Ace Combat Infinity

Ace Combat Infinity
General Information
Developers	Project Aces
Publishers	Namco Bandai Games
Release Dates	Beta Test: November 7, 2013 Full Game: Fall 2013
Gameplay Modes	Single-player Online multiplayer
Platforms	PlayStation 3
Distribution	Digital download
Websites	http://projectaces-newtitle.bngames.net/

Ace Combat Infinity is the latest entry in the Ace Combat series, announced on July 19, 2013 after a lengthy teaser campaign. Infinity appears to be the fifth Ace Combat game to take place on Earth; it is the first free-to-play game for the series, as well as the first digital-only release.

The game will be free to download and play exclusively for all PlayStation 3 users in the fall of 2013. A public Beta testing phase for Japanese PSN accounts only will take place between November 7 and November 13.

Plot

See also: List of missions in Ace Combat Infinity

In an alternate reality 1994, the 5254 Ulysses (1986 VG1) asteroid collided with a fictional moon of Jupiter named Polyphemus. It split into 10,000 meteors that were expected to impact the Earth in five years. With no method to change the orbit of all of the meteors, the world's nations banded together to create the Stonehenge Type-3, a network of eight railguns that would fire at the meteors to prevent as much damage to the planet as possible. Unfortunately, in July 1999, many of the asteroids crashed into the Earth regardless, causing a devastating loss of life in what was later known as the Ulysses Disaster.

The game takes place in 2019, 20 years after the Ulysses Disaster. A conflict has broken out between the United Nations Forces and another unknown faction. The Bone Arrow Squadron, a mercenary squadron owned and operated by Arrows Air Defense and Security (a private military organization), is hired by the UNF.

Three operations are known to take place during the story: Operation Fogbound, which takes place in Iyuli, Russia; Operation Crusher, which takes place in Turkey; and an unknown operation which takes place in Tokyo, Japan.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Infinity is noted for staying true to the "classic gameplay" of the Ace Combat series, most notably Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies. Close Range Assault, an integral component of gameplay in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, was confirmed to not be included in Infinity, further adding to the classic style of gameplay.

Specific gameplay elements confirmed for Infinity include the following:

• All enemy units feature a health bar underneath their targeting box.
• The Head-up display shows the traditional radar and aircraft info (ammo, health, reloading) along the bottom of the screen; score, remaining time, and the score of the targeted enemy on the top-left of the screen; and any checkpoints are noted in the top-right of the screen as they are encountered.
• Oil and shrapnel will splatter on the screen when an enemy close to the player's aircraft is destroyed, similar to Assault Horizon.

During an interview at Eurogamer Expo 2013, Kazutoki Kono, lead producer on the game, said that the single-player campaign will work as a 'tutorial' for what players might experience in the multiplayer mode.

Three superweapons have been confirmed to appear in Infinity. The first is a heavy command cruiser named Moby Dick, which appears in the multiplayer mission Moby Dick Pursuit. The second is an unnnamed Scinfaxi-class submarine, which appears at random intervals in multiplayer. The third is the aforementioned Stonehenge railgun network, which is one of the main plot elements of the single-player campaign.

Multiplayer

Ace Combat Infinity will have a multiplayer experience alongside the single-player story campaign. The multiplayer experience is known as a 'competitive co-operative' experience where "skilled aces will form two teams and compete to inflict the most damage on a common enemy." Players will be able to collect items and in-game currency through the missions, which will be later used to unlock parts and aircraft.

The list of multiplayer missions are as follows:

• Tokyo Martial Law
• Aerospace Center Defense
• Pipeline Destruction
• Alps Air Corridor
• Dubai Night Assault
• Moby Dick Pursuit

In the middle of a mission, the players could experience a "random event" that will spice up the gameplay and prevent players from getting bored; each mission would not be the same experience. Some of these random events include the surfacing of a Scinfaxi-class submarine or a meteorite fall.

Customization

In a first for the series, Infinity allows players to customize and set up to four different "Sortie Settings," which include the aircraft, special weapons, skills, and emblem that the player will be flying with during that sortie. It is currently unclear as to whether these will apply to single-player as well as multiplayer, or if they can be selected while respawning in multiplayer (if respawning is possible).

