A great game that’s unfortunately held back by a lacking story and some steps back in mechanics.
By main issues can be summed up with the story having a pretty bad narrator, the narrative itself relying too much on callbacks, and it just not having the depth and weight that all the PS2 games had. The presentation of it is good, but that’s the most I can give it.
The characters are very hit or miss. Some were fun (especially AWACS Long Caster my beloved) but others were pretty uninteresting. It’s not quite as bad as what 6 was, and even Assault Horizon, but it’s still a ways from the peak of the series.
But, other than that, the gameplay stands out as some of the best in the series! It’s super smooth and true to the best of the series, having all the mechanics you expect, but with the addition of the Aircraft Tree as a shop replacement. It’s hard to say if I prefer it, but it works well enough and I got a pretty great plane by the end of my first playthrough.
Other than that, the visuals are breathtaking and are obviously the one biggest focus which I do think paid off. It looks amazing, and made flying around feel even cooler at many points!
Overall, it’s still a great game, but not at the point of the classics in terms of its quality.
…but given how much the DLC missions improved on everything, story, characters, writing, pacing, and even gameplay…I feel confident we’ll be getting something stellar in the near future.
By main issues can be summed up with the story having a pretty bad narrator, the narrative itself relying too much on callbacks, and it just not having the depth and weight that all the PS2 games had. The presentation of it is good, but that’s the most I can give it.
The characters are very hit or miss. Some were fun (especially AWACS Long Caster my beloved) but others were pretty uninteresting. It’s not quite as bad as what 6 was, and even Assault Horizon, but it’s still a ways from the peak of the series.
But, other than that, the gameplay stands out as some of the best in the series! It’s super smooth and true to the best of the series, having all the mechanics you expect, but with the addition of the Aircraft Tree as a shop replacement. It’s hard to say if I prefer it, but it works well enough and I got a pretty great plane by the end of my first playthrough.
Other than that, the visuals are breathtaking and are obviously the one biggest focus which I do think paid off. It looks amazing, and made flying around feel even cooler at many points!
Overall, it’s still a great game, but not at the point of the classics in terms of its quality.
…but given how much the DLC missions improved on everything, story, characters, writing, pacing, and even gameplay…I feel confident we’ll be getting something stellar in the near future.