First off, hello Escapist, first post, be gentle :3
Ace Combat 5 is a flight sim game for the PS2 that came out a few years back. I loved this game years ago and still love it now, only now I know WHY I love. Watching Zero Punctuation episodes over and over again has made me think more and more about what I love about gaming, and I think I'm starting to understand why AC5 is one of my most favorite games.
Moving on.
AC5 is a combat flight sim. You play the faceless leader of a fighter squadron from the country of Osea. After the first few missions which involve you repelling unknown forces from friendly waters, war breaks out between Osea and a country across the Atlantic-shaped sea called Yuktobania. The next 3 or 4 missions after that involve you protecting the Sand Island base and the Osean fleet, until the country is ready to go on the offensive. The invasion mostly involves close air support missions where oyu cover ground units as they move along a set path and destroy enemy bases.
That's the first part of the game. Anything past that would be major spoilers :3
Gameplay
The controls and maneuvers you'll use in-game are relatively simple to master, and you'll be doing split-S' and barrel rolls all the time. You unlock different planes by completing the Campaign on several difficulties, and you can by them through the hangar, where you also by new weaponry for each of them. My only beef is that some of the good planes are kinda of expensive, and I like to have my squadron all uniform, but that's a bit petty and not a huge problem. There are PLENTY of planes to unlock, fighter types for dog fighting and attacker types for ground attack, and most of the planes actually control differently, maneuvering and thrust wise, which makes planning before missions an actual factor, albeit not an extremely major one.
Actually playing the game is awesome, especially from the cockpit perspective. The terrain looks like it's from an RTS, with tanks and AA guns looking like little cardboard cutouts sliding around on the ground shooting at you, but you won't notice that with enemy fighters launching missiles at you, and there will be plenty of that. Depending on the mood your in, the missile warning will either be a harbinger of death or a source of annoyance. There's one mission where you have take on a endless amount of fighters til' reinforcements arrive to help out, and I guarentee you that missile warning will NEVER turn off, even with your wingmen helping you.
Which brings me to my next subject. Your wingmen as characters are great, IMO. They seem a bit cheesy at times, but overall, I never got bored of hearing their voices. During gameplay, you really only have 3 commands to give them, defend, where they will target enemies targeting you with debatable results, attack, where they will target things you target, also with debatable results, and "weapons free", which let's them use their special weapons. I don't really see the need for the last command, perhaps it was meant for a more tactical use, but even when I did go weapons free, I only heard them call out they were firing a special weapon a few times. Overall, your wingmen are great as characters and useful in battle in that they can't die and they fire bullets at enemies.
General feeling while playing the game is various levels of intense. You'll be doing anything from dogfighting to flying through an underground tunnel to shooting down a satellite entering the atmosphere and dodging the bits flying off of it towards your tiny little face.
The different difficulty levels in the game don't really change anything if you're good enough at the game. The only thing it really changes is how many missiles you can take before you explode, and how many more enemies there are. There's also a free flight mode, if you don't want to deal with the stress of combat, and an arcade mode if you feel like shooting down planes in order while under a time limit
In conclusion, the immersion level in this game is akin to that of Half Life 2, and the story is very well done, along with the planes controlling like planes should while still being fun to fly. The game isn't difficult once you get the hang of it, which only takes a few hours. I highly recommend this game if you can find it anywhere.
Ace Combat 5 is a flight sim game for the PS2 that came out a few years back. I loved this game years ago and still love it now, only now I know WHY I love. Watching Zero Punctuation episodes over and over again has made me think more and more about what I love about gaming, and I think I'm starting to understand why AC5 is one of my most favorite games.
Moving on.
AC5 is a combat flight sim. You play the faceless leader of a fighter squadron from the country of Osea. After the first few missions which involve you repelling unknown forces from friendly waters, war breaks out between Osea and a country across the Atlantic-shaped sea called Yuktobania. The next 3 or 4 missions after that involve you protecting the Sand Island base and the Osean fleet, until the country is ready to go on the offensive. The invasion mostly involves close air support missions where oyu cover ground units as they move along a set path and destroy enemy bases.
That's the first part of the game. Anything past that would be major spoilers :3
Gameplay
The controls and maneuvers you'll use in-game are relatively simple to master, and you'll be doing split-S' and barrel rolls all the time. You unlock different planes by completing the Campaign on several difficulties, and you can by them through the hangar, where you also by new weaponry for each of them. My only beef is that some of the good planes are kinda of expensive, and I like to have my squadron all uniform, but that's a bit petty and not a huge problem. There are PLENTY of planes to unlock, fighter types for dog fighting and attacker types for ground attack, and most of the planes actually control differently, maneuvering and thrust wise, which makes planning before missions an actual factor, albeit not an extremely major one.
Actually playing the game is awesome, especially from the cockpit perspective. The terrain looks like it's from an RTS, with tanks and AA guns looking like little cardboard cutouts sliding around on the ground shooting at you, but you won't notice that with enemy fighters launching missiles at you, and there will be plenty of that. Depending on the mood your in, the missile warning will either be a harbinger of death or a source of annoyance. There's one mission where you have take on a endless amount of fighters til' reinforcements arrive to help out, and I guarentee you that missile warning will NEVER turn off, even with your wingmen helping you.
Which brings me to my next subject. Your wingmen as characters are great, IMO. They seem a bit cheesy at times, but overall, I never got bored of hearing their voices. During gameplay, you really only have 3 commands to give them, defend, where they will target enemies targeting you with debatable results, attack, where they will target things you target, also with debatable results, and "weapons free", which let's them use their special weapons. I don't really see the need for the last command, perhaps it was meant for a more tactical use, but even when I did go weapons free, I only heard them call out they were firing a special weapon a few times. Overall, your wingmen are great as characters and useful in battle in that they can't die and they fire bullets at enemies.
General feeling while playing the game is various levels of intense. You'll be doing anything from dogfighting to flying through an underground tunnel to shooting down a satellite entering the atmosphere and dodging the bits flying off of it towards your tiny little face.
The different difficulty levels in the game don't really change anything if you're good enough at the game. The only thing it really changes is how many missiles you can take before you explode, and how many more enemies there are. There's also a free flight mode, if you don't want to deal with the stress of combat, and an arcade mode if you feel like shooting down planes in order while under a time limit
In conclusion, the immersion level in this game is akin to that of Half Life 2, and the story is very well done, along with the planes controlling like planes should while still being fun to fly. The game isn't difficult once you get the hang of it, which only takes a few hours. I highly recommend this game if you can find it anywhere.
