Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11209678-20150703030215

Hello everyone,

I have been a fan of Ace Combat for nearly 13 years, ever since I played Ace Combat 04 when I was just nine years old, I have been in love with this series. This series has brought me many of my fondest gaming memories, Stonehenge, Sand Island, and B7R, just to name a few. As a Playstation gamer, I was disappointed that Ace Combat 6 was never released for the PS3, as that was the system I had. Finally I was able to get a Xbox 360 cheap, mostly just to play Ace Combat 6 since it is the only game in the "modern era" (everything after AC3) that I have not have had the privilege to play. A few days ago, I finally finished the game, and I want to share my thoughts about it to see if I am missiing something, or if other people feel the same way. This below is the review I posted on Metacritic, I apologize in advance for the amount of text.

Yes, it is 2015 and I am reviewing this game. As a huge fan of the series and a Playstation gamer, I was pretty upset when I found out that this was going to be a 360 exclusive, as this had previously been a Playstation exclusive series. With that being said, I finely got a 360 on the cheap and to be able to play this game was one reason. Keep in mind that I am reviewing this game for single player only and that I am reviewing it relative to the other base games (AC4, AC5, and ACZero) in the series.

Let's start with the positives:

The graphics during gameplay are very good, especially for a title early in this generation. I think these graphics would even hold up in the current generation.The music is good, however, I feel they are not as good as usual for an AC game. The game is in the Strangereal universe, which can make some interesting stories. Unfortunately, that's about it for positives in this game.

The negatives:

The biggest problem with Ace Combat 6 is that the developers thought that more is always better. This is not true at all. The amount of enemies on the map is just annoying, especially during air to air combat. Rather than making a few more difficult enemies, they decided throwing as many as they could on the map was a good idea. Also, the AI has the habit of launching missiles against you no matter what angle they are at with complete disregard for whether they even have a chance of hitting you. This leads to being in nearly constant missile alerts so the sound track may as well be a constant ringing sound. Fortunately I spent way too many hours playing Ace Combat growing up, so this wasn't a big problem for me, but it stopped me from enjoying air to air engagements as I had in the previous games. Rather than being a challenge, air to air engagements in this game are simply an annoyance. Unlike AC4, AC5, and ACZero, there is not one good dogfight mission in this game.

AC6 had a good idea as far as spitting up the mission into separate "zones" as I will call them. However, as with aerial targets, the developers simply put too many targets on the ground. More targets should have been optional in that destroying them will benefit you, but not required for completion of the mission. The zone system also has the side effect of making everything feel so rushed. While I understand this is an arcade game and it should be fast paced, never before in an Ace Combat game have I spent so much time going from point A to point B with afterburners on to simply get to a new area as fast as possible. There's no time to relax, take in the scenery, the music, or the scope of the battle because everything is so rushed and you nearly constantly have a missile alert.

The story is most definitely the weakest out of the Ace Combat base games. You don't develop any feeling toward your wingman or the other pilots around you. I don't mind seeing a story from the perspective of a civilian, but it ultimately has to lead back to the pilots. I think they were trying to emulate Ace Combat 4 as far as using a civilian perspective, however the constant jumps of perspective from person to person doesn't allow the player to develop a relationship with any of the characters. SPOILER ALERT In one of the missions your wingman decides to defy orders and continue engaging the enemy when told to cease fire, and it's just not a smart decision, you have no input in it at all, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Also, the fact that the wingman has very little personality and the story doesn't focus on him really makes you not care about him and you really do not understand his feelings or his reasons for taking those actions. Also, it's just really out of character for him. SECOND SPOLER ALERT Your wingman crashes and is assumed to be dead during the last mission. Other like other circumstances of losing a wingman in the Ace Combat series, I felt absolutely nothing and was not concerned about his outcome.

The storyline itself is weak, and the execution (dialogue, cutscenes, etc.) are below what I expect for an AC game. Often times I would find myself cringing or shaking my head at the dialogue both during combat and during the cutscenes. As far as the graphics during the cutscenes, I personally do not think they are better than those in AC5, which was a PS2 game.

It pains me to give a negative review because I love this series and I hope it succeeds in the future, however I have to give this game a below average review score because of the poor gameplay and the poor storyline, There are certainly elements that are good, such as the graphics and music, however this game simply does not stand up to it's predecessors. (4/10) 