pickhut's Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War review

I was a bit disoriented early, because you suddenly start talking about how AC4 is all action and go on to discuss its plot. It's hard to tell when you are done talking about AC4 and when exactly you pick up with AC5.

However, this review for some reason is making me want to try this series. Perhaps it's because you do such a great job of incorporating charcter descriptions and how they enhance the overall experience. I also enjoyed reading about some of the hair-raising missions you embark on later on in the review.

This review certainly provides a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the game, as well as the series.

I just think you could do by cutting the part about AC4 completely out. The review would work just fine without it.

Huh, that does sound confusing now that I look at it that way. I made a minor adjustment somewhere there, so hopefully readers won't be lost now.

Anyway, thanks for the comments on the review! Nice that the character interaction got through the most in the review for you. And if you are going to check out the series, I'd recommend just starting with AC4. The stories, except for AC5 and Zero, aren't really connected, even though it's been implied that the entire series takes place in the same alternative Earth.

Hi pickhut--I guess even winners of the RotW get tip topics, especially with relatively few writers.

I've followed your AC saga with interest. You seem to have improved with each one. That's what sequels should do.

After playing through the first few missions of Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, I was dead set on putting it on equal footing with Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies. For those that don't know,

This gets into self-conscious reviewer mode too much, too early. I mean, when you're playing an action game, you shouldn't start Evaluating How Good It Is. Did AC5 continue AC4's fun? If so, you could just say "AC5 seemed just like AC4, with better graphics. AC sequels do that. AC5 could've been just AC4 with different missions and been fine.

obviously, so I guess

This is a complete 180 in confidence. I dislike "I guess" in reviews.

Now, I should tell you that, if/To be honest

Well...reviews are about what you should tell people. Yes to this being conversational, but it brings my confusion over the After Burner comment up a notch--could be me missing it, but small mistakes can compound quickly. I like the sense of AC5 giving you the plot even if you skip the cut scenes. I'd like more games like that.

I'm also interested in if characters played a big part in Ac4. The impression I got from your earlier AC reviews was that character development was not a priority. If their confusion is tied into the sudden war starting, that's a good thing to tie in.

missile-wielding pacifist this contrast seems too contradictory

green as hell too conversational

small bad things.

For once, you don't come off as some distant god of destruction, but a mortal with friends to keep an eye on and people to protect. This is especially true in the later missions, when you know these characters much better, more of the plot gets revealed, and things start getting out of hand.

Big good thing. Reviews of games in a series should be about how it improved. More good below, then...

a new danger arises: The enemy starts firing a crap load of cruise missiles towards the base. It's nearly impossible to destroy each one, which Grimm clearly expresses over the radio by freaking out. But the people below are putting their faith in you, so you try your damnedest to minimize the damage.

Oh no...this is way too colloquial! I figure on one swear word per paragraph, max, including "soft" swears. Unless I'm writing about a particularly bad or edgy game. I like the general idea of damage reduction.

For me, this was the turning point of AC5. Here I'd tack on that you quickly put watching a stupid high-speed car chase aside.

It would be an understatement to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how polished the overall product was, since this is the seventh installment (the series started life in the arcades with two releases, if you didn't know).

This comes off hoity toity--perhaps "After seven installments, including two arcade games before the PlayStation games, it's easy to expect a huge regression, or even that the designers would coast. AC [continues the expected progress/does better than expected] in [one area/many areas.]"

a combination of nicely executed storytelling, polished AI, fine-tuned play mechanics, and a wonderful soundtrack.

This seems good, but I would guess "meeting and organizing several interesting characters, fighting increasingly more clever enemies with controls that allow it, and damage reduction thrown in with scatter-shooting" may be less over-general. YMMV.

Thanks for the in-depth feedback, aschultz. I'll take into consideration some of them when or if I ever do Ace Combat 6.

As for character development in AC4, there was one or two character development, but it was more of a sideline thing, nothing that came into real consideration as you were playing the missions. The pilot you control is mentioned by an enemy pilot one or two small times during a cutscene, but that was it.

As for calling Nagase a missile-weilding pacifist, that was completely intentional. She keeps bringing up wanting peace and people getting along together, but she does this as she shoots down planes, like it's nothing.