Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Just good. [Issue#78, p.82]

An extremely fun action experience that is sure to induce Tourette's to the most levelheaded gamers. It's a blast for the most part, but on occasion it defies explanation by breaking its own conventions and using shoddy camera angles and unresponsive controls to artificially increase difficulty.

Taking inspiration from games such as the Call of Duty-series, this is less of a flight simulator and more of an action game played in the air, and is all the better for it. The somewhat tedious flight missions are mixed up with much more entertaining helicopter-missions and the online modes for both competition and co-op work well.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is solid fun for anyone wanting to experience cinematic dogfighting, though subsequent playthrough are going to reveal the smoke and mirrors behind the illusion.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is already dubbed by some as the Modern Warfare in the skies. It is moving towards that direction, no doubt. But before being worthy of that title, it needs to improve a few things.

The sixth game in the Ace Combat series seems to have Call of Duty as its main influence. It is intense and entertaining, but Assault Horizon has some flawed game mechanics and tries a bit too hard to be cool.

At its best, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon hits a glorious balance of careful tactical play and explosive bombast. It's frustrating because it comes so close to perfecting the formula, only to throw it away by growing tedious when it has the opportunity to shine.

A mess of compromises and sops to more casual gamers and yet somehow the game still manages to offer a fun and accessible facsimile of real air combat.

It's not a great game by any means, but there are much worse ways to spend an afternoon than making jets explode.

One of the greatest disappointments of the year. Once great and entertaining flying arcade became an average Call of Duty-copycat shooter. [Christmas 2011]

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, while not especially unique, provides a lot of fun especially during the DFM moments both on and offline. However, most of the game is taken straight from Modern Warfare and its simple controls risks alienating hardcore fans.

For some of you this is going to be a catlike degradation of the arcade series, for the others it's going to be their first moment to grab their plane and let their dream come true. There are helicopter missions and they are just fine. However, the story campaign full of turnovers and flashy broiling turns Ace Combat closer to passive gaping. Those simulator guys of you should wait for the upcoming hit by Jane's, for those of you bird of prey lovers – you should be enjoying this Namco's arcade video game under your Christmas tree.

The problem is the pacing of the game. Missions are too long and repetitive, which causes the drama of the dogfight mode to wear out. The problem is worse in helicopter missions, where the strategy of the dogfight mode is replaced by panic rolls when missiles are close and some rude checkpointing.

Just like a trashy novel, Assault Horizon is a decent page turner just as long you try not to think too hard.