After some time away, the Strangereal alt-history world is revisited as drones begin to flood the skies for mass warfare.

While I enjoyed the actual dogfighting action, I will say the campaign in 7 does not reach the same emotional heights the series made with its 4th and 5th numbered entries. It's not boring by any means, but there were story threads that I expected to see followed through that just... weren't addressed again.

I still need to check out the DLC missions (which I'm not sure have separate entries on here). Despite my hangups, this is still a solid entry in the series and hopefully not the last.

Ace Combat was a franchise I played a lot during the PlayStation 2 era. I think some of my passion for airplanes started with those gaming sessions. I think I was able to feel a bit of what I felt as a kid when I played Ace Combat 7. I picked it up during a period when I hadn't been playing games for a while, as nothing really motivated me. I was feeling discouraged about gaming and everything else, really. But with Ace Combat 7, I could simply grab my controller, sit on my bed, and enjoy the game. The story is good, and you can immerse yourself and "get into character." I really enjoyed the mode for unlocking aircraft and upgrades; I was eager to play so I could get the plane I wanted to fly. I've finished the game's story once and am on my second playthrough. I continue to play, and the game is a lot of fun, with all the typical mechanics of the series and engaging gameplay. I highly recommend this game!

The king has returned! It's great to see one of my favourite franchises come back in such triumphant fashion, with a mainline entry that finally seems to have hit some mainstream appeal. This game feels like everything a modern Ace Combat game should be. The improved visuals and weather effects are a very welcome addition, making a game that takes place entirely in the skies finally achieve a dynamic environment that isn't just a blank space. The clouds providing temporary cover, lightning knocking you off course, wind pushing against your plane, it's a great addition to the formula.

As a longtime fan of the series, the main draw in AC games for me is the narrative, because the series always wears its themes on its sleeves, and the overly dramatic and grandiose plotlines it comes up with are so enjoyable. In this case, Ace Combat sticks to what works, with a story that delivers on what the series is best at, though it does fall into the trap of relying a bit too heavily on nostalgia with certain key moments and threads. It's an overall fun story, but some lacking characters and a few too many ideas that don't quite mesh together, keep it from the heights of the past.

On the gameplay front, this is, to me, the best in the series. The plane handling is as top notch as ever, with additions like the Post Stall Maneuver offering some fun ways to pull off some truly insane stunts for those willing to dive deeper into the physics. The real highlight though is the mission variety, with almost every mission having some uniquely designed objective and play space that make the levels stand out more than any other game beforehand. The plane variety is a bit lacking compared to older entries, and the parts system doesn't really add much of anything meaningful to customize the gameplay, resulting in a bit of a tedious unlock progression system that is more of a distraction that a fun system to engage with.

Special mention to the excellent 3 DLC missions sold separately for this game, offering 3 of the absolute best missions in the game. While it is unfortunate that these are sold separately and not included in the game, their quality is at least worth the asking price.

Overall, it is a triumphant return for this classic franchise. While the structure and narrative of the campaign are a bit messy, a result of what was supposedly a tumultuous production, it still sticks the landing, and with the improvements made to gameplay, coupled with some truly excellent mission design, AC7 takes its place with the best in the series. I really hope this leads to the franchise getting more entries, because it shows that the formula that works best for Ace Combat is the formula that always did work, and after some rough years of experimentation after the PS2 era, I'm glad to see that the game has retained the identity that made me fall in love with the series in the first place.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown was a frustrating game as a newcomer, that grew on me over time

A couple days ago, I finished up Ace Combat 7, after taking a rather long break from the game, and I’m rather surprised with how much I enjoyed the game when everything was said and done.

However the game is riddled with issues, especially to people who have never played a game like this before, which I just so happen to be.

Firstly, the story and characters are… not good, the story picks up and I feel gets a bit better as the game goes on, same with the characters, but they never come close to hitting the level they should. I can count the amount of characters I remember anything about on one hand, despite AC7 (Ace Combat 7) introducing probably two dozen or so characters that serve a purpose throughout the story over the course of the game.

