Ace Combat : Assault Horizon

By Tristan Tancredi

Strap yourself in for this fast paced Air Combat game from Namco Bandai Games. 

Let the G-Forces take hold as you glide through the clouds at extreme speeds on a mission to save, you guessed it, the USA.

Written by Jim Delice, the New York Times bestselling author for action-packed military thriller and spy novels, one would expect an in-depth war narrative with a twisting storyline.

The twists are there, however the plot meanders along slowly, rarely gathering momentum.

The story follows the 108th Task Force - a group sent to stop a rebel insurgent group funded by a Russian terrorist organisation. Basically, gamers must stop the threat of a nuclear attack.

Assuming the role of multiple soldiers in a variety of aircraft, gamers must intercept Trinity bombs masterminded by Markov (The Shark). A Russian man who holds the Americans responsible for his wifes death and will stop at nothing for revenge.

As the game potters along, the Russian military division of the 108th Task Force defects to join the rebel insurgents (didn't see that coming at all did we?) and so the fun begins.

Gamers move between characters and aircraft as the storyline progresses. Often switching between characters during the same mission.

Some of the characters played throughout the game include:

Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop : Leader of the Warwolf Flight, Bishop flies a variety of Fighter Jets including the F-22 Raptor.

Spooky 01 : Serves as a fire support gunship. Slams terrorist from a gun strapped to a chopper.

Major Janice Rehl : The token female in the game and the pilot of the Razor 1. (Drops tonnes of bombs onto enemy territory)

Captain Doug "D Ray" Robinson : Commanding officer of Shooter squadron and leader of Nomad squadron and basically dominates with some crazy choppers.

Throughout Ace Combat, gamers control a variety of aircraft. Ranging from Black Hawk Helicopters, Fighter jets, Stealth Bombers, Apache Longbows and loads more. 

Despite offering a variety of aircraft, the missions are repetitive. Every helicopter mission is the same and every fighter jet mission is identical to the last.

Controlling a fighter jet is tricky to master initially. Gamers must lock onto enemy aircraft to dispose of them with an array of artillery. Controlling the speed is essential to tracking an enemy jet. Tight turns are more effective when dropping the speed.

Entering a dogfight is a new development to the series and is essential to taking out the more experienced enemies. Facing great evasive skills, a dogfight enables gamers to stay behind an enemy, lock onto a target and blow them into oblivion.

Also new to the series is ASM  (Air Strike Mode), or Air to Ground close combat. Gamers lock onto a designated route and destroy anything along the path.

These new additions do place the gamer close to the action. Much closer then the games predecessors.

Controlling a helicopter is quite basic. One button releases automatic fire, one button releases missiles, and two buttons perform evasive manouvres, that's basically it.

The battles take place over a range of locations including: Miami, Washington DC, Dubai, Paris, East Africa, Middle East and Moscow. Developed using satellite imagery, the settings depicted look quite real. It is not until a gamer flies close to the ground that the detail in the imagery subsides.

In between battles, gamers needlessly control character actions during movie segments. The movie segments drag out way too long with alot of useless footage. For example, why we needed to initiate the fist pump at the end of the game, i'll never know.

The voice acting is solid and entertaining nontheless and do offer alot to the game.

With a solid 6-10 hours of game time, Assault Horizon does offer moments of excitement and enjoyment. Upon completion, missions and aircraft are unlocked and can be replayed.

Online, Assault Horizon has a few options available including all the usual online modes such as Mission Co-Op and Deathmatches.

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy will also be available on the Nintendo 3DS in December 2011.

Developed by Project Aces, Ace Combat : Assault Horizon is quite a shallow, repetitive and predictable game, however there is fun to be had during various stages. So, load up on missiles and splash those suckers.

Game: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
System: Playstation 3
Developer/Co-Developer: Project Aces
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)