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Review: 'Ace Combat: Assault Horizon'
By Adam Alexander
Visuals
I have to give it to Assault Horizon; it is very pretty. The cities are massive and modeled after real cities, so youll see various landmarks and have the opportunity to strafe them if youre feeling cathartic. The sun gleams off the cockpit glass (assuming you choose first-person)
Gameplay
Yeah, its alright. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad, either.
I have to give Assault Horizon props because never at any point does it claim to be realistic. Thats good, because it certainly isnt, by any means.
After listening to the meh story, I was given a choice of which aircraft I wanted to take into combat. Being a true patriot, I choose the classic F-16. On a side note to the developers, if you guys want to make a game where we fly various flavors of aircraft over various scenic locations, thats all fine. Im just not sure it needed the somewhat weak story to tie it together.
Anyway, right out of the gate, the first thing I noticed is that my awesome F-16 couldnt barrel roll. Um, what? I was flummoxed. It wasnt the plane, it was the controls. Yeah, no barrel rolls! Peppy would have a heart attack.
You can still invert, though, its just that you cant do it by pitching left or right; you have to pitch up or down and perform a half-S turn. Pitching to the left or right will only tilt the craft to 90 degrees.
Its a petty complaint, I know, but I cant perform half of the moves I learned from Top Gun without being able to invert, especially my favorite, the greeting. But whatever, the controls are still effective and efficient, so its a minor tick against the game. A bit strange that the helicopters can barrel roll, though, while the jets cant.
Since the above was a minor tick, heres a major one: its just too easy (Im sure fans of my Dark Souls review will appreciate me saying that). I crashed though the campaign with little difficulty. I died a couple times at the beginning while I was figuring out the controls, but once I learned about Dogfight Mode, the game might as well have rolled the credits for how challenging it was after that.
Dogfight Mode is an action sequence that you trigger by pressing the appropriate buttons when you get within 2,000 feet of an enemy with missile lock. Once triggered, the game will zoom in on your opponent and essentially maneuver the plane for you will you shoot the enemy pilot with 20mm cannons and radar-lock missiles. Yes, the game holds your hand like a kindergarten teacher.
And then theres the wonderful variety of the game. As a fighter pilot, youll fly around and shoot missiles at planes. As a helicopter pilot, youll fly around and shoot missiles at tanks. As an A-10 pilot, youll fly around and shoot missiles at ships. Joy.
My point is that it gets very repetitive. About halfway through the campaign, I remember thinking that I would write here that the missions are too long. Upon further thought, however, I realized that they werent really that long (about 25 minutes each), they just seem that way because the allure of taking down an enemy pilot is diminished when youve done it about twenty times.
Speaking of taking down enemy pilots twenty times, lets talk about the whole Ace part of the game. For those of you who dont know, a combat pilot is considered an Ace when he has shot down five aircraft in his career. Taking that into consideration, it can be safely said that Colonel William Bishop is the single greatest combat pilot in the universe.
Through the course of the campaign Im pretty sure I shot down about 300 aircraft, most of them being fighters, but some bombers as well. Here in Reality-burg, the most kills ever obtained by a single pilot is 81, achieved by the Red Baron himself, Manfred Von Richthofen. So in essence Bishop achieves three to four times as many kills in about half the time, making him Lord of the Skies.
Part of the reason for this is because despite having about 10 teammates at your side at any given time, they dont really do anything except buzz around and occasionally yell at you to hurry it up so they can go home and get drunk. Youll be taking care of all the objectives and shooting down 90 percent of the enemies.
I dont necessarily fault the game for that, though, because I can see why it was necessary. The game was already pretty short, so I cant imagine the developers trying to incorporate a realistic number of enemies to kill. Unless, of course, said enemies were more challenging (and by more challenging I mean better at aerial combat, not just equipped with jets made out of diamond and to which the laws of physics bend like a plastic ruler), but now Im dreaming.
I must say, though, that aside from the 300 kills I achieved as a fighter pilot, I was also tasked with taking down about six armored divisions by myself as a helicopter pilot. I think thats a little much to ask of one pilot, especially when there are several more hovering above me snacking on Doritos while I do all the damn work. And yet it still wasnt hard.