And the worst part? The most interesting characters that you actually want to learn more about don’t interact with the player, or do really much of anything until the last three or so chapters. They get the majority of their screen time in cutscenes where they explain what they’re doing periodically.

And the story in general is weak, as I said I do feel it picks up towards the end, but overall the narrative is mediocre at its best.

Another major problem I have with the game, is how poor a job it does explaining its mechanics, it was admittedly fun and rewarding to figure out some of these mechanics on my own. But despite these being some of the more advanced mechanics that the game clearly wants you to figure out on your own, they are far too important not to be explained to the player. The best example I can think of is the High-G turn, a mechanic that allows you to turn your plane much quicker then normal. I don’t believe this mechanic is ever explained to you, and if it is it’s glossed over, despite being crucial for later missions.

That’s another problem, the mission structure is pretty bad, half the missions are just racking up as many points as possible from destroying ground units and shooting down other pilots. These missions are long, tedious, hard as hell, and far too frequent.

Which is a real shame, because some of the later missions are so incredibly fun and unique when you’re not scrambling around trying to get as many points as possible, but I’ll be back to that point later.

The game has some ludicrous difficulty spikes that most won’t be ready for as well.

I only have one more point as a negative, and that’s the shop/buying parts and planes. It’s pretty bad, it’s structured like a skill tree where you need to buy multiple things before you can get to what you want. This… doesn’t work well, and almost incentivizes you to have prior knowledge before you dedicate yourself to try and unlock something. I mean it took me 18 out of the 20 missions in the game before I finally got the plane I wanted, and at that point I would have had to farm for hours if I wanted to go buy something else in a different path. It’s a really bad system that should never have been implemented.

Now, with all that said, I still loved AC7 for what it was, even as a person who has never played a game even remotely like it before. And despite all its shortcomings it’s still a very good game, and here’s why.

First and foremost, the gameplay feels phenomenal, the planes control brilliantly, dog fights are challenging and very rewarding, and overall everything feels fine tuned to make this a definitive fighter sim experience. I seriously can’t praise it enough, I could spend extensive time practicing with the movement and combat just to learn it better, it’s that good.

Also, despite many missions being… okay at best, many missions, especially the later ones are awesome! They have incredible set pieces and moments that are designed to make you feel like a badass. I won’t spoil anything, but it’s staggering how good the later missions are and how creative they are compared to the earlier ones.

On the topic of being a badass, AC7 tries very hard to make you feel like one. It makes you feel like the Ace that it makes Trigger out to be, and it succeeds. From the excellent boss fights to the later set pieces, to your allies on comms praising you, everything is designed to give you a power fantasy.

The music is also top notch, not what I was expecting, but still phenomenal none the less.

And graphically? It’s gorgeous, the game looks stunning, the cutscenes and gameplay alike almost look like they were designed with the 9th generation in mind, which, of course, they weren’t.

One of my favorite things about this game is how it rewards experimentation, it rewards you making the game more challenging on yourself by using the advanced controls by making more high level maneuvers and mechanics easier to pull off with this control scheme. But even without advanced controls, the game encourages you to think outside the box, mix up your strategy, try out different planes and special weapons to see what works best for you in specific missions. And I honestly feel that’s one of the best things about this game, and something it gets right.

And even with all that said, AC7 has so much more to it then just the campaign, stuff I haven’t even touched yet, such as a multiplayer and VR mode. You can really feel the love packed into this game by Project Aces and it’s incredible.

So, overall, how is Ace Combat 7? It’s a game that’s rough around the edges, a game that makes some amateurish mistakes, and a game that’s alienating to people not familiar with the genre. But it’s also incredibly well tuned in all of its core gameplay systems, a game loaded with plenty of optional content, and a game that is genuinely fun and a game that rewards creativity. It’s a very good game, and I’m excited to work my way back through the rest of the series now that I’ve completed it.

7/10