Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation
By Ian Wilson
Monday. Feb 25, 3:13 PM
Still one of the best in its class.

It's time once again to take to the skies and make sure you and your squadron are the only things there… save for smoke and falling debris. To pummel the land with missiles and bombs until all ground forces remaining are your own. To take back Gracemeria from the clutches of the Estovakians. It's ti… wait, the what from the who?

Ace Combat has been a long running series put out by Namco in which you pilot various real aircraft through a completely fictional Earth (look it up on Wikipedia: it's pretty impressive). Each game focuses on a specific time and place within the world, sometimes happening across the globe, and sometimes in different times throughout history. This time around, it's the work between Estovikia and Emmeria, which to my knowledge hasn't been represented in previous games.

The story, oddly enough, takes place on the ground and has almost no connection to the war you are fighting in the air until the end of the game, at which point the pieces all fit together. It seemed a bit odd to me that characters not directly related to the battles you fly through would be the pivotal ones. I could go into great lengths about the war, thanks to lots of backstory and information available, but this is a review and not a history report (man, I would have loved to turned in a report on the Belkan War to my history teacher, just to see what would have happened).

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation puts you in the cockpit (heh heh… sorry...) of Garuda 1, a lone fighter pilot (callsign Talisman) who rushes to the aid of his homeland city, Gracemeria. Not having a wingman, you are paired up with Shamrock who then becomes Garuda 2. The focus of the game becomes winning back Gracemeria… however, how you execute each mission is almost entirely up to you.

Every mission after the first gives you about three or more (up to six) seperate operations to complete. Each operation is executed at roughly the same time, and each has its own challenges. In the same mission space, you could be bombing ground artillery, taking down enemy fighters, or sinking ships. You can also, in some cases, do both within one operation. Knowing what you are up against is key to succeeding, as is picking the right aircraft and weapons for the job. As you progress through the missions, you'll unlock more craft and more money to purchase special weapons. Due to the length of the game (it's not that long really, but sometimes the missions can drag on, or you might end up retrying a mission several times), I didn't use almost half of the craft available or even a third of the special weapons that could be purchased. These are the few short comings within what is the best Ace Combat game so far.

While you are running these missions, you can send your wingman out on attack or have him cover you. Down enough targets in your operation space, and you'll unlock the ability to call in an Allied Attack or Allied Cover. This is awesome to watch, as all the ships following you and your wingman either fly in at high speed and unleash hell on targets you've selected, or take out any target currently gunning for you. The attacks are limited to the number of fighters in the squadron at your six (oh looky there, fly-boy talk. Now I'm hip!), but in a pinch it's nice to send them after a group of targets while you focus your attacks on others. If that wasn't enough, all their kills count as yours.

I mentioned a few shortcomings before, but left out a key one. This would be the voice acting, which is of course lacking in polish… kind of like the script they are reading from. There are some points that are really nice, mainly the cut scenes, but in the heat of battle, the radio chatter is just... bad. The dialog at many points seems right out of a b-movie, and the characters come off as caricatures instead of the war heroes they are supposed to be. Half the time I wanted to shoot down Garuda 2 and Ghost Eye (recon plane that heads the missions while they are in action) just so I didn't have to hear them. The rest of the sounds are awesome though, and really bring the game to life.

In each mission, as I stated before, there are several operations. These operations add up to your overall score for the mission, which is cataloged along with key fighters you take down and key allies you assist. These scores don't really mean much aside from achievements and bragging rights, as the fighters are unlocked throughout the course of the game. Speaking of unlocking fighters, the best fighter in the game isn't unlocked until you beat the game on Hard (by this time, I had played the game through twice), which of course sets you up for the Expert difficulty. By this point, though, most people will have quit playing. This is another negative (thanks to it being relatively short, especially when you have better planes and have been through the missions a few times) that led me to return the game shortly after unlocking the Nosferatu (previously mention bad-ass final plane).

This brings us to multiplayer, which only worked for me about five times out of the 20 I tried. There are expansions that can be purchased that add to the multiplayer experience (as well as specially tuned aircrafts that can be used in the single player game), but this just makes me feel like I'm paying extra money for a game that I already payed for. What happened to the days when games came as a full package and any extras were given to the people? I miss them, and I'm sure most of the people paying for most MMOs feel the same way (except for those Blizzard Zombies who would shell out anything for their beloved Warcrack). Multiplayer, the first time it's EVER been in an Ace Combat game in the States, seems like a quick extra to make up for the lack of single-player.

All in all, if you really love Ace Combat, then you already have this. If you like fighter planes and lots of missiles, then you should give it a try. There is much room for improvement still, but BanCo (That's what I call Namco Bandai) is on the right track. Let's hope that the future brings more awesome dogfights.

Ian Wilson

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