Ace Combat Assault Horizon

[Kaiser]

Anybody played the demo yet? The game's pretty awful... here's the rundown of pros and cons taken from somewhere else (that I agree with):

+ Good music.
+ Good voice acting.
+ Good aircraft models/textures
- Missiles are 100% useless outside of "close combat"
- "Close combat" feels like a really, really bad on-rails shooter (or a ****ty QTE)
- "Close combat" is the ~only~ way to take out enemies
- Environments are washed out/bleached, making the pale green GUI hard to see
- Flight controls too sensitive (& sensitivity can only be changed for helicopters)
- Helicopter levels completely different from plane levels
- Plane levels have low-detail terrain--looks only marginally better than AC0
- Helicopter levels have crazy-low cielings
- 3rd person view completely worthless because the plane/helicopter takes up 90% of the screen.

As you can see, it's basically Ace Combat for noobs and that helicopter mission is basically like a dumbed down Desert Strike.

[Mortificator]

I don't see a problem with choppers flying differently than planes, but the rest sounds pretty bad. At least Namco didn't go so far as to actually incorporate QTE into dogfighting, though, like the PS1 Macross Plus.

[kengou]

I agree with pretty much everything said. Like most modern games, the game has a fantastic atmosphere and "feeling" it instills in the player, but has pretty awful and overly-simplified and too-easy gameplay mechanics. Most of the jet level was essentially an on-rails shooter with very little control by the player. It's up to the player when to enter these sections, but it seemed pretty impossible to kill a certain type of plane without doing it. The camera was really shaky and up-close and kept cutting to explosions and set-pieces and enemy deaths. It felt sort of visceral and exciting, but at the same time it just obscured a lot of what was happening. The thing is, as a player I didn't get the feeling I NEEDED to see what was going on around me that much, because the game was doing everything for me. Even if there's an enemy behind you with a missile lock, there's no need to know any flight maneuvers to escape, you just manipulate this circle on screen, or you hit the brakes until these triangles line up and then you automatically show up behind the enemy on-rails and kill him with zero danger. There was no real risk-reward to the game - just reward, constantly (if killing enemies can be considered that).

Not to mention the chopper level, which featured FPS style controls and felt NOTHING like controlling a helicopter at all. Plus very awkward aiming and targeting. And the button that automatically dodges missiles FOR YOU.

It's just another victim of the current trends. Sigh.

[Ruldra]

Watched a video of this and was impressed. I'll download the demo and play it in the weekend to see how it's like.

[Deca]

Finally got around to grabbing the demo last night. Disappointed but not surprised at all, it's exactly what I expected. The game just isn't fun to play, the way it forces you into using DFM makes it feel like you're just sort of vaguely influencing a cutscene. The game LOOKS awesome but just doesn't really contain anything I enjoy about the series (they even removed missile cam!). I've pretty much decided I won't be buying it.

AC3D Cross Rumble on the other hand looks amazing, and I'm very excited about that.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I suppose the QTEs are there to adress the complaints about "dot fighting".

[Daigohji]

I'll put my responses in bold, since I can't be bothered doing a dozen quote tags.

Anybody played the demo yet? The game's pretty awful... here's the rundown of pros and cons taken from somewhere else (that I agree with):

+ Good music.
+ Good voice acting.
+ Good aircraft models/textures
- Missiles are 100% useless outside of "close combat"
Missiles have the same accuracy as in previous AC games. I had no trouble shooting down regular aircraft with them.
- "Close combat" feels like a really, really bad on-rails shooter (or a ****ty QTE)
Switching the control scheme from Optimum to Original alleviates this somewhat.
- "Close combat" is the ~only~ way to take out enemies
Not true. In the demo, the only enemies that require DFM are the target leads. Even then, you don't need to engage DFM until the plane is critically damaged. Regular missiles work fine until the plane catches fire, then it starts firing off endless flares, making DFM necessary.
- Environments are washed out/bleached, making the pale green GUI hard to see
I didn't have a problem seeing the GUI.
- Flight controls too sensitive (& sensitivity can only be changed for helicopters)
Again, I didn't have this problem. Set to Original, the handling is pretty similar to earlier AC games. The only difference I noticed was the more abrupt deceleration.
- Helicopter levels completely different from plane levels
How is variety in itself a bad thing? The main weakness of AC6 was that every mission felt the same after a while.

Assault Horizon adds a few features to vary the action, but I don't think the full game will shove them down the player's throat as much as the demo implies. It's a tutorial mission, after all. I played through it again, and it's possible to play the plane level with similar tactics to earlier AC games if you choose to. The auto-dodge is a crutch that you don't have to use if you don't want to. DFM only needs to be used to finish off certain enemies.

While the implementation isn't perfect, I think this stylistic overhaul is exactly what the series needed. The earlier games have played out every conceivable variation of firing missiles at dots on the horizon.

[DragonInstall]

It's different but fun. I'm willing to give it a shot.

I just hope the forced cinematic dog fights in the tutorial are only in the tutorial. I also wish they just stuck to the jets and not put bombers and helicopters. owells.

[Casper<3]

kind of bummed to hear the negative, I was really interested in this game.

[Ruldra]

I tried the demo and enjoyed the game a lot. I'm not a fan of flight simulators exactly because they lack action (just lock-on and shoot missiles at dots in the distance), so all this close combat and the cinematic feeling makes the game much more appealing to me. But they may have made the game too easy with all the "assists" they implemented. I can see why fans of the series are pissed.

I guess it's better to wait for some feedback to see if the game is easy from beginning to end. If that's the case, then you're better off renting it rather than buying.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I'm not a fan of flight simulators exactly because they lack action (just lock-on and shoot missiles at dots in the distance), so all this close combat and the cinematic feeling makes the game much more appealing to me.

It's an old game (early PS2), and there's no combat in it, but I couldn't recommend Sky Odyssey enough. The only flight simulator (yes, albeit with very strong arcade appeal under the skin) I believe everybody should check out before writting off the genre for lack of action (or lack of anything for that matter). No other game wakes up the score attacking beast within me like Sky Odyssey.
That Sony let the one hit wonder development studio Cross go under after that game was indeed a misfortune.

[Deca]

It's an old game (early PS2), and there's no combat in it, but I couldn't recommend Sky Odyssey enough. The only flight simulator (yes, albeit with very strong arcade appeal under the skin) I believe everybody should check out before writting off the genre for lack of action (or lack of anything for that matter). No other game wakes up the score attacking beast within me like Sky Odyssey.
That Sony let the one hit wonder development studio Cross go under after that game was indeed a misfortune.

I'd like to second this enthusiastically. Sky Odyssey is absolutely amazing.