Ace Combat 5: Squadron Leader (PS2)

(Namco)

With me being so poor that even Jetstar travel is priced beyond my means, I thought Ace Combat was perhaps my quickest path to reliving the joy of back to basics flying. Boy was I wrong, this is no economy of passage, in fact the in-flight movie unfolding before me was very top notch and immersive, despite the lack of a stiff scotch, handful of salted peanuts and a nice hosty.

The only nuts I could think of here were the ones in my throat as I executed beautiful barrel rolls, twists, turns, and hair splitting passes of both enemy and compatriot craft in full flame (to use non tech speak); and that was just in the training mode, which I entirely recommend you use prior to jumping into either arcade or campaign mode.

I tried arcade upfront and it was so naff I moved straight to the Campaign mode on the Very Easy Novice level (so peeps who are expecting a real review here should move on to ign or a blog near you NOW!), knowing full well duffs like me could hardly make a serious try at the game on offer.

Some 30 odd cinematic missions are on offer as you immerse into the world of Osea, now under threat via a ‘fraudulent immoral’ world war, allegedly started by the Yuktobanian Nation (once allies – well at least for last 15 years since nukes where last on the menu).

It is now 2010 and you are part of a 4 strong elite defence squad, given mythical notoriety as the Demons of Ragriz (please see myth in game content for further details as I couldn’t give a Rats Ragriz), with your increasingly difficult missions to defend, attack, recon, escort, search and rescue your way to the final defeat of the Yuktobanian aggressors (or are they…..ooooh ooooh).

You will have to work your way through all the missions to keep abreast of this unfolding drama and to reveal the true political/social machinations hidden here, that is if you care about the full cinematic experience on offer as an adjunct to the game play. If not, just keep hitting the start button when the fat man starts-a-blabbing, watch the Briefings at least to assist jet selection for the missions on offer, check the maps for direction and fly! Fly my Maverick, Iceman or Goose!

Not having played earlier versions I am happy to learn that on offer in this latest version are control of your Wingmen as standard feature. In Wing Command you can assign your team to attack ahead or defend you against the enemy (whilst you undertaken some tactical bombing run), as well as order to disperse to carry out mission objectives with and without special weapon ordinance ie. Particularly of the land/sea bombing based variety. This feature can be used to great effect depending on your task at hand, number of ordinance remaining in your own arsenal and particular jet strengths.

If I can reiterate, being crap is my style of play and if this has particular resonance with your own play, then I highly recommend that you conserve AAM’s, as you need last out the mission without resorting to pure canon attacks alone on bogies. Having said that I found as I got better a good on-target AAM followed up with some hefty canon work is a highly effective means to nail targets and conserve ammo. The last thing you need when time is running short is to command your wingmen in to attack your lead whilst you piffle away with a canon on a highly maneouverable bogie – doable in the extreme but cutting things thin… blah blah blah.

Not being an aviation aficionado, nor unlocking all jets to date with the time spent on game, I still feel there is a palatable menu of jets to fly, boasting realistic mechanical qualities of the manufacturers and modeling. The Russian Su-47 became one of my faves as well as the more recent F22 Raptor, however mission choice will generally dictate selection and balance among your squadron (eg. Speed over maneouverability for recon work).

I note that jet choice became increasingly irrelevant as better planes are made available due to better A2A and A2S strike capabilities – so no need to sweat it because if you really get it wrong the in-flight chatter at take off will suggest you have naffed it up, offering time to reselect.

Picking jets also becomes an immersive tactical decision based on response to mission briefings. This is because you need to think about what your role might be vs the roles of the others, as you direct, either in support or attack. So ground weapon superiority could be your thing whilst A2A for your compadres will keep your 6 nice and tidy during a bombing raid of a land or sea target.

If you know the classic Grand Turismo Car series then you will appreciate the basic premise with this game too in Campaign Mode. Upon successive mission completion, game points translate into $ for purchase of increasingly better jets for you and your squadron, which you can also cash in as required to upgrade or fleet out for niche missions. Checking specs helps here to make the correct purchase decision with the budgets previously set aside for education and health for the people. Politics aside it is about outright speed vs land vs air attack capabilities vs armour vs compromise on all aspects.

From a cinematic perspective, the detail in the scenery is awesome, to the point of after finishing the entire campaign you can unlock a free fly mode so you can just pick your fave jet and just check it all out. Being that it was nearly midnight on a school night and I am still single and had sculled a bottle of red on my own, I reached a point where I had to take quick stock of my life, which I could not bare, so quickly shut down and scarpered off to bed. Having said that I found myself running the gamut of picking the fastest jet and flaming my way through high rise buildings at low altitudes with vague and serious overtones of 9/11 in my blood through to serene aerial ballet aka terrain following in more picturesque sun glowing landscapes.

One feature, which I rate as a good inclusion, is the in-game dialogue. It is both interactive, informative and adds to both the storyline development and cinematic immersion. My only bugbear was that it was always making me answer Yes or No whilst I was mid bombing or in serious ‘bogy on my 6 territory’. So whilst not too annoying, I wasn’t enamoured at times by my squadrons clearly Japanese inspired choice of some top gun cringing rock music…....to wit I kept saying “NO” did not like in the vague hope it would be turned off – but hello the squadron member never got the picture to shut it off and I didn’t have the heart to shoot down my team members to single out the culprit.

As far as storyline goes, the complete fanatical admiration of the Ragriz mythical beast nature of the squadron was getting a bit heavy and thick by the time Mission 30 rolled around. However it was passable for the efforts of story development, although felt a bit like mangaesque child-like enthusiasm for me – I am more just hard core porn these days without the arty animation to fluff it out….but enough about me. So as I mentioned before if the story gets too thick press start button until you are clear.

So all in all this game play, even at my naff level, was good to challenging; fun can be had by all and for mind the value of 30 odd missions plus the ability on complete to go back and play extra challenges makes for a great value all round ie. skill, time to play, variety of mission, graphics, jet range, interactive squadron command tactics all made for great offering – rank 8/10 for value.

Maverick, over.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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