Is Ace Combat 7 "Unknown skies" any good?

Pokepicker

Well-Known Member
OP
Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2015
Messages
271
Trophies
0
Age
36
XP
1,784
Country
Norway
Has anyone played the Ace Combat 7 "Skies Unknown" game?

I remember playing one of the Ace Combat games back in the days of PS2, and found it entertaining enough. I haven't played any similar games since then.

I see it's on sale with 80% off on Steam. Including the "TopGun Maverick" DLC. I haven't seen the movie, but I might as well get the bundle if I'm going to give it a go.

Are the DLC planes just cosmetic, or do they actually perform differently than your standard planes?
 
  • Love
Reactions: AncientBoi

BraveDragonWolf

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
May 5, 2015
Messages
279
Trophies
0
Age
28
XP
2,507
Country
United States
I'd look towards Youtube to see if it's any good. But let's hear from the people here at GBATemp.

For years I've been wanting to play another fighter jet game after playing Heatseeker for the Wii years ago. I've been really picky about what I want to try out and I've been too hesitant about it. So I just stopped bothering if I'm not gonna commit.
 

AncientBoi

THEE GAY WARLORD™ - Defender of GAY Rights
Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
4,658
Trophies
4
Age
67
Location
Sitting NaKeY w/COFFEE, at Front Door
XP
17,410
Country
United States
ooww I shall also wait for the others account of the game. Though I love Ground Assualt war games, I do venture into the skies :D. I have theses on Ace Combat series, Plus 2 more.

Ace Combat X
Ace Combat - Joint Assault

Afterburner - Black Falcon
WWII - Battle Over the Pacific

I don't do the keyboard thingy, as I use my Logitec PS2 USB controller on those games :)
 
Last edited by AncientBoi,

Scarlet

Editorial Aspirant
Editorial Team
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Jan 7, 2015
Messages
5,524
Trophies
2
Location
Middleish South-Left
Website
scarlet.works
XP
17,900
Country
United Kingdom
I haven't played the game much post-launch but I did review the PS4 release when it came out:
https://gbatemp.net/review/ace-combat-7.942/

Had a really good time with it, and definitely felt better than Assault Horizon on PC. The bulk of my experience comes from the PSP and 3DS games though (which I really loved) so I might be putting 7 on a pedestal on the merits of it being better than the more technically limited entries. Maybe I'll pick it up again myself, pretty sure I bought it on PC a while back.
 

AncientBoi

THEE GAY WARLORD™ - Defender of GAY Rights
Member
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
4,658
Trophies
4
Age
67
Location
Sitting NaKeY w/COFFEE, at Front Door
XP
17,410
Country
United States
I haven't played the game much post-launch but I did review the PS4 release when it came out:
https://gbatemp.net/review/ace-combat-7.942/

Had a really good time with it, and definitely felt better than Assault Horizon on PC. The bulk of my experience comes from the PSP and 3DS games though (which I really loved) so I might be putting 7 on a pedestal on the merits of it being better than the more technically limited entries. Maybe I'll pick it up again myself, pretty sure I bought it on PC a while back.

Thanks for the info @Scarlet :D
 

Kfkboys

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jun 27, 2020
Messages
33
Trophies
0
XP
965
Country
United States
I personally thing this game is absolutely amazing on the switch! Especially after I got HOTAS controls working! Throttle and Flight Stick are 1000% the way to play this game.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BigOnYa and Scarlet

Scarlet

Editorial Aspirant
Editorial Team
GBAtemp Patron
Joined
Jan 7, 2015
Messages
5,524
Trophies
2
Location
Middleish South-Left
Website
scarlet.works
XP
17,900
Country
United Kingdom
I personally thing this game is absolutely amazing on the switch! Especially after I got HOTAS controls working! Throttle and Flight Stick are 1000% the way to play this game.
A very good video below agrees with you!



Super stoked that it’s a good port. The game is fantastic and I’m happy more people get to play it in a great way.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KiiWii

Kfkboys

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jun 27, 2020
Messages
33
Trophies
0
XP
965
Country
United States
Yes! and with the new Sys-Con update, to map the buttons with the flight stick makes it so fun! I don't yet have force feedback but I may need another HOTAS to do that, but I am working with the developer to map it out.
sys-con development
 
  • Love
Reactions: Scarlet

WyattSpence

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jul 26, 2024
Messages
5
Trophies
0
Age
26
XP
9
Country
United States
I played Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, and it's a blast, especially if you enjoyed the PS2 games! The graphics are stunning, and the gameplay is just as engaging as ever. The TopGun Maverick DLC is a fun addition, even if you haven't seen the movie.

