So after spending the weekend with the game, here's my final thoughts (all spoiled to protect the innocent).
Non-spoilery opinion: Game good. Go buy. Flat doggo is best doggo.
I'm not going to talk about the gameplay much in here; it's polished to a degree that only a team that hasn't done anything but games like this for a long time can do.
Storywise, this continues AC's trend of being like "What if Metal Gear Solid, but with airplanes?"; This game's theme, oddly enough, is nostalgia. At one point, one of your enemies says "As long as you're here, this country will never know peace!", and I am almost certain that this is a statement directed at us players just as much as it is directed at the characters involved. Nostalgia comes into play via the enemy ace's desire to keep flying forever, despite his failing body; he takes part in a project to upload his skills to an AI just so that a part of him can keep flying forever. The world is plunged into chaos, wars devastate nations, all because one man doesn't want to stop flying -- and again, I can't help but feel that, on some level, this is a representation of us fans: We too want to keep flying forever, but because we do, Strangereal is plunged into war again and again, over and over (Fun fact: Ace Combat X, which is actually a really good AC, takes place only a few months after the end of AC7!).
There are also undercurrents from AC Zero resurfacing -- In that game, your friend-nemesis Pixy talks about borders and how they're invisible, unnecessary and harmful, thoughts directly echoed by characters in this game. In this, several characters echo those feelings; even the takeoff sequence of the last mission gets in on it. It's baked into the backstory of the war, with a refugee crisis being one of the instigating factors, Osea's imperialism making everything worse despite best intentions (like, seriously, there's some backstory about the space elevator and how it was borne out of a genuine desire to help but how it ended up making things a LOT worse) being the other.
It's a complex story, y'all.
But it is being told ... suboptimally, I feel. At several points, I felt like watching a movie that's been edited badly. Characters enter and leave the narrative, scenes end and begin, and there's not much rhythm to it all. The war progress is unclear, and unlike AC04, we do not have the benefit of a "ground level" POV to see what it's like to be caught up in it. The script and translation (despite the best efforts of the voice cast) make me wish I knew Japanese; Maybe in that language with its own cultural concepts, the lines flow better than they do in english.
Regardless, it is SO ****ING GOOD TO BE BACK IN STRANGEREAL. I WANT MORE. GIMME MORE. GIVE PLANES NAO, KONO-SAMA!
Re: Osean motivations, I feel like that's being way too harsh. No body MADE the idiot Eurseans rearm and try to settle old scores after their last disastrous, insane war which nearly ENDED THE WORLD via asteroid impacts. They were chomping at the bit to rearm with Belkan tech and settle old injuries perceived and otherwise.
Also, the Oseans play dirty real politik with the best of them, but this game was shocking in that there was no "magical" third front forming around 444 squadron fighting extremists on both sides like in 5. If anything, it was intentionally averted. The Princess is the one who got played for a chump, and her people and the rest of the Useans suffered again for it.
So um, has any one tried "Rescue" with a Mig 21 sporting double guns? I wonder how it resolves if you don't Fox at all. :P
I didn't try that but the next mission if you abuse the guns like I did they comment that you must have used the guns to do what you did.
So um, has any one tried "Rescue" with a Mig 21 sporting double guns? I wonder how it resolves if you don't Fox at all. :P
I didn't try that but the next mission if you abuse the guns like I did they comment that you must have used the guns to do what you did.
I flew the mission again only making gun runs around the Osprey and a missile comes flying in from a third party to pop Harling, I kinda want to hunt down the JAG officers and hang them off my F-15E rails after that.
So I finished the campaign and have started dipping my toes in the multi. The campaign was fun overall with the derpy story I expected, plus I got to fight Big Boss. Missions were varied and enjoyable with only a few being frustrating (Mostly due to time restrictions or not having an optimal aircraft unlocked for the mission profile).
