Gamertell

Product: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
Price: $59.99
System(s): Xbox 360
Rating: 7.1/10
Publisher (Developer): Namco Bandai Games
ESRB Rating: “Teen”
Pros: Solid gameplay, great graphics, continuation of great franchise
Cons: Not much replay value or variety of gameplay
Overall: A good flight simulator that you’ll think is 68-73% awesome

Like many young children, I dreamt of becoming a fighter pilot. To be able to transcend the limits of gravity and soar amongst the clouds, surely there could be no greater experience than this. LEGO kits would constantly be assembled into futuristic fighter jets, and grandparents were always telling my cousins and I to slow down as we tore around the house, propelling our imaginative planes with less-than-aerodynamic sprinting.

The dream lasted until I realized what a god-awful amount of work it would take, and that the end result would likely involve a lot of killing. Not my bag. Luckily, the poor bastards who did end up becoming pilots had to train on flight simulators first, and so now we have them. Regardless of how you feel about the military, they do come up with some pretty cool ####.

The evolution of commercial flight simulators ranges from the utilitarian training genre to this year’s super slick 360 release, Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. There are many interesting stops along the way, including a healthy dose of Star Wars related material, but Bandai Namco’s latest chapter in the Ace Combat franchise is a fair indicator of where the genre sits today. Interestingly, it’s actually the ninth installment; the first eight were published on other consoles (PS1, PS2, GBA, and PSP.) They’ve dressed it up a bit for Gates and his cronies but it’s essentially the same gaming experience, only with more drool.

Design: 8.0/10 If you’ve ever played any other game by either Namco or Bandai you will recognize the straight-to-the-point game design. It is definitely the “only do one thing but do it well” approach, and they succeed here wonderfully. All of the previous Ace Combat games feature planes and conflicts loosely rooted in history, and Fires of Liberation follows that path doggedly. Aircraft buffs will recognize the real life counterparts of the F-16C, A-10A, F117A and F-14D planes. And yes, the variable geometry wings on the F-14 sweep back at higher speeds. Tom Cruise wig not included.

The planes are all wonderfully modeled, and the designers really opened up the graphics for the game’s first appearance on the 360. Lens flares skip off cockpit windows and condensation forms in the slipstream for high-G turns. They pulled out all the stops for this one, including satellite imaging for the terrain. Imagine flying over a section of Google-Earth but with clouds and surface-to-air-missile sites too.

Control of the aircraft is necessarily dumbed down for console flight sims. There’s just no way you could accurately transfer the complex control system for a real fighter jet to the 360 controller. There are no flares or chaff for example, key defensive tools for real jet pilots. The left and right bumpers control yaw but there’s a setting which will let you bypass that as well if you’ve absolutely no idea how an aircraft stays in the air. (Read a book, for ####’s goodness’ sake.)

Every plane gets three weapons systems, a default missile and gun emplacement and a special ordinance that varies by aircraft. Missile guidance systems are mysteriously crappy for enemy planes but almost always work for you if you’re on the right attack vector. The special weapons generally possess longer ranges and more badass-ery but lack universal targeting, meaning you can target either ground or air units but not both. The exception to this rule is the ADMM system for the CFA-44 Nosferatu, the game’s centerpiece plane. Its missile system could target Christ’s left testicle if asked. More on the vampire later.

Features: 6.5/10 Versatility is the most challenging obstacle to overcome for any game company, and Ace Combat 6 runs aground here. There exists an almost unquenchable thirst for innovative game experience in today’s market, and this is where many of the hot titles are coming up short. Some do better than others, but overall there seems to be a limited number of ways that you can play a next-generation game.

Ace Combat Six has one universal rule: fly fast. It’s great heaping bunches of fun, but the right-hand seizes up every now and then because it’s always pulling down the right trigger, which is the afterburn. The cruising spees of each aircraft varies, but each is universally prone to missile attacks which are fatal at any of the harder difficulty levels. And there are six of them. Why are there six difficulty levels? Because the only way you’d replay the game was if it was just a bit harder. That, plus you can only unlock the Nosferatu by beating the game on the harder difficulty levels.

There are a few nice little bells on this game that keep it interesting, mind you. Mid-air refueling and carrier landings are pretty neat. There’s a playback feature, but the camera angles are all preset. There’s a music player that lets you play the tracks from the game, but it’s pretty standard fare. The exceptions are the tracks from the very last level—they’re actually pretty good, if you’re willing to sit down and listen to them. Which most people aren’t.

The most interesting feature is the free flight option, which allows you to play any of the fifteen missions without having to worry about getting shot at. Some of the landscapes are truly breathtaking and are worth a look just by themselves. The canyon levels are especially well done, and this mode of gameplay is certainly a nod to the young aspiring pilot.

Performance: 7.5/10 Again, the game only does one thing, but it does it well. No bugs or slow frame rates, just solid flight simulation from start to finish. Each plane has a rating pentagon (very similar to Chromehounds) that gauges stability, defense, mobility, speed, air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. Planes with low stability are easy to stall and planes with high mobility turn on a dime. The offensive ratings of each plane are naturally relative to the skill of the pilot, but everything else is spot on.

Performance wise, the CFA-44 Nosferatu is by far the best plane. It’s the aircraft that Ace Combat 6 is meant to be played with, and the only one that will pass muster at the hardest difficulty settings. Lacking only in defense and stability, the Nosferatu sports a sleek profile with a set of ailerons by the cockpit that look like the collar on Count Dracula’s infamous cape. The plane is huge, fast, and the aforementioned special weapon fires twelve warheads that track 360 degrees. It’s literally a winged demon.

Overall:  7.1/10 Ace Combat Six: Fires of Liberation loses points for not having a whole lot of “there” there, if you know what I mean, but it’s still a solid little game. Fans of the genre will enjoy sinking their teeth into one of the few console games that offers up a decent flight simulation. First timers will enjoy the gentle learning curve and helpful tutorials. Hardcore flight enthusiasts will lament the absence of flap controls but will eventually have a good time after overcoming their central issue, which is washing out of flight school.

Part of the reason this game is getting panned is because the story isn’t what you would call deathless prose. The gorgeous detailing that went into the planes was conspicuously absent from both the voice acting and the plot. The enemy pilots are cooler than the good guys, but still not nearly as cool as the pilots in Top Gun, which should give you a pretty good idea. All in all, these are some of the most effeminate and whiny fighter pilots ever imagined.

The best part of this game (besides a mid-to-highly awesome unlockable gamer pic) is that it’s the one that comes the closest to those childhood playtimes where we dreamed of taking to the skies. Nothing can compare with the power of the imagination, but I found myself running free flights over and over again, seeing if I could fly underneath the bridge that spans the first level bay. It’s fun to blow things up, but there’s nothing like tearing a fighter jet through a 200-meter gap at supersonic speeds. And that’s precisely why they won’t let me fly a real one.

Read [Xbox 360]