.

Even if you have no interest in planes or dogfighting whatsoever, give it a go. You won't regret it.

Ace Combat as a series is very often themed around the horrors or war, and firmly takes an anti-war stance in the stories it tells. That message can sometimes be muddied by the fact that, in these games, war is fun. However, Ace Combat Zero is the game that, to me, truly grapples with the horrors of war, the emotions that run high as the body count rises, and the horrible decisions that can come from those pushed into a corner. It's a deeply story driven game, and one that, for many in the fandom, is the best game in the franchise.

The merits of the story, and the characterization of the protagonists and enemies is what really sells the game. Every enemy ace squadron you fight has a personality and reason to fight that gets explored through the novel storytelling method of a post-war interviewer speaking to the survivors from your missions, creating this legend around the player character that mixes mythology with fact. Arthurian legend is the main draw for a lot of the symbolism used in this game, and it is used to great effect to add gravitas and personality to seemingly mundane missions. The use of a morality system here to track your level of destruction doesn't amount to much apart from the enemy ace squadrons you fight, but it's a great piece of worldbuilding that I wish more games in the series would adopt.

The missions in ACZ are where the game falters for me. While there are some standout missions, especially the final ones, there are a lot that just end up feeling quite generic, and lacking identity. Part of the reason for this is the option to choose between multiple missions at a given moment, preferring air-to-air or air-to-ground or some other combination. While this feature is novel, it means that each of the mission choices lacks much personality, since each one doesn't advance the story in any different ways than the other choices. The overall framing of the game picks up a lot of the slack for this bland mission design, but it's a definite regression from AC5 in my eyes.

The gameplay here is standard Ace Combat, returning to the AC4 approach of less planes than AC5, but each one having more weapon options. The roster of aircraft here is still very strong though, so the loss of planes is hardly a problem. The thing that really elevates a lot of this game, however, is the soundtrack. My god the soundtrack. The series has some truly iconic music choices, but this game has such a unique sound that it stands out from the rest. When the Spanish guitar kicks in, you know shit's about to go down.

Overall, ACZ is one of the best entries in the series, and probably the one that sticks out as the most introspective about its subject matter. For that it deserves its spot as the best in the series for some. For me though, the deficiencies in mission design really hamper the game in between the major set piece moments. Still though, Ace Combat would struggle to reach this height of quality for a while, and that's why AC4, 5, and Zero are considered the Holy Trinity by the fandom. These games are truly fantastic, and you couldn't ask for a better capstone to the Trinity than Zero.

In my opinion, Ace Combat Zero is the best in the franchise. While it is the shortest of the PS2 games, its unique ace style system gives it the most replayability series, surpassed only by the third game.

Zero perfected the gameplay of the past two games, each dog fight feels intense and each air-to-ground attack feels devastating. Zero also tells the best story the series has to date, not only does it explore the war the characters fight in, but those you fight agaisnt and their motive and it strives to humanize all of your opponents.

Ace Combat is famous for its soundtrack and Zero's sound track is best the series has to date, with such memorable tracks such as: Diapason, the round table, avalon, zero, and much more.

Very little does Ace Combat Zero do wrong, while there are the ocasional uninteresting missions, they are nessasary for the games pacing to move as smoothly as it does. Zero's missions also lack check points, making game overs on longer missions feeling cheaply fustrating.

It's the peak of the PS2 era Ace Combats, and maybe the best in the series overall. Good replayability, good plot, great music, amazing battles.

The Ace Meter isn't revolutionary in terms of gaming, but it does a fair bit to help the immersion- of course the enemy would want to send their best against someone who's mercilessly cutting through their forces.

In general, it's great all around, and definitely worth it.