Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

"The definte game for the genre"

Ace Combat 04 – Distant Thunder (JP/US Shattered Skies)

There should be at least one decent game for every genre on a console, (and they let us know it with seemingly endless amounts of driving games). But, thankfully, there is a decent flight game out for the PS2.

Although it has been out for a while now, Ace Combat 4 still is able to impress.

Graphics

One of the games main strengths is its suburb graphics. Although not on par to some of the great graphic games out there (FFX for instance) Ace Combat uses real planes, which seem to have made a great transition from real-life to the digital world. Each fighter has an enormous amount of detail on them and you see that Namco have spared no expense on making them look absolutely authentic. Landscapes for the missions are varied: from snowy mountains; to ravines; to cityscapes. Each unique terrain has it’s own obstacles and perils, there is not the continual sense of ‘I saw that exact same building a few seconds ago’ with each highlight point distinctively different from the last. Finally there is an absence of pop-up scenery, which you don’t see until after it suddenly appears and hits you.
It’s not all good though; there is a slight a slight problem of alias (jagged edges) on some parts of the plane, but only if you look hard enough and it certainly doesn’t ruin the graphics.
The cinemas in the game are only found at the start, and the story is advanced by still, hand drawn frames with a voice over. This introduces it as a sort of comic book, this idea may be unusual for a flight game, but it works very well.

9/10

Sounds

All the planes sound very much alike, not that it really matters after all most jets sound alike and it is not one of those thing that bother you and you’ll likely ending up not noticing. The people that are supposed to be talking over the radio are well acted and give a good sense of theme. There are also random ones that will pop up every-now-and-again, but there is an enormous amount of them, I have had the game for over two years and sometimes I hear a new one.

One of the games major points goes to the quality of the BGM (Back Ground Music) and OST (Original Sound Track). The game is home to some beautiful original compositions that blend insanely well with what’s happening in each mission. I would go as far as to say that the music is on the same scale measured in such games as Metal Gear Solid 2 and Final Fantasy X).

8/10

Playability

One of the stranger things about AC04 is that it is not an arcade shooter. This is no collecting items from destroyed planes or anything stereotypical of an arcade game. But it is not a simulator as, if all the aspects of a sim were to be used, the game would be boring. For example, a plane could never hold as many missiles or bombs as the ones in the game, but let’s face it; if you could only have a maximum of four missiles it would be one boring game.

Some people may find the inverted analogue controls designed to resemble a real planes control column. However, this can be adjusted so up and down take you in those directions instead of the default inversion.

The controls for other functions are well positioned and allow easy and fast access to the controls you need quickly. One small failing is that the vibrations default is set to off. This means that many people, who don’t do prowling around the options menus will never discover the vibration setting. It is not the only game in the history of entertainment to do this, anyone with any idea why developers do this put your answers on a postcard.

Each aircraft handles excellently. The specs next to each of the planes actually do reflect on there performance immensely, not just a slight amount of change between them, like in some other games. As you progress you will acquire new, better planes as well as see a real difference in the computers AI. Your enemies will work in groups to destroy you, where you friends will work together for the best chance of survival. Fights between enemy and friendly AI planes are evenly balanced and no side has an advantage most of the time, this is good as it gives an element of chance in the game. If your allies win then it makes the game slightly easier and if they lose it means there is a smaller number of enemy planes.

8/10

Summary

The replay value of Ace Combat 04 is excellent. The various amounts of difficulty and various mission themes makes it worth playing again once you finish it the first time.

Some people may find the game tedious, boring and all the same. But they are generally the ones who don’t like flight games anyway. My opinion is: if you like this kind of game you will love this game. If you don’t or wouldn’t usually go for something like this, rent it.

Fly-by

+ Good graphic
+ Excellent sound quality
+ Voice acting and lines both varied and of good quality

Bye-bye

- It’s a bit short
- Some levels can be a bit of a pain to complete
- Some planes handle very similarly

Overall – 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/03