User blog:SlyCooperFan1/Assault Horizon Legacy

I can't believe I haven't made an entry about this game yet.

Holy. Crap.

I mean, it's not the BEST game out there... the story may be lacking compared to titles such as 5 or Zero. But Assault Horizon Legacy is an amazing game, definitely on par with the majority of the legacy games.

For those who don't know much about it yet (you'd be surprised how many there are), AHL is the latest entry in the series. (Pretend Northern Wings didn't happen.) It's a Nintendo 3DS remake of Ace Combat 2, and is better than 2 in every way possible. (I'm allowed to say that; I've played 2.)

The gameplay is completely solid. It harkens back to the days of PlayStation 2: no CRA to worry about, crazy planes like the XFA-27 and the A6M5 Type Zero Carrier Fighter, and multiple objectives to spice everything up. The game takes a lot from AC2, including the same canyon and tunnel flights and the same creepy Z.O.E. The return of some mechanics, such as Ace Squadrons from Zero and Tuning from Joint Assault, as well as the addition of a new mechanic known as Maneuvers (which add to the gameplay instead of detract like CRA), makes for really great gameplay. Like I said earlier, it harkens to the PS2 games, and I rank it right up there.

The story is pretty good. I mean, it's not nearly as solid as 5 or Zero, as I mentioned, but it fleshes out the story from 2 a bit more. We now understand why the hell the rebellion began, and more details on the weapons and the fighters we meet. (Of course, not including the ace pilots, who are never explained xD) We also get more dialogue from Slash and Edge, but I could have used a little less from them. Not to mention Olsen, who is a pretty interesting and charismatic AWACS, but he definitely overstays his welcome at certain points. Nothing too difficult to bear with, though.

The graphics and sound are stellar. The graphics push the 3DS' processing power to its limits - so much that I get lag in a couple of key missions. The planes and the settings look gorgeous, and I love the explosion effect every time. The soundtrack is stellar, absolutely stellar, and I'm listening to it a lot. The sounds of the explosions, missiles, guns, and the allies and fighters, are all spot-on.

I'm mostly talking about the game right now because I want to do a little something. I might make a guide for getting the S rank on all missions. I've just completed it today, managed to get an S on every story mission (Ace difficulty), every Survival Mission, and every Extra Mission. (Toy Box and Extra Mission 04 will never be spoken of again.) If anyone is interested in this, reply to this blog post; if there's enough interest, I'll make it. :)

tl;dr If you have a 3DS, buy this game. I would have paid $60 for this $30 game.