Explosions throw out copious particle effects and sight-blocking clouds of smoke. The 28 playable aircraft in-game – almost all based on real-world military jets – are as obsessively detailed as ever, right down to accurately-modeled cockpit instrumentation and furniture. Playing the old games and new back-to-back, you’d think the only thing to change in 12 years was the quality of the graphics. Infinity was an odd free-to-play mash-up that came out so late in the PS3’s life that none but the most hardcore Project Aces devotees could be bothered to give it attention.īy comparison, Skies Unknown feels like a deliberate callback to the past, right on time for the franchise to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Assault Horizon was an interesting but divisive and, ultimately, failed experiment in diversifying Ace Combat‘s gameplay formula. To hear Bandai Namco tell it, 2011’s Ace Combat Assault Horizon and 2014’s Ace Combat Infinity never happened. It’s telling that the marketing material we’ve received for Skies Unknown seems to behave as if the game is the first Ace Combat title since 2007’s Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. At this point, the harder question to answer might be where to place Skies Unknown in a theoretical ranking of the series, or whether what new things it brings to the table might light a path forward for the series as a whole.Īce Combat 7: Skies Unknown (PS4, Xbox One, PC)ĭeveloper: Bandai Namco Entertainment (Project Aces) If you’re willing to read through the rest of this review, though, there is one thing: The numbered Ace Combat games have all been fantastic. Heck, if you’ve never heard of these games, but liked Metal Gear and don’t mind fighter jets, then maybe you could stand to add it to your list as well.

If any part of the pre-launch hype appealed to you, or if you played and enjoyed one of the previous numbered Ace Combat games, you owe it to yourself to check this game out sometime.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a fantastic Ace Combat game.

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