Still, I think the game does sometimes realize how much of a cakewalk it actually is. I say this because occasionally three or four MiGs will suddenly drop everything theyre doing and come after you (and only you) and ram about eight missiles up your empennage. Its basically a shoddy attempt at an insta-kill. Still, its not a deal-breaker, because the game also offers a quick-time event dodge maneuver that will allow your plane to flip out for a moment before placing the enemy directly in front of you and automatically enters Dogfight Mode.
Speaking of missiles, you get about 250 per mission. I'd like to know where I'm keeping them all.
There are also bosses. Theyre played up as being more competent pilots, but I didnt find that to be the case. I did find them more challenging, but it was because they possessed aircraft which could endure three times as many missile strikes and to which the laws of physics are humble servants. Not that Im an expert in aeronautical engineering, but Ive never seen a fighter that can stop on a dime in midair, roll backward into an invert, and then somehow end up behind its pursuer.
Multiplayer
I didnt get to play much of it, to be honest. I just played the standard deathmatch, although there are capture-and-hold scenarios and a few others as well. And, just as I expected, most of the players online were far more competent than I, so I didnt score many kills.
Just like the campaign, you can choose which aircraft you want to fly. In multiplayer, though, you can also earn a selection of paint jobs and call-signs by leveling up Modern Warfare style. Not that it matters that much, because gameplay is so frantic that youll only notice someones paint job when they kill you and the game zooms in on them to rub it in your face for a few seconds.
Once you enter a multiplayer match, youre allowed to choose from one of four spawn points. Youll then spend the next 10 minutes buzzing around with 16 other pilots like a swarm of angry hornets.
Overall
Despite all of the above, I have to admit that Assault Horizon definitely has its moments. There were a few occasions where I would lose myself in the intensity of the moment (usually broken when the dogfight autopilot would slam into a building and cause almost no damage). Like I said, though, it gets pretty repetitive, and its pretty easy.
Keep in mind that I never expected Assault Horizon to rock my world, and indeed it falls short of doing that. All in all, it's a "meh," but at least its something a little different amongst the legions of first-person shooters that are coming about this fall, so give it a try.
Another side note: it just didn't feel right without Goose back there.
Investment Suggestion: Rent. I beat it in a few days. I dont think the appeal of multi-player will last that long, so buying it seems like a waste of money.
The above is only my opinion. It just happens to be right.
By Adam Alexander
Visuals
I have to give it to Assault Horizon; it is very pretty. The cities are massive and modeled after real cities, so youll see various landmarks and have the opportunity to strafe them if youre feeling cathartic. The sun gleams off the cockpit glass (assuming you choose first-person)
Gameplay
Yeah, its alright. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad, either.
I have to give Assault Horizon props because never at any point does it claim to be realistic. Thats good, because it certainly isnt, by any means.
After listening to the meh story, I was given a choice of which aircraft I wanted to take into combat. Being a true patriot, I choose the classic F-16. On a side note to the developers, if you guys want to make a game where we fly various flavors of aircraft over various scenic locations, thats all fine. Im just not sure it needed the somewhat weak story to tie it together.
Anyway, right out of the gate, the first thing I noticed is that my awesome F-16 couldnt barrel roll. Um, what? I was flummoxed. It wasnt the plane, it was the controls. Yeah, no barrel rolls! Peppy would have a heart attack.
You can still invert, though, its just that you cant do it by pitching left or right; you have to pitch up or down and perform a half-S turn. Pitching to the left or right will only tilt the craft to 90 degrees.
Its a petty complaint, I know, but I cant perform half of the moves I learned from Top Gun without being able to invert, especially my favorite, the greeting. But whatever, the controls are still effective and efficient, so its a minor tick against the game. A bit strange that the helicopters can barrel roll, though, while the jets cant.
Since the above was a minor tick, heres a major one: its just too easy (Im sure fans of my Dark Souls review will appreciate me saying that). I crashed though the campaign with little difficulty. I died a couple times at the beginning while I was figuring out the controls, but once I learned about Dogfight Mode, the game might as well have rolled the credits for how challenging it was after that.
Dogfight Mode is an action sequence that you trigger by pressing the appropriate buttons when you get within 2,000 feet of an enemy with missile lock. Once triggered, the game will zoom in on your opponent and essentially maneuver the plane for you will you shoot the enemy pilot with 20mm cannons and radar-lock missiles. Yes, the game holds your hand like a kindergarten teacher.
