I try not to focus too much on how I score a game, but I'm really at my odds with myself here. On the one hand, Ace Combat Zero is an Ace Combat game, which means there's a high baseline of enjoyment to be had. On the other, this is the 7th AC game I've played, and if the game doesn't bring something exciting to the table, my weariness is going to set in. And truthfully, this is the first time I've felt that there's truly so little that sets this game apart from its predecessors.
This game looks like AC4 and 5, it controls like them too. One thing you can count on to be different is the story, which to me took a bit of a back seat. The cutscenes, when they happen, tend to be quite long, but missions are generally short and these scenes only show up after knocking out a few. I wasn't all that invested in the plot, nor the characters, which you really need to be for one of the late game plot twists to deliver. There are some brilliant moments; while the final level fails to deliver a groundbreaking combat experience, it is a narratively epic conclusion, enhanced by another excellent, albeit often unmemorable, soundtrack.
Now we take a quick detour to the hangar, which I've neglected to discuss in detail in any prior review. This is for the simple reason that it just works, even if each game deviates from the last somewhat. 5 had my favourite implementation, as I often hit S Ranks, I felt rewarded in that I could buy any aircraft I wanted, and any excess money could be poured into buying spares for the rest of my squad. I prefer each plane having its own distinct special weapon, as it helps to set them apart. Zero returns to the way 04 handled things, which isn't my preference but is fine. Now you can get up to 3 special weapons for each aircraft, but... everything is so expensive! Despite getting S Ranks on 16/18 missions (on hard difficulty mind you), I could barely afford to buy anything! This, combined with the fact that you unlock the SU-37 barely an hour or so into the game, meant I rigidly stuck to the same couple of planes for the entire experience. Perhaps it's a fault of me that I didn't experiment, but I didn't felt that this game was at all conducive to doing so.
"Are the missions good?" I hear you ask. To that, my answer is a resounding "I guess." While I wouldn't necessarily single out any specific mission to call bad, I don't know if I could do the opposite either. Despite having a much shorter campaign than 5, the objectives here blend together into mush. Destroy air targets, destroy ground targets, destroy air and ground targets! It's almost nothing you haven't seen before and while this would serve as a solid if not fantastic introductory Ace Combat experience, it's so utterly lacking in individuality.
The core distinction in Ace Combat Zero is the 'yellow' targets. When shooting down certain aircraft, they are sometimes neutralized instead of destroyed. They are weak, using the last ounce of power to flee the battlefield. In this scenario, you can choose to shoot them down or let them live. This extends to certain ground targets also, such as windmills or tents which don't push your mission forward, but would 'harm' the enemy. Whether or not you shoot these down affects your Ace Style, which ranges from a cruel mercenary to a noble knight. You'd expect this to have some impact on the story, but as far as I can tell, it just affects the enemy squadrons you face throughout the game. These fights are fine, but just amount to simple dogfights that I rarely found to have anything distinguishing themselves from the countless other nameless aircrafts you face. It would be generous to call the system half-baked, as I'm not even sure it was put in the oven. If I wasn't playing these games back to back, directly contrasting them against each other, I might neglect to mention it altogether!
So while Zero serves as an incredibly solid dogfighting simulation by virtue of being an Ace Combat game, I don't feel as if it did the Belkan War justice. This is an iconic precursor to the events of the entire series, yet rarely has moments that earn it that stature.
This game looks like AC4 and 5, it controls like them too. One thing you can count on to be different is the story, which to me took a bit of a back seat. The cutscenes, when they happen, tend to be quite long, but missions are generally short and these scenes only show up after knocking out a few. I wasn't all that invested in the plot, nor the characters, which you really need to be for one of the late game plot twists to deliver. There are some brilliant moments; while the final level fails to deliver a groundbreaking combat experience, it is a narratively epic conclusion, enhanced by another excellent, albeit often unmemorable, soundtrack.
Now we take a quick detour to the hangar, which I've neglected to discuss in detail in any prior review. This is for the simple reason that it just works, even if each game deviates from the last somewhat. 5 had my favourite implementation, as I often hit S Ranks, I felt rewarded in that I could buy any aircraft I wanted, and any excess money could be poured into buying spares for the rest of my squad. I prefer each plane having its own distinct special weapon, as it helps to set them apart. Zero returns to the way 04 handled things, which isn't my preference but is fine. Now you can get up to 3 special weapons for each aircraft, but... everything is so expensive! Despite getting S Ranks on 16/18 missions (on hard difficulty mind you), I could barely afford to buy anything! This, combined with the fact that you unlock the SU-37 barely an hour or so into the game, meant I rigidly stuck to the same couple of planes for the entire experience. Perhaps it's a fault of me that I didn't experiment, but I didn't felt that this game was at all conducive to doing so.
"Are the missions good?" I hear you ask. To that, my answer is a resounding "I guess." While I wouldn't necessarily single out any specific mission to call bad, I don't know if I could do the opposite either. Despite having a much shorter campaign than 5, the objectives here blend together into mush. Destroy air targets, destroy ground targets, destroy air and ground targets! It's almost nothing you haven't seen before and while this would serve as a solid if not fantastic introductory Ace Combat experience, it's so utterly lacking in individuality.
The core distinction in Ace Combat Zero is the 'yellow' targets. When shooting down certain aircraft, they are sometimes neutralized instead of destroyed. They are weak, using the last ounce of power to flee the battlefield. In this scenario, you can choose to shoot them down or let them live. This extends to certain ground targets also, such as windmills or tents which don't push your mission forward, but would 'harm' the enemy. Whether or not you shoot these down affects your Ace Style, which ranges from a cruel mercenary to a noble knight. You'd expect this to have some impact on the story, but as far as I can tell, it just affects the enemy squadrons you face throughout the game. These fights are fine, but just amount to simple dogfights that I rarely found to have anything distinguishing themselves from the countless other nameless aircrafts you face. It would be generous to call the system half-baked, as I'm not even sure it was put in the oven. If I wasn't playing these games back to back, directly contrasting them against each other, I might neglect to mention it altogether!
So while Zero serves as an incredibly solid dogfighting simulation by virtue of being an Ace Combat game, I don't feel as if it did the Belkan War justice. This is an iconic precursor to the events of the entire series, yet rarely has moments that earn it that stature.