So, anyone playing this? My boyfriend picked it up yesterday. I've only played one of the ace combat games briefly, but honestly it is my favorite spectator games series to watch. I mean, who doesn't want to watch their boyfriend nose dive into the water repeatedly?
I'm not that impressed with Assault Horizon, though. Up until this point the Ace Combat games have taken place on another world, and admittedly after so many games...I could see that they're running out of wars to have. The newest one takes place in the real world, in Africa. Not really a fan of that. I liked the fact that Project Aces took the time to create Belka and Ustio and all them. What really got me about Assault Horizon though? It kinda looks like an idiot could pilot the plane. I'm not saying that the old games were 100% flight simulator accurate, but honestly it was hard to bank correctly and to climb without stalling.
I watched my boyfriend play the opening battle (I think it was) and he was nose diving into the water and was able to pull up in time. Now, I've seen him be able to do it on other games, but the climb out of harms way is much more gradual and believable. In this one, he scraped the bottom of his plane on the surface of the water and climbed the same, when clearly he should be dead.
Another level I watched him play he was operating a rail gun from a helocopter (I didn't see the beginning of the level, so I don't know where or why), picking off soldiers on the ground. I found that to be a complete degradation of what Ace Combat used to stand for. In AC4 there was a character named Yellow 13, a 'bad guy' who you face in a final battle...but he is mentioned as showing compassion to his enemies, and the entire atmosphere of almost every Ace Combat game leaves me thinking that the pilots want to shoot the jet down, but they want to pilot to have ejected in time. My boyfriend states it as such as well, and says that carries over into the real world (albeit he's more of a fanboy, he hasn't served).
Some other small things I took issue with...
-No AWACS I liked AWACS, I thought it offered a better depth.
-On that note, have I really missed it every time or do you not get a full mission briefing anymore?
-Dumbing down the flying engine - I seriously think this an issue, it isn't as fun to watch.
-A lot of cussing from the main characters. There are a lot of catchy one liners from the previous games that I don't hear in this one, all I hear in this one is what I feel to be a little too much fowl language.
-Speaking of that, I kinda liked that in the previous games the character you played wasn't constantly talking (or cursing). I felt like it made you the ace instead of a character you were playing.
-Interestingly enough (and probably the most petty accusation) the cover art for previous AC games have had jets, no characters. I glanced over Assault Horizon several times before I realized that was the Ace Combat game while looking for it.
Now admittedly, he hasn't completed the game, so these are just initial reactions. I hope it gets better. :\
I do think that it being billed as "Call of Duty in the sky" is rather accurate. And I acknowledge that CoD is a different game model than Ace Combat, and that maybe they're trying to appeal to a new fan base.
I hope someone has something good to say about it?