Similar to Ace Combat X, Joint Assault, and Assault Horizon Legacy, Infinity also has a user interface which, after unlocking an aircraft, allows the player to upgrade that aircraft through a technology tree. Players can tweak their aircraft by swapping out and upgrading their aircraft's armor, missile power, gun damage, engine power, power of certain weapons, and more.

Sortie Fuel System

During Tokyo Game Show 2013, Kazutoki Kono confirmed that Infinity will have a restricted time system known as the Sortie Fuel System (similar to the token system in Tekken Revolution or the pricing model of Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation). Specific details are not exactly known as of yet, but it is known that the fuel system will restrict players to playing a certain number of missions in one day before they will have to wait 24 hours for their "fuel" to "recharge." Players will be able to purchase more fuel with real-life currency.

Immediately after the announcement of this system, fans online expressed a distrust in the game and believed it would end up becoming a "pay-to-play" experience. The developers are urging the players to remain open and hold their judgments until the Beta test begins to provide constructive feedback.

Aircraft

Main article: List of aircraft in Ace Combat Infinity

Teaser 00 introduced the CFA-44 Nosferatu, PAK FA, Su-35 Flanker-E, and the aforementioned ASF-X Shinden II as the first aircraft confirmed for Infinity.

Teaser 01 added the MiG-21bis Fishbed, MiG-29A Fulcrum, F-14D Super Tomcat, and Typhoon to the list of confirmed aircraft. It also introduced an unknown type of drone aircraft (likely NPC-only).

Teaser 02 added the F-16C Fighting Falcon, F-35B Lightning II, Su-32 Strike Flanker, F-22A Raptor, Su-33 Flanker-D, and B-2A Spirit (likely NPC-only) to the list of confirmed aircraft. The official screenshots of the game released simultaneously also confirm the Su-25TM Frogfoot, MQ-90, and CH-47 Chinook (the latter two likely NPC-only). A promotional wallpaper later published showcased the F-2A Viper Zero, but this aircraft has not been seen in any gameplay footage as of yet.

The Ulysses Disaster trailer added the F-4E Phantom II, F-15C Eagle, Mirage 2000-5, F-15E Strike Eagle, A-10A Thunderbolt II, C-17 Globemaster, and Il-76 Candid (the latter two NPC-only) to the list. During an interview at Eurogamer Expo 2013, Kazutoki Kono mentioned that they are aiming for around 30 playable aircraft at the time of the game's release.

Teaser campaign

File:Project Aces 2013 Teaser.jpg

The original teaser image

The game was first teased on June 14, 2013, when Kazutoki Kono (who directed Ace Combat: Assault Horizon and worked on numerous other Ace Combat games) tweeted a photo of his Japanese passport and his laptop, which displayed a revised version of the Project Aces logo with what appeared to be several objects approaching the ground from the sky. On June 21, 2013, the full-sized version of the logo was uploaded to the Project Aces Twitter account, and was set as the avatar and background image.

On July 10, a second image was uploaded to the Twitter account, containing part of a message, which read "ky fe||, the". Interestingly, the two L's in "fell" were formatted differently. This post was followed by another one a day later, consisting only of the word "closening" (meaning "to get close"), hinting that an announcement was imminent.

On July 11, a new website was set up by Namco Bandai, titled "PROJECT ACES NewTitle", which was subsequently announced through Twitter. The site contained the full teaser message, which read: "That day our sky fe||, the heavens split to create new skies." In addition to using the new Project Aces logo as its favicon, the code of the site contained the phrase "エースコンバット" (Ace Combat) as a keyword. It was later discovered that Namco Bandai filled a trademark for "Ace Combat Infinity" the same day.

Three times after the website's initial launch, the Project Aces logo background slowly faded into the page from the lower right corner. Finally, the second part of the sentence itself seemed to "split" into two parts, adding further symbolism to the message.

