Review / Thoughts: Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown ( PC )

Review / Thoughts:

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown ( PC )

Developer: Bandai Namco Studios

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Released: January 18, 2019 for Playstation 4 and Xbox One & February 1, 2019 for PC

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Time Played: 13 Hours. ( Not Touched Online, VR Section )

Difficulty / Control Type: Expert

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a combat flight action video game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. An entry in the long-running Ace Combat series. The game features support for virtual reality. The game takes place in the same fictional universe as the previous numbered games in the series. Following the events of Ace Combat 04 and Ace Combat 5, the Osean Federation brokered peace between the military power of Erusea and the rest of the Usean continent. The IUN was formed to maintain peace across the Usean continent, while former President Vincent Harling orders a space elevator funded off the Erusean coast in order to revitalize the continent's economy. However, the space elevator creates resentment among the Eruseans, who see it as unnecessary Osean intervention.

Back in 2009, i used to play Tom Clancy’s HAWX as my first flight action game and I LOVE IT! So much that as soon as HAWX 2 came, i brought it. Now after 9 years i got that feeling back again… Same feeling but it is improved that i had in 2009 - 2010. Here is my review on Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown:

Pros:

+ Story:

The Story of Ace Combat 7 is not that awesome like Witcher 3 or something that near of games have but it is pretty good at its level, The Story events continue from AC4 and AC5 where the Osean Federation brokered peace between the military power of Erusea and the rest of the Usean continent. The IUN was formed to maintain peace across the Usean continent, while former President Vincent Harling orders a space elevator funded off the Erusean coast in order to revitalize the continent's economy. However, the space elevator creates resentment among the Eruseans, who see it as unnecessary Osean intervention. If you have played the old games you will very well know what is happening in AC7 but for the first time players, the story might go unnoticed

+ Design:

The Design of the levels have improved in many ways, The fights are intense and EPIC, Having only small areas to fly during a restricted missions are while not unique but better than it had in HAWX games and old AC games.

+ Dogfighting:

Important thing on flight-action games are the way you shoot in the air while flying a plane and Ace Combat 7 does that job “ PERFECTLY ”

+ Soundtrack:

The Soundtrack, OH GOD! It's “Fantastic”, swelling during key moments of missions to get the blood pumping even harder. I’ve had the upgrade menu music stuck in my head all week which is a testament to the catchy but low key nature of the majority of the music in the game. It makes the soundtrack the best which 5 and 6 continued. it's a must-to-listen.

+ Audio Design:

The Audio Design is *KreyGasm*, The sound of explosions, weapons firing, thunder, rocket sounds, flying through storm. No complaint in here.

+ Upgrading and New Planes:

Each successful run at a mission earns credits which you can use to unlock more aircraft, weapons and parts. Choosing which aircraft to take into each mission can be critical, as you have a choice of 3 special weapons which can be a massive help when organised correctly, taking bombs into a mission focused on air to air combat would be pointless and sometimes a quick bombing run would get you back into dogfighting quick enough to avoid the tide turning against you.

+ Performation:

The Performation of the game on my PC was pretty great, i did not faced any crashes OR heavy frame-drops which allows aircraft to feel responsive and making hard turns without losing track of your target an enjoyable exercise. ( No Idea on performation on PS4 and Xbox )

+ Graphics & Weather:

The Graphics are beautiful to look at, The Clear sunny sky during morning missions to Heavy rain and Thunder at evening, Effects from weapon trails, impacts and launches light up and it’s not uncommon to have a dozen active fighters on screen. Icing up going through long clouds and blowing through an exploding opponent all benefit from the improved resolution and art assets, even towns look quite nice from mid range. It's one of the beautiful Flight-action video game to date.

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+ Online multiplayer:

The Multiplayer for AC7 is pretty good as well, The multiplayer allows up to eight players to dogfight either in Battle Royal (free for all) or Team Death-Match. While there are only two modes to play, the online seems to be pretty robust — I didn’t run into many issues at all, and it balances your aircraft’s loadout by assigning it a cost, which lobby creators can set restrictions on in order to prevent veterans from using top tier equipment.

+ Great Boss Fights.

+ Great Tech Tree ( Aircraft Tree ).

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Cons:

- Sparse checkpointing:

The distance between each checkpoint is way apart as it will indeed get annoying to redo a 20 minute section multiply times on hard difficulty as well as on challenging missions. SO BE WARNED!.

- Short Campaign:

EVEN tho i loved the story “Ace Combat 7” Had, it felt way too short and ended way to quick. I simply wish it was longer

- A few tedious missions:

Some Missions are way to tedious to do, Example been the mission type called Annihilation where you had to kill a enough enemies to get certain point before you leave.

- Timer during missions:

The ‘Most Annoying’ part for me of the game is that each missions has a timer to finish it. It reduces the time i wanna spend to do a mission and makes me wanna rush it. I did not liked that part.

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Final Verdict:

8 / 10 ( Excellent )

“A MUST BUY“

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Ace Combat 7 marks the spectacular return of a franchise that has been gone for far too long having a pretty good story, great customization and the best flight dogfighting you can get ( Reminded me a lot of back in times i had fun in HAWX games ). I Wish this success means we get “Ace Combat 8” pretty soon.

Game is available to get on Steam, Playstation Store as well as on Xbox Game Store for $59.99