Author: scharfschutze
Type: PS2 Game
Released: 2004
Designer: Namco
Publisher: Namco
Genre: Air combat game
Like a shooting star, your Su-35 "Super Flanker" streaks across the night sky, loaded with long-range air-to-air missiles in addition to your dogfighting missiles and your cannon. Right on schedule, your first target comes into range - a pair of heavy bombers making for an allied airbase. The constant whine of a lock-on fills your ears, and you pull the trigger, sending two missiles towards their hapless targets. A buzzing noise announces that an enemy craft is attempting to lock onto you, and you pull your aircraft into an immediate evasive dive, slipping between two buildings. A missile streaks harmlessly by your aircraft as you swing out of the dive. Your hapless pursuer has pulled out of his turn right in front of you. Two short-range missiles make short work of him, and his burning aircraft falls from the sky. Your AWACS controller barks "Splash one! Splash one!" You readjust your aircraft's heading, and the mission carries on.
The fast-paced, adrenaline-filled world of air-to-air combat has long been a popular topic for gaming designers. The genre has long been divided into two sections: simulators, which contain every tiny detail of flying a high-performance aircraft; and arcade games, which indulge the player's desires for aerial destruction with little attention paid to realistic technicalities. Both games have their merit, with arcade games being infinitely easier to play, but simulators providing a much grater variety of aircraft, as well as providing much more subtle comparisons between varying performances. With its Ace Combat series, Namco has long attempted to blend the ease of play and fast pace of arcade-style games with the realism of simulators, and package it all within an over-arching storyline.
Having not played the preceding games in the series at the time of writing, I can't compare Ace Combat 4 to its predecessors, but it certainly fills all the above criteria. The Ace Combat series takes place in a completely invented world, and no explanation is given or required as to why modern jet fighters are being used in completely made-up scenarios. In Ace Combat 4, the battles take place on the continent of Usea. After constructing a device to shoot down meteors that were menacing the continent, the nation of Erusia discovered that their asteroid-buster Stonehenge possessed incredible capability as an anti-aircraft weapon. They've since occupied almost all of the continent, and all that stands in their way is a single island, on which the ragged remnants of the Independent States Allied Forces (ISAF) have dug in and prepared to weather the assault. This is where you come in. You take command of a single unnamed pilot with the callsign Mobius One. At the beginning of the game, you're just one of many hastily-trained recruits sent into battle against a vastly superior foe; by the end of the game, if you've survived, you have become one of the greatest fighter pilots in this invented world's history. Along the way, you get to blow things up with some pretty impressive firepower.
Ace Combat 4 has a total of 18 different aircraft available, plus one unlockable aircraft and unlockable colour schemes for most aircraft. These range from the aged but deadly F-4 Phantom II strike fighter, all the way to the agile and stealthy Su-47 Berkut air superiority fighter. Each aircraft possesses independently designed characteristics, with the end result that each plane behaves in a unique fashion. Each plane also possesses either two or three different secondary loads, ranging from simple unguided bombs of varying sizes all the way to long-range guided missiles. You can only carry one secondary load, in addition to your short-range missiles and cannon, and you must pick the right ordnance for the mission. This system, while not entirely realistically portraying the sheer number of ordnance types modern aircraft can carry, is an excellent compromise between the fast pace of an arcade game and the realism of a simulator. Each aircraft carries an unrealistic amount of missiles (anywhere from 60-90 short-range "basic" missiles and up to 30 bombs or other secondary weapons), but you can only fire so many of them at a time before having to wait for them to "recharge". And if you do run out of missiles (which can often happen in the longer missions), you can return either to an airbase or an aircraft carrier, depending on the mission; once landed, you are partially repaired, reloaded, and (if you desire) you can change which secondary weapon you're packing.
The missions themselves are varied and well thought-out, ranging from simple "shoot-'em-all-down" missions through long-range strike missions and close air support, with a few escort missions thrown in for good measure. The maps are varied and well-designed; although it is an air combat game, the terrain plays a very important role, as you can duck through canyons, cities, and even underneath offshore oil rigs. The altitude of the terrain also plays a giant role in several missions which pit you not only against the enemy's air forces and ground troops, but against the devastating attacks of Stonehenge as well. Against these weapons, there is only one defence: fly low and stay there. The modelling of terrain is somewhat odd, with skyscrapers and other large terrain features modelled, but forests and most buildings simply flat sprites on the map. It leads to failings in look the closer to the ground you get; however, it certainly looks real enough when you're dogfighting 14,000 feet up.
The AI is the real place where flaws in Ace Combat 4 come up. For example, you often fly with allied aircraft, but there is no system to control or interact with them; they're simply there to take fire and steal kills. As a result, the AI of these pilots is not very well designed. They don't engage in any sort of advanced manoeuvring, they don't hold a formation, and they are generally a nuisance. Luckily, you can't crash into them - Ace Combat 4's system assumes that there is ALWAYS at least a tiny margin of space between you and another aircraft. By comparison, the AI of enemy fighters varies with the pilot, mission, and difficulty level, with the first mission's bomber escort fighters being a cakewalk at any difficulty; on the other hand, no matter what difficulty you're playing at, the enemy's elite Yellow Squadron are vicious dogfighters who routinely pull very nasty manoeuvres to get rid of you.
The storyline is quite interesting, and told in a rather unique way. Instead of telling the story of your character (a pilot who is never actually defined in any detail), the storyline follows a child whose hometown is occupied by the Erusians at the start of the war. His story (told through the cutscenes) and your story (told through the gameplay) move separately, but at some points (I won't tell you when) intertwine. Need I say more? In the interests of keeping the story interesting, I think not!
Ace Combat 4's graphics blew me away when I first saw them; three years later, they're still more than adequate to the game's mechanics. The planes are all extremely well modelled, with fully-operating flaps and airbrakes, and landing gear that moves exactly as it should. The contrails of the missiles and the burning aircraft make combat a pleasure to engage in. However, the terrain problem can be a bit of detriment.
Effects: 9.5/10Missile contrails, cannon tracers, lights, and noise all make their way into this category, and in almost every aspect, Ace Combat 4 truly pulls you into the cockpit. The only detriments to this category are the somewhat odd physics of the game's shadows, and the fact that the explosions seem a tad underdeveloped.
Gameplay: 10/10There are absolutely no complaints about Ace Combat 4's gameplay. Every element of the game meshes together to create an absolutely enjoyable gaming experience.
Replayability: 8/10As with most PS2 games, there are somewhat limited replay modes for Ace Combat 4, although there is a reasonably well-developed two-player deathmatch mode. But the 18 different aircraft and their accompanying special weapons make the game quite enjoyable to play over again in single player.
Overall: 9/10Ace Combat is one of the best air combat games ever created. It has an almost seemless mesh of simulation and arcade-style combat that keeps you coming back for more even after the mission is over. It's a surefire hit with anyone who enjoys air combat games of any sort.