On July 15, however, the website completely changed, only showing a friendly radio transmission, indicated by the blue colored symbols around it: "<< Here comes the third strike! >>" Hours later, it was tweeted on the Project Aces Twitter account. On July 16, it was replaced with another friendly radio transmission reading: "<< All engines on Kottos 2 destroyed! >>" Once again, this message was tweeted a few hours later. On July 17, the image was once again replaced with a friendly radio transmission, this time reading: "<< Ridgeback One. Edge, report. >>" followed by the tweets a few hours later. Two hours after that, Kazutoki Kono wished everyone to "enjoy the official tomorrow."

Two hours before the Project Aces Twitter tweeted the Ridgeback One transmission, Kazutoki Kono stated that if the Project Aces Twitter reached 8,492 followers, he would release an image related to Ace Combat. When the number was met, he tweeted a picture of a soda bottle in front of a computer screen. The screen was displaying what looked to be a squadron emblem, consisting of at least two human bones possibly forming the letter A.

On July 18 at 1:03 PM EDT, Tony Shoupinou (Community Manager at Namco Bandai Games, who had previously shared the "ky fe||, the" image as well) posted "Tomorrow @ 9AM (Central European Time), we will fly again. Yay! I can't wait." on his Facebook wall. At 9:00 PM EDT that same day, the image on the teaser site was replaced, this time not by a friendly radio transmission, but by the universal sign for infinity "∞", in the color red.

On July 19 at 1:03 AM EDT, 12 hours after Tony Shoupinou's Facebook post, Kazutoki Kono took to Twitter once more to inform everyone to keep an eye on their screens at 1600hrs Japan Time (the same time Tony Shoupinou mentioned, which would occur in 1 hour and 57 minutes), and to look at "it" without him since he would be at a meeting. Whatever "it" was referring to was not known.

On July 19 at 3:00 AM EDT, the NewTitle website was updated once again. This time, a teaser trailer (later renamed to Teaser 00) lasting 46 seconds for what was now confirmed to be a PlayStation 3 game, titled Ace Combat Infinity, was added to the site.

On July 26 at 3:00 AM EDT, precisely one week after the teaser trailer was uploaded, a screenshot of the briefing for Operation Fogbound was uploaded to the Twitter account, with the promise of more information to come next week.

On August 2 at 3:00 AM EDT, precisely another week later, Teaser 01 was uploaded to the site, providing a wealth of information. Simultaneously, Namco Bandai Games Europe uploaded the video with a confirmation that the game was a free-to-play game, along with some details on multiplayer as well as a quote from Olivier Comte, Senior Vice President.

On August 30 at 9:59 AM GMT, Kazutoki Kono tweeted a picture of what appears to be the main menu of Infinity. A couple of hours later, an article was posted on Gaming Age, a gaming news blog, with the third teaser trailer as well as some screenshots of the game. The third teaser trailer was then uploaded a couple of days later to the NewTitle website, titled "Teaser 02". The same day, Project Aces announced that Ace Combat Infinity was due to release in the Fall of 2013, with the release date itself to be announced at the Tokyo Game Show on September 19th.

On September 19 at approximately 2 PM Tokyo local time, Namco Bandai began the free-to-play segment of their Tokyo Game Show 2013 event, including Ace Combat Infinity. Here, while First Flight and a remix of Comona were playing, Kazutoki Kono discussed the details about Infinity after showing the "Ulysses Disaster" trailer. Later in the day, the video was uploaded to the official YouTube channel. For some reason, the release date announcement was postponed. Details later came in about the Sortie Fuel System. It was announced that a public Beta testing phase will begin very soon.

On October 3, Project Aces uploaded official gameplay videos of the latter portions of the missions Great Migration and Stonehenge.

On October 17, Project Aces uploaded a video showing off more of the multiplayer, as well as members of the Project Aces team playing the game. It was announced simultaneously that the public Beta testing, which appears to be multiplayer-only but has not been confirmed, will take place between November 7 and November 13, will require 2GB of free HDD space on the PlayStation 3, and will be Japan-only.

Theories

One theory generated during the teaser campaign was a new game based around the time of the Estovakian Civil War, due to the first teaser message likely referencing the fall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 Asteroid and the Civil War, and the third teaser message referencing the Kottos airship. Another theory involved a remaster of multiple Ace Combat games at once, due to the various references to different games, including the Ulysses, Kottos, and Edge.

