Ace Combat 7

I don’t really know how to begin this text. I’ve never had any emotional connection or interest in planes before. I don’t care about them. But this game changed something in me… maybe it fed some autistic obsession I didn’t know was there? I felt the same with the Cyberpunk genre before watching the anime, then I got hooked. I felt the same with mechs before playing Armored Core 6, then I got hooked again. This time it’s planes.

Specifically…

Jets.

I didn’t know anything about the Ace Combat games before playing this. I didn’t even know the franchise existed. I found it from watching a Youtuber by the name of “MarcoMeatball”. An opera singer game nerd, who reviews music from different games and provides some opinions based on his career. A lot of the music that popped up on his channel came from Ace Combat, and I was surprised at how good it was. A game about planes had music on par with some of the best soundtracks I’ve heard – it’s insane.

I randomly found the game on sale, and me absolutely loving videogame music decided to give it a shot – and now I’m here…

The game has you take control of an ace pilot called “Trigger”. You fly through missions ranging from dogfights in the clouds to total domination and carpet bombings of land units. It’s very arcady in its controls, and overall the game has you fall in love with the “fantasy” of dog fighting, rather than the realism. Not that there’s a lack of details; the game looks absolutely stunning, the clouds feel real, there’s a lot of effects that take place in relation to weather and g-force, and the planes you control come from real life. It takes the important details to realism and keeps them, and throws out the rest. It lets the game feel extremely fun, but keeps the immersion.

And immersion is something this game did extremely well.

There were multiple moments where I got goosebumps playing. The music kicking in, me and dozens of enemies flying across the skies, in all sorts of weather. The voices of both comrades and enemies singing you praises through the radios. In terms of an epic experience it stands on top alongside the greatest in the media.

This is also one of the few games where I wish it was longer. I often bitch & moan about games “overstaying their welcome”, but this one left way too early. The first thing I did after beating it was look up where to buy the other games, and binge “retrospectives” on Youtube for hours. The game had a fair difficulty too. I didn’t dare to play it on something higher than “normal” since I’m new to this genre, but looking back I truly wished I opted in for a higher difficulty. I still enjoyed it quite a bit, and certain levels felt really punishing and stressful. But starting the game on “hard” would’ve probably dialed the experience up to an eleven.

I didn’t expect me to feel this attached to metal vehicles in the sky, but I do. I’ve recommended the game to all my friends, to the point where they don’t want to hear me talk about it anymore. It’s absolutely one of my top games this year, so far. 9/10!