Mechanics wise, while I realize Ace Combat is about spamming ordinance like it's a Macross series, I seem to recall being able to have proper dogfights against AI in AC6 and ACAH(minus the silly rails QTEs). For example I could load up Invasion of Gracemeria and so long as I didn't trip Strigon Team's arrival I could fly in the Merge for days. In AC7 it seems like no matter how much I brake or maneuver I cannot stay slotted in on an AI's six and constantly overshoot. Also I don't know if its an artifact of the upgrade system but the guns seem really anemic in this version. Because of this I end up having to rely on arcade spam and dance gameplay instead of treating it like the really dumbed down Sim I could with previous titles. Though I concede I could setup the old console and find I'm misremembering things and just full of ****. I also wish they added the strangereal Special Weapons as a fourth choice rather than remove some of the older loadout options. Death lasers are nice and all but I find I miss having Mavericks/SAAM/ect on certain aircraft. Minor gripe is not being able to assign multiple emblems to different places in the plane customization, separate tail art at least would be a big step up.
Multi is kinda fun, though it typically devolves into a repetitive cluster flock. I've been having some luck using BnZ with SASMs, its easier to catch someone not in a wild turn and the SASMs at least get a little chip damage which adds up over the match. The Devs missed a lot of opportunity by not having some objective modes in the larger maps, most of the strike aircraft are pretty useless in multi without something to bomb. Having some strike targets to attack/defend would add a little dynamism from the typical furball QAAM meta.
Anyway time to get thrown in solitary!
So um, has any one tried "Rescue" with a Mig 21 sporting double guns? I wonder how it resolves if you don't Fox at all. :P
I didn't try that but the next mission if you abuse the guns like I did they comment that you must have used the guns to do what you did.
I flew the mission again only making gun runs around the Osprey and a missile comes flying in from a third party to pop Harling, I kinda want to hunt down the JAG officers and hang them off my F-15E rails after that.
So I finished the campaign and have started dipping my toes in the multi. The campaign was fun overall with the derpy story I expected, plus I got to fight Big Boss. Missions were varied and enjoyable with only a few being frustrating (Mostly due to time restrictions or not having an optimal aircraft unlocked for the mission profile).
Mechanics wise, while I realize Ace Combat is about spamming ordinance like it's a Macross series, I seem to recall being able to have proper dogfights against AI in AC6 and ACAH(minus the silly rails QTEs). For example I could load up Invasion of Gracemeria and so long as I didn't trip Strigon Team's arrival I could fly in the Merge for days. In AC7 it seems like no matter how much I brake or maneuver I cannot stay slotted in on an AI's six and constantly overshoot. Also I don't know if its an artifact of the upgrade system but the guns seem really anemic in this version. Because of this I end up having to rely on arcade spam and dance gameplay instead of treating it like the really dumbed down Sim I could with previous titles. Though I concede I could setup the old console and find I'm misremembering things and just full of ****. I also wish they added the strangereal Special Weapons as a fourth choice rather than remove some of the older loadout options. Death lasers are nice and all but I find I miss having Mavericks/SAAM/ect on certain aircraft. Minor gripe is not being able to assign multiple emblems to different places in the plane customization, separate tail art at least would be a big step up.
Multi is kinda fun, though it typically devolves into a repetitive cluster flock. I've been having some luck using BnZ with SASMs, its easier to catch someone not in a wild turn and the SASMs at least get a little chip damage which adds up over the match. The Devs missed a lot of opportunity by not having some objective modes in the larger maps, most of the strike aircraft are pretty useless in multi without something to bomb. Having some strike targets to attack/defend would add a little dynamism from the typical furball QAAM meta.
Anyway time to get thrown in solitary!
Some maps allow to abuse the clouds quite a bit and there seem surprisingly few pilots following me under the clouds on the Alps map, though once I get the remaingin three victories in team deathmatch required for the last MP medal I'll finish the single player on normal, then do easy Vulcan-only (there is a medal for that I gather) because apparently the achievement for all difficulties doesn't unlock if you don't play it on easy too and then I'll work my way through all the single player medals and achievements remaining (I'm at 34 out of 49 currently done mission 16).