And then theres the wonderful variety of the game. As a fighter pilot, youll fly around and shoot missiles at planes. As a helicopter pilot, youll fly around and shoot missiles at tanks. As an A-10 pilot, youll fly around and shoot missiles at ships. Joy.
My point is that it gets very repetitive. About halfway through the campaign, I remember thinking that I would write here that the missions are too long. Upon further thought, however, I realized that they werent really that long (about 25 minutes each), they just seem that way because the allure of taking down an enemy pilot is diminished when youve done it about twenty times.
Speaking of taking down enemy pilots twenty times, lets talk about the whole Ace part of the game. For those of you who dont know, a combat pilot is considered an Ace when he has shot down five aircraft in his career. Taking that into consideration, it can be safely said that Colonel William Bishop is the single greatest combat pilot in the universe.
Through the course of the campaign Im pretty sure I shot down about 300 aircraft, most of them being fighters, but some bombers as well. Here in Reality-burg, the most kills ever obtained by a single pilot is 81, achieved by the Red Baron himself, Manfred Von Richthofen. So in essence Bishop achieves three to four times as many kills in about half the time, making him Lord of the Skies.
Part of the reason for this is because despite having about 10 teammates at your side at any given time, they dont really do anything except buzz around and occasionally yell at you to hurry it up so they can go home and get drunk. Youll be taking care of all the objectives and shooting down 90 percent of the enemies.
I dont necessarily fault the game for that, though, because I can see why it was necessary. The game was already pretty short, so I cant imagine the developers trying to incorporate a realistic number of enemies to kill. Unless, of course, said enemies were more challenging (and by more challenging I mean better at aerial combat, not just equipped with jets made out of diamond and to which the laws of physics bend like a plastic ruler), but now Im dreaming.
I must say, though, that aside from the 300 kills I achieved as a fighter pilot, I was also tasked with taking down about six armored divisions by myself as a helicopter pilot. I think thats a little much to ask of one pilot, especially when there are several more hovering above me snacking on Doritos while I do all the damn work. And yet it still wasnt hard.
Still, I think the game does sometimes realize how much of a cakewalk it actually is. I say this because occasionally three or four MiGs will suddenly drop everything theyre doing and come after you (and only you) and ram about eight missiles up your empennage. Its basically a shoddy attempt at an insta-kill. Still, its not a deal-breaker, because the game also offers a quick-time event dodge maneuver that will allow your plane to flip out for a moment before placing the enemy directly in front of you and automatically enters Dogfight Mode.
Speaking of missiles, you get about 250 per mission. I'd like to know where I'm keeping them all.
There are also bosses. Theyre played up as being more competent pilots, but I didnt find that to be the case. I did find them more challenging, but it was because they possessed aircraft which could endure three times as many missile strikes and to which the laws of physics are humble servants. Not that Im an expert in aeronautical engineering, but Ive never seen a fighter that can stop on a dime in midair, roll backward into an invert, and then somehow end up behind its pursuer.
Multiplayer
I didnt get to play much of it, to be honest. I just played the standard deathmatch, although there are capture-and-hold scenarios and a few others as well. And, just as I expected, most of the players online were far more competent than I, so I didnt score many kills.
Just like the campaign, you can choose which aircraft you want to fly. In multiplayer, though, you can also earn a selection of paint jobs and call-signs by leveling up Modern Warfare style. Not that it matters that much, because gameplay is so frantic that youll only notice someones paint job when they kill you and the game zooms in on them to rub it in your face for a few seconds.
Once you enter a multiplayer match, youre allowed to choose from one of four spawn points. Youll then spend the next 10 minutes buzzing around with 16 other pilots like a swarm of angry hornets.
Overall
Despite all of the above, I have to admit that Assault Horizon definitely has its moments. There were a few occasions where I would lose myself in the intensity of the moment (usually broken when the dogfight autopilot would slam into a building and cause almost no damage). Like I said, though, it gets pretty repetitive, and its pretty easy.
Keep in mind that I never expected Assault Horizon to rock my world, and indeed it falls short of doing that. All in all, it's a "meh," but at least its something a little different amongst the legions of first-person shooters that are coming about this fall, so give it a try.
Another side note: it just didn't feel right without Goose back there.
Investment Suggestion: Rent. I beat it in a few days. I dont think the appeal of multi-player will last that long, so buying it seems like a waste of money.
The above is only my opinion. It just happens to be right.