Regarding your question about the DLC planes, they’re not just cosmetic. Each plane has different stats and unique special weapons, which can affect your gameplay experience. Some planes might have better speed, agility, or weapon options, giving you more variety and strategic choices in missions.

Given the 80% discount on Steam, it’s definitely worth picking up, especially with the DLC included. Enjoy flying those skies!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Scarlet

Hidori

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
May 7, 2017
Messages
30
Trophies
0
XP
161
Country
Finland
Yes, it's not bad. Ignore the multiplayer aspect, and try the 3 extra DLC missions if you can. I detested the Tech Trees, I'd rather have the kill count from Ace Combat 5, or better yet, unlocking planes like in Ace Combat 4 and Zero. A plane's price gets greatly bloated by the components you need to buy it, and at launch, there were slightly more planes than in Ace Combat 4.
Except that 4 was justified considering the technological leap between PlayStation and PlayStation 2.
By all means try it, it's not too bad, especially now that they've introduced all those planes.
The story, I really disliked it at first, then it grew on me. I still skip most of the cutscenes because those tend to overstay their welcome, and the game's over-reliance on Nostalgia gets on my nerve sometimes (Kestrel 2, really? Can't you do anything new?).

I also don't get how the entirety of the USEA continent is held by Erusea's kingdom, since that was the main plot of Ace combat 4, at that point it looks odd that Osea and ISAF aren't allies. And the usual "IT WAS THE BELKANS" twist felt so shoehorned that it was a great comedic relief. Also, the devs really loved throwing gimmicks after gimmicks only to forget about those gimmicks the very next mission. This may give someone a reason to favour a mission over another, but I'd say that going from Dogfight to Sneaking to Precision Bombing to Hide and Seek all in the span of about 4 missions get boring really fast, it feels like they couldn't keep interest for more than 4 seconds. The best missions, in my opinion, were the closest to vanilla ace combat, Missions 8 and 11, where you're sent to demolish some sap's base. Mission 15 ending's new gimmick gets dropped by Mission 18, that's annoying. They had no consistency, it felt like they had to show all the new gimmicks they came out with during all these years since ACAH nearly killed the franchise. For some reason, half these missions are remakes from the PS2 (and even some AC2) games, while it can be nice if these was a "nostalgic mission pack", it gets boring when basically the whole thing of this game is "remember this? feel old yet?"

It's not that mission list must be as big as AC5, which had around 30 missions, although in most of them were you waiting for something to happen, but it feels like that Project Aces tried to recreate what made Ace Combat 5 at the time so "beloved" by the fans but understanding the wrong lesson from that game. We don't want to wait around for a new set of targets to pop up because you're busy giving me exposition for a game whose story isn't relevant. It's an arcade flying game, all we want to do is blow up shit and look cool while doing it.

About the introduced planes: the bad side is that most of those planes are paid, and what I still can't understand is why the final boss's plane isn't an unlockable. You're telling me that the X-02 has become the new super plane after all these years? Why not give me a prop plane while you're at it, you did it in Infinity, which had so much more than this game, when it comes to details and gameplay things, such as explosion hurting you if you were too close.

And I won't have any of those "entitlement" bs, you know it's a bad faith argument.

tl;dr: decent game, get it for cheap. Namco cheaped out too on this.
Oh, and get that mod that unlocks all the emblems, multiplayer is dead and unlocking stuff for Singleplayer via Multiplayer only is plain dumb. Speaking of which: if you get tired of having all those "multiplayer-only" components, you can get a mod that lets you use those on Singleplayer. You'll finally fly with about 99 missiles again.
 

bonkmaykr

Thinkpad Stickerbomber
Member
Joined
Jul 30, 2021
Messages
258
Trophies
2
Website
bonkmaykr.xyz
XP
616
Country
United States
One of my exes is an Ace Combat fan and says it's good. I'm not too into the series so maybe I'm just missing the point. If you like aimlessly shooting at things for some reason because you're just a plane nerd then it is probably fine but to me the game just seemed very monotonous and if I messed up a divebomb once on the first mission then I'd be forced to restart the entire god damn thing. I personally don't like how they give you a "resume from checkpoint" option and yet the checkpoints are up to 30 minutes apart at best. You might as well just tell me "fuck you, restart the mission". Three missions in and I was burnt out already.

It's not nearly as good as Joint Assault on the PSP. Those missions were shorter and to the point, probably because it's on a portable. I could run the Joint Assault campaign for hours.

Steam summer sale I guess. I still have it in my library as I want to give it another shot, but the piss poor first impressions really turned me away for now.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    Psionic Roshambo @ Psionic Roshambo: Richard Simmons and Gene Simmons should have teamed up for a workout video +1