I thought this series would be an excuse to destroy some planes while barely having a story, but it's much more than that. Even in a game where you just shoot air or ground targets with your plane, it keeps coming up with new ways to make it interesting, while also making full use of the setpieces that the story presents. There's a lot of emphasis in the story and a lot of work in the way it's presented, and while it kind of falls flat at some points, overall there's more positives than negatives to it.
Really surprised how enjoyable this was.