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Review by pickhut
March 09, 2010
Well, it definitely starts off with a good first impression. The menus have a slick, militaristic look to them, and the briefings actually take you on a ride through its mini 3D maps of missions you'll be joining, a far cry from the overhead sprite maps from Air Combat. On first glance of the starting mission, you can immediately tell the visuals are better than 95% of anything that appeared in its older brother. The messed up thing about that statement, besides calling Air Combat an older brother, is that the mission consists of water and islands. The ocean is actually textured this time, thankfully, so you don't have to worry about crashing when you're flying right above it. The various planes that you get to purchase and fly also don't look like they belong in a circus act, finally receiving paint jobs that make them appear like fighting machines. My favorite would have to be the TND-F3's desert camo design that meshes well with its jet engines, which emit blue heat. The thing looks like a beast, matching its combat abilities.
However, despite these visual improvements, the first two missions had me concerned about Ace Combat 2 as a whole. They were creepily identical to the first two missions in Air Combat: shoot down bombers invading a base, followed by destroying an escort crew. I was afraid that, the more I progressed, this was going to dissolve into the same simplicity of its predecessor.
Thank Pac-Man it didn't.
While, when all's said and done, this is still a game about shooting down targets with jet fighters, Ace Combat 2 approaches the concept much better than Air Combat ever did. Take for example a late mission where the objective is to blow up radars. The catch is that you can't lock on with your missiles, instead forcing you to go in uncomfortably close and hit them with your machine guns. Not one to end there, the developers decided to place some radars in absurdly tight canyons. The only way you'll be able to reach them properly is to make a sharp dive in, then quickly climb back out after their destruction. If this mission was in Air Combat... it would simply be about blowing up radars in the open. With the ability to lock on with missiles. Another mission asks you to annihilate an escort group while your radar is all jacked up. The enemies still pop up on it for a millisecond from time to time, so it's one of those instances where having a lot of patience and focus will lead to victory. Hell, there's instances where you'll have to land your plane on aircraft carriers. Granted, you can only do it twice in the entire game... but it was thoughtful!
Also, as if hunting and destroying your airborne opponents wasn't fun enough already, the developers actually give you an extra incentive for doing this: if you get fighters with special names attached to them, you'll be rewarded with medals and possibly new planes to purchase. It won't be easy, though, because most missions have a hefty number of planes, and they have AI that's an improvement over the one featured in Air Combat. On the Normal difficulty setting, no less. They'll try every trick in an attempt to escape your pursuit, from flying low and slowing down as you speed towards them, to moving erratically and climbing altitudes that can stall your plane if you're not careful. And since you have analog support this time, you can use the Expert control set-up with ironic ease. It's really the only proper way to play, since it'll feel like you're actually flying the plane. And trust me, when you're in missions where both allied and enemy planes fly at every single angle, chasing everyone above canyons, cities, and forests, from dusk to dawn, while an immersed soundtrack plays in the background, you'll need it.
Some of the missions, though, while having good concepts, do come off gimmicky, due to a lack of trying to expand the ideas. There's one mission where you'll need to destroy targets flying at high altitudes (the stratosphere), and since none of your planes available at that time aren't very stable at those heights, it's going to be tough. But because there is a lack of targets to begin with, the mission ends quick. They never give you another mission like this again. It would have been great if this was repeated in a later mission, where you have to fight a boss-type jet fighter in the clouds before it reaches a target.
Those types of issues are minor, fortunately. Some might find fault in the game's length, however, even though it is longer than Air Combat. I would usually agree, but Ace Combat 2 is enjoyable to the point that you can keep replaying and not get tired of it. There's also the various medals you can achieve in missions, which, again, is a challenge in itself. I mean, you can actually run the risk of completely depleting your fuel if you take too long! With all these improvements, as well as the overall enjoyment of the product, I think it's safe to say that Ace Combat 2 didn't break the series.
Rating: 8/10
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Most recent video game reviews written by pickhut
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Golden Axe II (Genesis) [December 19, 2011]
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