Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown
PROMISING PILOT STALLS ON OVERLY FUSSY TAKE-OFF DAVE MEIKLEHAM
PUBLISHER BANDAI NAMCO / DEVELOPER BANDAI NAMCO / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £49.99/$59.99
you’re a spotty teenager trying to pass
their driving test in a Reliant Robin.Plane sailing
At least Skies Unknown is an eye-
arousing customer. With lovely plane
models, seductive lighting and a
volumetric cloud system that actively
changes combat based on your level
of visibility, this is a pretty enough
engine to make Maverick start going
all wobbly at the knees. Whether you
play in third-person – where rival
planes are easier to see and target- or the vomit-inducing, but highly
atmospheric first-person viewpoint,
the latest Ace Combat is never short
of being a sky-surfing looker.
Rewinding the series back to
the narrative timeline last seen
in 2007’s Ace Combat 6, Skies
Unknown abandons the real world
locations of 2010’s Assault Horizon.
Instead of dogfighting over Dubai,
the latest entry returns to the
franchise’s fictional states, with the
plot revolving around the conflict
between the Osean Federation and
“I feel the need...
the need for... ugh,
weirdly slow aerial
duels?” To mutilate
a quote from Top
Gun, moving in
expedient fashion should be the main
aspect a combat flight simulator aims
for. Yet with the latest instalment in
this long-running cult curio, Bandai
Namco seems to forget that speed is
important when it comes to making a
flight sim exciting.
Ace Combat 7 has a good deal
of qualities, but recreating a sense
of face-flapping speed isn’t one of
them. Despite the fact your mute pilot
takes part in all manner of World War-
stopping missions over the course of
the game’s campaign, you’ll never feel
that you’re moving particularly fast.
Mechanically, the latest Ace
Combat’s combat is sturdy, with
weighty, responsive rumble adding
to the sense you’re piloting several
tonnes of war machine through the
clouds. The trouble is, controls are
stiff enough that you often feel like
the Kingdom Of Erusea. Metal Gear
Solid levels of unnecessary exposition
cutscenes accompany each one of
the campaign’s 20 missions, and by
the fourth level, you’ll be praying the
characters suffer a laryngectomy.
At least the story mode is varied.
Though missions have a tendency
of dragging, to their credit, they
rarely force you to repeat objectives.
While shooting down enemy craft is
obviously integral to every mission, the
campaign throws up enough bespoke,
interesting objectives to keep the
action varied. Example? How about a
mission that deactivates your fighter’s
weapons for the first five minutes, or
a nerve-shredding level where you
have to guide your plane through
insta-fail ordinance while keeping the
beadiest of eyes on the enemy’s map-
encompassing radar systems.
Combat is never short of engaging,
even if some dogfights feel unfair.
Performing sharp banks with your
aircraft is essential to avoiding enemy
missiles, while releasing flares can
also stop your plane from beingshort
cutWHAT IS IT?
An arcade-like air
combat sim that loves
Top Gun.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
A tough plane game
where you shoot and
fail lot.
WHO’S IT FOR?
Frequent flyers who
bust bogies without
breaking a sweat.076 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE