Weather and low altitudes are also used to give missions a layer of complexity. It’s a little annoying to lose targeting, as it seems like it comes down to the random chance of a lightning blast, but it ups the chaos and makes you panic – it’s effective. When this happens, the electrical surge scrambles the HUD, making targeting and tracking enemies more difficult. This affects visibility conditions, and your plane gets batted around by strong winds – maybe even struck by lightning. When you are engaged with rival ace pilots, different weather conditions often up the challenge you may need to dart into the clouds of a raging storm to trail an adversary. While honing in on what made combat great in that title, missions have a lot of downtime, and objectives like scoring challenges feel like filler activities in between the meaningful dogfights. The game is designed to be a throwback to the glory days of the series, drawing heavily from the gameplay direction of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. The missions, their pacing, and the rewards they bring leave much to be desired.

The battles often culminate in exciting and nerve-wracking ways, but not without some turbulence.ĭeveloper Project Aces taps into the latest military technology to introduce new planes and more potent adversarial forces for the series, but the overall game design resembles an old warbird that feels like it’s going to shake apart before it reaches the runway. In these moments, the music swells, your wingmen scream for immediate success, and if your rocket hits the mark, you feel like Luke Skywalker blowing up the Death Star. As your fighter rips through a narrow canyon in pursuit of a bogey with a death wish, Ace Combat 7 delivers top-tier intensity. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is an adrenaline-filled thrill ride that soars high with excellently crafted dogfights, responsive controls, and payloads large enough to crack the planet in half.

Ace combat 4 soundtrack test flight