By Jono

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Yeah I know, its been awhile and I thought I would come back and do these things again because I enjoyed doing them. Here's my review on Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

The game:
Ace Combat 6 is a combat flight simulator and is the 6th installment of the Ace Combat series. The game was released exclusively for the Xbox 360 on October 23, 2007. The game was developed by Project Aces and was published under Bandai Namco Games.



The story:

The Ace Combat series takes place in fictional Earth setting based on the modern world and Ace Combat 6 continues that tradition. The game takes place in the years 2015-2016. In the story, you are a fighter pilot for the Emmerian Air Force under the name Talisman or Garuda 1, and you are the leader of Garuda Squadron. Your wingman, Shamrock or Garuda 2, will be by your side the entire game. Your character never talks and is never seen so its like you, the player, is actually in this game. Garuda 2 mainly does the talking for you essentially as well as the other squadron leaders.

The story of this game starts out with the country of Estovakia attacking the city of Gracemeria, the capital of the country of Emmeria. This starts an all-out war between the two countries and you will fight the Estovakian Military throughout the whole game. One thing they did about this game was tell stories of two people from their perspective on the war. One is Melissa Herman, who loses her daughter right before the attack starts. Every few missions you’ll get a cutscene what she goes through during the war to try to find her daughter. The other character is an Estovakian Ace Pilot Lt. Col. by the name of Victor Voychek who is in charge of Strigon Team, an elite squadron of some of the best fighter pilots exclusively to Estovakia. You see both Voychek and Melissa go through some rough times and they admit that they both hate this war and want it to end. As you progress through the game, they will begin to talk about you and the rest of Garuda Team on the things you accomplish. I kinda liked this idea, as you see how both the Emmerian and Estovakian people go through this war instead of focusing solely on you.

Before each mission, you go through the mission briefing to see what you are up against and what you are supposed to do in the mission. After that, you can choose to customize, buy aircraft, and buy weapons in the Hangar. Jets, weapons, and skins cost credits and you acquire credits after you complete a mission. The F-16 is the first jet you have and you will have to use that jet for some time before you can purchase a new one. Each jet has their strengths and weaknesses making them all feel different and not the same. Each jet has their own stats with them so you can see how many enemies you’ve killed with a jet, distance travelled, and time in flight etc. One thing I disliked was that you don’t unlock any jets for like the first 4 missions so you’re stuck with the F-16 for some time. After that, you begin to unlock new jets after every mission. Notable favorites of mine were the F-15 Eagle, F-22, A-10 Thunderbolt, F-14, and CFA-44 Nosferatu. When you start a mission, you pick your jet and your special weapon that goes with it. You can choose between various different types of weapons and they are all different depending on the aircraft. For example, you can equip wing-mounted rocket launchers on the A-10 but not another jet like the F-15. You also pick the jet your wingman Garuda 2 flies and you can pick his special weapons also.


There is a total of 15 missions in the single-player. There are some missions that are fun to do like Anea Landing and San Loma Assault and there are missions that will make you rage, especially the Dead Sea mission where you have to destroy the Aigaion. The Aigaion is this massive aircraft that is a bomber and flying aircraft carrier. You have to destroy the Aigaion, a bunch of smaller ships that look like it, and Strigon Team all in one mission without dying once. It took me quite some time to complete that mission because it was extremely difficult. Some of these missions take some time to finish as it may take up to an hour to beat some of them. I especially loved the Anea Landing mission because it was like D-Day. That mission was the one I replayed the most.

Here's what the Aigaion is and how massive it is compared to other aircraft.



Gameplay:
Obviously you’re going to be flying jets the entire time you play this game, but here’s what to expect:


- There are 4 main things you need to concentrate on when flying your jet. The map, the Target ID screen, jet wireframe(detects damage), and ammo count. The map tells you where everything is from objectives, friendly units, enemy units, and enemy missiles. The Target ID screen is in the top left and is extremely useful. It tells you where your target is, how much damage they’ve taken, and what type of target is it. You can always change it by switching targets manually. The jet wireframe is a picture of your jet and it will begin to turn different colors if you begin to take damage. The ammo count is on the bottom left tells you how much ammunition you have and lets you know when missiles/bombs are ready to be deployed.

- The game has 5 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert, and Ace. Expert can only be unlocked by beating the game on Hard and Expert unlocks Ace. I unlocked Expert but never played it. I would assume your jet goes down with 1 hit and you’re constantly having to dodge missiles the whole time.

- You have an almost freedom of flight in this game. The maximum altitude you could fly up to is somewhere around 40,000 feet. After you hit the ceiling, your jet stalls and you’re immediately sent straight downward to an acceptable altitude position. The AI is also affected by this too so it’s a pretty good way to avoid danger. When you reach the edge of the map, you get a prompt saying “Turn Back” and if you keep going, the game teleports you in the right direction.

- There are no flares to deploy when missiles are being locked-on to you so you gotta dodge them on your own. Your companions will also let you know if you’re being targeted or in danger. The map will also help out, as it will track every missile being fired from allies and enemies.

Graphics:
The graphics are pretty good. All of the jets are detailed pretty nicely and the environments are done rather well. The only downside of the game is the graphics detail on the ground when flying over cities.


Soundtrack:
The Ace Combat games are known to have some great music and Ace Combat 6 does not disappoint. There are some quality gems here and every once in a while I’ll come back and listen to a few tracks. If I was a fighter pilot, this would be the music I’d listen to while flying.

Here are some of my favorites:






Extra Content:
The CFA-44 is the hidden unlockable jet, fits with its very own special weapons including a rail gun and advanced missiles.

Ace Combat 6 has DLC and it varies from jet skins, extra co-op missions, and the Aces of Aces difficulty level. Some of the DLC is free and some of it you have to buy but nothing is all that expensive. Some Jet skins are around $2 each and the co-op missions and Aces of Aces is free. You can even buy the secret jet, the CFA-44 via DLC or unlock it by beating the game on Hard.

The game has multiplayer with up to 16 people and has co-op missions with up to 4 players. In multiplayer the game modes are Battle Royale, Siege Battle, and Team Battle. Battle Royale is straight up free-for-all deathmatch. Team Battle is team deathmatch. Siege Battle is two teams, defenders and attackers. The attackers must destroy a target that’s heavily protected and the defenders must fight off the attackers.

The co-op missions are missions that are based on some of the important campaign levels but with their own twist to them and extra objectives to complete. They can be played with up to 4 people and you will need all 4 people to help because these can be rather difficult as you have to complete them in a certain amount of time.

The Assault Records return to Ace Combat 6. You can get all the allied assault records by completing all operations with a particular unit. For example, in order to get the record for the Quox Tank Battalion, you have to complete all operations that include them. For the enemies, shooting down a certain enemy will unlock his/her battle record. Certain named planes or Aces and all Strigon Team pilots have their own assault records.


Final Verdict:
I’ve played Ace Combat games before at my cousin’s house. Ace Combat 4 and 5 were the ones he had. I’ve heard that Ace Combat 5 is considered the best one in the whole series but I never had the chance to fully experience the game for myself. Ace Combat 6 was the one that I actually sat down and had the time to play it and I enjoyed the game so much, everything about it I liked.

I give Ace Combat 6 an 8.5/10. It’s a solid game and its extremely fun to play. I hope there will be a new Ace Combat that will come out soon. Its been awhile since one was released.