A discovery made on July 16 was that the teaser radio transmissions included a countdown. "Here comes the third strike" involved a 3 and "All engines on Kottos 2 destroyed" involved a 2. This was confirmed the next day, as the message "Ridgeback One. Edge, report" involved a 1, leading many to believe that July 18 would have brought a trailer or announcement of some sort.

Around the time the teaser website, NewTitle, was set up, a second teaser site (titled "NEW TITLE") was created by Namco Bandai for another title. Many theories surrounded this second website's possible link to the Project Aces website due to their simultaneous launches, but this website was eventually announced to be teasing Jump Legend Biography, a Nintendo 3DS game compiling certain Famicom and Super Famicom games.

Trivia

• Teaser 00 makes two references to Mappy, a 1983 arcade game developed by Namco. The humming in the beginning is of the Mappy theme song, and Mappy himself appears as a silhouette on a pair of wireless headphones.
  • Interestingly enough, Ace Combat Infinity launches in 2013, which is the 30th anniversary of Mappy's release.
• Ace Combat Infinity seems to take place on Earth once again. However, unlike Joint Assault and Assault Horizon before it, set pieces from Strangereal are seemingly "retconned" into the real world. So far, this includes:
  • the fall of the Ulysses, known as the Ulysses Disaster;
  • AWACS SkyEye, who essentially keeps his name;
  • the Stonehenge Turret Network, which keeps its name;
  • the entirety of the Estovakian Aerial Fleet. The P-1112 Aigaion keeps its name but nicknamed Moby Dick, but the Kottos and Gyges seem to keep their names;
  • and the Scinfaxi-class submarine, which is unnamed as of yet.
• Infinity is running on the same (or an upgraded version of the) engine that Assault Horizon utilized, as evidenced by the oil splatters on the screen and the explosion effects.
• The mission "Great Migration" uses a remixed version of Comona, and the mission "Stonehenge" uses a remixed version of Stonehenge, both from Ace Combat 04.
• September 19, the day the Ulysses Disaster trailer was revealed, has symbolic meaning to the series. Operations Umbrella and Autumn Thunder both took place on September 19, as well as AWACS SkyEye's birthday.
• The Infinity symbol from the trailers bears a resemblance to the Mobius Squadron insignia, adding to the rest of the evidence that this game was heavily inspired by Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies.
• At the end of the Ulysses Disaster trailer, an aircraft squadron is seen separating formation in a very similar, if not exact, resemblance to how the Silber Team separated formation after making their entrance in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.
• The Ulysses Disaster trailer also features a few hints to the COFFIN system:
  • At the beginning, while loading the elements of the main menu, "Establishment of neuromuscular connections" is mentioned as one of the things being loaded;
  • As the Ulysses asteroid is being explained a few seconds later, the video zooms in on a hexagonal pattern very similar to the ADF-01 FALKEN's cockpit;
  • and for a split second, closer to the end of the video, the back of a woman's neck is shown with some sort of digital diagram on it, similar to the ENSI ports used by Rena Hirose in Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere.
• There are quite a few Trojan references in Ace Combat Infinity as shown by the Ulysses Disaster trailer:
  • The terrorist group, Sons of Troia, uses an alternate spelling of "Troy";
  • Ulysses is an alternate spelling of Odysseus, who had the idea of a Trojan Horse;
  • Stonehenge is built in Turkey, the original location of Troy;
  • The Ulysses asteroid is a Jupiter Trojan.
• In a recent interview at Eurogamer Expo 2013, Kono mentions that the random events to take place in multiplayer could include "submarines" or "huge fortresses." This all but confirms that the Moby Dick will appear exclusively online, but it also teases at the possibility of the Scinfaxi or Hrimfaxi.
  • This was later confirmed in the trailer released on October 17, when a Scinfaxi-class submarine surfaces in the middle of a mission and the Moby Dick is given its own mission.

Gallery

See the gallery for this article at Ace Combat Infinity/Gallery.