Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

Thrilling moments of mid-air diving, twisting, and fighting like a hero are chipped away at by some niggling flaws. And yet, if you overlook it foibles, Ace Combat 7 has enough in its hangar to love. [Issue#159, p.84]

Ace Combat 7 is, sadly, a decent game that never quite hits the same highs as the planes contained within. It rapidly becomes too samey, and the games mechanics aren’t really signposted enough, with you being catapulted into action with barely a mention of flight school.

While seasoned veterans of the Ace Combat series may have a much different perspective on its seventh iteration, I was unfortunately left disappointed by lots of glitz and limited glamour. The game never became, well, fun to play, and the allure of watching and listening to beautiful aircraft fly over and through jaw dropping environments can only go so far. Even with an abundance of camera angles to choose from, none offered the immersion factor I was longing to experience: the thrill of actual air combat.

Quotation forthcoming.

Though the story in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is utterly confusing, the game makes sense where it matters most: in the clouds. The dogfights are action packed and enjoyable and the VR missions are pure gold. However, the multiplayer could benefit from more varied modes.

For the twentieth episode in the series, Project Aces could have gone even further in using the concepts that had made the success of the series. What Ace Combat 7 does, it does it correctly and slightly better than before, but most of the time, the player is a a bit frustrated not to be able to go further. Same idea with the VR mode, that features only three little missions when we expected to play the whole game with a PSVR helmet.

Ace Combat 7: Unknown Skies is a great-looking arcade flight combat game, and zipping over high-quality terrain trying to establish missile locks and evade pursuers can be a lot of fun. But the experience often gets weighed down by its weird and convoluted but persistent story and poor communication of objectives. It’s enough to prove that there’s room for the series to make a comeback, though this game will be not the one to jumpstart it.

Due to its niche nature, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown won’t be for everyone. You’d really need to love this style of game to get the full benefit of it.

It feels like the most challenging missions are difficult not by design, but rather by design mistakes. For example, one of them gives a very limited time to bomb a number of targets – which wouldn't be so bad if allied fighters actually engaged enemy interceptors. [Issue#236, p.52]

Its magic can feel frustratingly elusive, but the thrill of chasing it down just about makes it worthwhile. [March 2019, p.112]

Like an old friend come back to life. Ace Combat 7 feels like a neat and tidy resurrection, bringing back everything you missed from flight simulator games, while consequently reminding you why the industry lost interest in them.