| Ace Combat: Assault Horizon | |
| |
| Developer(s) | Project Aces |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | Bandai Namco Games |
| Series | Ace Combat |
| Release Date(s) | October 11, 2011 |
| Genre(s) | Air Combat Simulation |
| Mode(s) | Single Player
Multiplayer |
| Platform(s) | Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows |
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is a spin-off installment of the Ace Combat flight simulation video game series. It was developed by Project Aces and published by Bandai Namco Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms in October 2011. The game was later released on Microsoft Windows in January 2013 through Steam and Games for Windows – Live, with the latter notably being the final retail release for the platform shortly before its discontinuation. The title has also been removed from Steam listings.
The major new gameplay feature is a system called "Dogfighting mode" (DFM), which aims to increase the intensity and bring the action closer to the player. The game features two modes of control, named "Optimum", which prevents the player from doing full rolls, and "Original", which gives the players full control of the aircraft. Co-operative missions and free-for-all Deathmatch have returned, but two new modes named "Capital Conquest" and "Domination" were added to the game. This is also the first Ace Combat title with a plot mostly written by non-Japanese writers, with noted author Jim DeFelice at the helm. Set in 2015–2016, the game's story mainly focuses on members of the United Nations' 108th Task Force, a joint NATO-Russia military organization primarily assigned to quell a rebellion spreading over East Africa.
Assault Horizon continued the trend of Ace Combat games set in the real Earth rather than on "Strangereal", the setting for most Ace Combat games. As a result, the game takes place in various regions, including Miami, East Africa, Moscow, and Dubai. The game received a generally positive reception upon release, with critics praising the game's settings, graphics, and the soundtrack. However, some critics criticized the game for having repetitive gameplay and being overly-scripted. More than 1.07 million copies were sold worldwide upon release.
Plot[]
Following a vivid nightmare of being shot down by a Su-35 with "shark mouth" nose art during an attack on Miami, USAF Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop participates in a series of missions with Warwolf Squadron and the 108th against the SRN rebel group in East Africa. After discovering a powerful explosive weapon in the SRN's possession, Warwolf is suddenly attacked by Blatnoi-affiliated traitors from the 108th's Russian contingent, including Andrei Markov, a skilled Russian pilot flying the same plane from Bishop's nightmare who nearly kills him. The Russians withdraw as the SRN attacks a nearby city with their powerful explosive weapon, which the 108th has identified as "Trinity", a Russian thermobaric cruise missile warhead with the power of a tactical nuclear weapon that can be used to inflict WMD-like destruction without resorting to nuclear warfare.
After the 108th defends Dubai from a Blatnoi show-of-force attack and searches associated cargo ships in the Suez Canal, the Blatnoi launches a coup d'état in Russia supported by corrupt Russian Armed Forces officials, including Stagleishov, to form the New Russian Federation. The 108th deploys to support Russian Loyalist forces, and they manage to rescue the Prime Minister of Russia from NRF captivity and prevent NRF-held missile silos from launching ICBMs. The 108th and Russian Loyalists advance to liberate Moscow, but the NRF uses a Trinity missile on the assault force, with a second one inbound; Bishop shoots down the bomber carrying the second Trinity missile and defeats Markov in a dogfight, seemingly killing him.
Stagleishov proposes political immunity in exchange for total surrender and the NRF's last remaining Trinity missile, but Markov, revealed to be alive, kills him and takes control of the NRF, which he mobilizes to attack the United States. Markov is revealed to be seeking revenge for an American airstrike in the Bosnian War that killed his wife. The 108th deploys to defend Miami from a large NRF attack led by Markov on his PAK FA, almost exactly reliving Bishop's nightmare; however, when Markov tries to shoot him down, Guts uses his plane to shield him from Markov's missile, and Bishop manages to shoot out Guts's jammed cockpit so he can eject safely. Bishop pursues Markov to a hurricane off the coast of Florida where Illich, revealed to be working as a sleeper agent and mole for the NRF, sacrifices himself to cover Markov's retreat.
Markov and the remnants of the NRF reemerge to launch a final attack on Washington, D.C.. The NRF pilots use their aircraft to conduct kamikaze attacks against the city's air defenses, clearing the way for Markov to target the White House with the final Trinity missile. Bishop duels Markov, who manages to toss the damaged Trinity missile before being shot down and killed. With the missile gliding toward the White House, Bishop damages it enough for it to veer into the Tidal Basin, where it detonates harmlessly. With the NRF defeated and D.C. saved, Bishop lands at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where he is greeted as a hero.
Gameplay[]
The major new gameplay feature is a system called "Close-Range Assault" (CRA), which aims to increase the intensity and bring the action closer to the player, without the feeling of "shooting at faraway dots" commonly seen in flight games. In the game, it is named "Dogfight Mode" (DFM) for air-to-air battles and "Air Strike Mode" (ASM) for air-to-ground targets. They are not optional, as certain planes and ground targets cannot be destroyed without CRA. To initiate DFM, the player taps LB+RB on the Xbox 360 or L2+R2 on the PS3 when they have gotten close enough to the plane they are targeting. ASM is initiated by pressing the same buttons at specific points around the map.
Unique to Assault Horizon are playable aircraft that are not the fixed-wing jets traditionally focused on by the Ace Combat series: the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit strategic bombers, the AH-64 Apache and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, and the AC-130 Spectre gunship appear as playable aircraft.
Multiplayer[]
[edit] Assault Horizon's multiplayer has been improved since Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. Co-operative missions and free-for-all Deathmatch have returned, but two new modes have been added as well: "Capital Conquest" and "Domination". In Capital Conquest, two teams of 4v4 or 8v8 each take control of their own headquarters, and must destroy the other team's headquarters. First, the transmission base in the center of the map must come under one team's control; once that's accomplished, the team's multi-roles and attackers (and bombers, given the right conditions) can initiate Air Strike Mode to damage the other team's HQ. The first team to destroy the other's HQ wins; if the time limit is reached before an HQ could be destroyed, then the team with the most HQ health remaining wins. On the Ace Combat website, players can join an online faction (one for each capital city featured in Capital Conquest), and any points they receive individually while playing in a certain city will go towards that player's faction's control of that city. Every six weeks, the faction with the most global control wins.
In Domination, two teams of 4v4 or 8v8 battle it out to take control of three different bases in one single city. Taking control of a base is similar to the "King of the Hill" mode in other games; when a base is neutral, one team must stay inside it for a certain amount of time to take it over. The opposing team must destroy the ground targets that now pop up around that base, and then they must stay inside for a certain amount of time to take it over. Every 60 seconds, points are awarded to each team, 1 for each base they control at the time. The team with the most points wins.
Controls[]
[edit] There are two control schemes in the game: "Optimum" and "Original":
- The new "Optimum" control scheme prevents the player from doing full rolls, to gain the stability needed to get the best of the new Close Range Assault system. This is the default mode that has been used in most of the game's media and hasn't been seen in the series.
- The "Original" control scheme is similar to the controls in the previous titles under "Expert". It gives the players full control of the aircraft, with the left stick making it roll instead of turn.
In addition to these settings, there are many options to tweak the controls and adapt to the player's style. It includes the choice of normal or reverse settings for the Pitch Control, Camera Control, Throttle, and Yaw. High-G turns return from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, as well as Auto Pilot if both shoulder buttons are held down. Lastly, the Flight Assistance provides opportunities to players such as Auto-leveling, Automatic Collision Prevention, Automatic Stall Prevention, Sight Assist, and Automatic Forward Target Selection. Flight Assistance can be turned on or off. On the Xbox 360, the game supports the Ace Edge Joysticks released with Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.
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