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Author: scharfschutze

Type: PS2 Game

Released: 2004

Designer: Namco

Publisher: Namco

Genre: Air combat game

Scramble! Scramble!

Your island airbase has come under attack by enemy aircraft. Even as your plane warms up on the tarmac, you can see your squadron mates blasted from the sky by the escort fighters, while enemy bombers pound the base's buildings and parked aircraft. Your wingman curses as his turbines sputter, before he finally coaxes his aircraft onto the runway. You follow suit, even as a row of aircraft behind you, preparing to take off, are smashed to pieces by enemy attacks. Your squadron mechanic gives you the word: the first enemy wave has passed by. It's time to get back into the fight. Your afterburners roar, your radar hums, and your aircraft claws its way into the sky. Time to get to work. The first enemy fighter pulls into view, unaware that you've managed to take off. A heat-seeking missile smashes into his belly in a cruel "heads-up", and his damaged plane smashes into the sea. Two more fighters, suddenly aware of your presence, manoeuvre into position behind you only to be shot down by your wingmen, diligently covering your six o'clock. Even as the remaining escort fighters wade into the fight, attempting to stop you, you get a visual on the first enemy bomber. Two heat-seekers and a hail of bullets send him down in flames. Your base controller, manning his post even under fire, warns you that a second wave is inbound. You adjust your heading; barking an order for your wingmen to form up alongside you, you prepare to meet the new threat head-on.

Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War is the successor to 2002's smash hit Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies. A continuation of the most successful console-based air-combat series, Ace Combat 5 takes the best elements of Shattered Skies, adds a few new elements to gameplay, and updates the visually stunning engine of Ace Combat 4 to a new level. Plus, the new game supports PS2 joysticks (although I didn't find this out until much later, much to my chagrin)!

For starters, you now have fully interactive wingmen for the first time in the Ace Combat series. In Ace Combat 4 and previously, there were other aircraft on your side that flew alongside you, but they only really existed to steal kills and take fire. In Ace Combat 5, these allies are still present, but you will also have either two or three wingmen (depending on the mission) to command. These pilots remain with you throughout the campaign, furthering the storyline but also adding their skills to your mission. The most useful element of these wingmen is the shared victory score: in missions that require a certain number of "points" to be scored in a set timeframe, your wingmen's kills are added to your total. Also, every kill they score is added to the score of the aircraft they're flying, making unlocking new aircraft even easier (more on that later). They allow the missions to be spread out over a much wider area. Since this is a console game, the commands available to you are fairly limited (compared to a PC game), but they tend to cover all the bases. The Attack command, when given, focuses their attacks on targets in front of you; the continuous effect of this order is that your wingmen tend to gang up on targets generally along your flight path. Giving your wingmen the Disperse order is most effective when facing generally weak but widely spread-out enemies; each of your wingmen will head off on a generally different heading to engage enemies on their own. The Cover Me order tells your wingmen to do just that; they will focus on targets directly behind you, showing a preference for targets that are directly engaging you. You also have the option of allowing or prohibiting the use of secondary weapons. This command is most effective in missions where certain targets need to be destroyed, but you want to maximise your kill scores before ending the mission; ordering your wingmen to reserve their special weapons will prevent them from using often-powerful weapons on these targets. Your wingmen can't be killed except in certain circumstances (usually mission-defined), but if they take too many hits, their effectiveness will degrade. Keeping them covered is thus a useful, but not necessary, consideration.

In Ace Combat 4, there were 18 flyable aircraft. In Ace Combat 5, there are almost 50 aircraft available for purchase and use. As well, you can purchase up to four individual aircraft of any one type, enough to equip your entire detachment; before a mission, you decide the specific aircraft being flown by yourself AND your wingmen. Like in Ace Combat 4, aircraft are unlocked for purchase both based on the point in the campaign and also whether or not you have faced the specific type in combat. However, not all aircraft can be unlocked in this manner. Many aircraft are set up in "trees" based on a single aircraft. For example, the Su-27 "Flanker" is automatically unlocked as the campaign progresses, but filling up its "kill bar" by repeated use is the only way to unlock the Su-32 "Strike Flanker" and the Su-35 "Super Flanker"; further use of the "Super Flanker" is required to unlock the Su-37 "Terminator", the ultimate fighter in the "Flanker" line. Paint schemes have been refined as well. In Ace Combat 4, you had to purchase a brand-new aircraft with each separate scheme; in Ace Combat 5, you don't. There are three schemes: Osean (OS), the basic scheme that every aircraft has when you first buy it; Razgriz (RZ), a black/red scheme that all aircraft receive after a certain point in the campaign; and the final scheme. The final scheme is either Yuktobanian (YK), Belkan (BL), or Special (SP). YK and BL schemes are unlocked when you shoot down an aircraft of that specific type in use by the enemy; SP schemes are unlocked by shooting down "ace" aircraft that only appear in Normal difficulty and above. You can switch instantly to any scheme you have unlocked. There are two secret aircraft in addition to all the unlockable planes, but they require special conditions to be met before being available. The only downside to Ace Combat 5's aircraft system is the fact that aircraft no longer have selectable secondary weapons; each of the 50 aircraft have a specific secondary load that cannot be changed. That said, the available weapons are even more varied than in Ace Combat 4, and are better tailored to each aircraft's specific capabilities.

Graphically, the game has improved immensely. Trees are no longer simple sprites on the landscape, but are fully present objects. Granted, you can't actually run into them, but they can often obscure a sudden rise in the terrain that you CAN crash into, making low-level flight that much hairier. More buildings are fully modelled than in Ace Combat 4, including smaller-sized skyscrapers, airport terminals, and even stadiums. The effects of smoke and tracers have also greatly improved.

Compared to Ace Combat 5, both the storyline itself and the method in which it plays out is vastly different. Unlike Shattered Skies, there are actual rendered cutscenes that tell the story between missions; also unlike Ace Combat 4, the storyline almost directly deals with you and your squadron, instead of simply offering a parallel interpretation of events. The storyline of Ace Combat 4 was good; the story of Ace Combat 5 is excellent, with twists and turns throughout. To top it off, there are two points where "alternate" missions are available, and your response to questions asked of you during a mission affect which direction you take. The missions have vastly different objectives, ranging from blasting through a fortress, providing close air support to ground forces, or even ceremonial flights on the home front. In addition to landing (which now occurs in specific, mission-scripted circumstances and now adds to mission victory totals), you can now engage in mid-air refuelling, a hairy but potentially rewarding (point-wise) experience.