Worth it for a newcomer to the series?

[The Ish]

Just curious if anyone could let me know their thoughts on whether or not Ace Combat 7 is worth it for full price, for someone who isn't at all familiar with the series . I read a negative review on the front page saying there were only 20 short missions for singleplayer , so it made me a bit wary as the single player is the main reason I wanted to play.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[StemmarB7R]

Before answering your actual question I'll tell you this: if you still have a working PS2 find one of the 3 games for it and try it out (they call them The Holy Trinity for a reason!), Squadron Leader/The Unsung War is the easiest starting point and gives you a good idea of what the series is like; Distant Thunder/Shattered Skies was groundbreaking back in the day, but didn't age as well as the others; Belkan War is my absolute favourite, but it's also VERY hard. If you have a working X360 or an X1 get Fires of Liberation, it's a bit different gameplay-wise and has terrible plot and narration, but it's absolutely awesome for everything else. Assault Horizon isn't as bad as they say, but it's definitely not an Ace Combat, so I'd suggest you avoid that one, otherwise you'll get the wrong idea on the series.

As for Ace Combat 7, I think it's pretty good and it could be a great starting point, but it's far from being the best in the series as, in my opinion, it got some things completely wrong; about the mission lenght, I don't think they are short, at least for the average Ace Combat mission, but 20 missions is still more than most other titles and one of AC's strenghts has always been the great replayability, with various builds and aircraft choices to mix up every mission.

In conclusion: if you have the platforms to play the older ACs, get one of them, they don't cost much now; if you don't, this is still a good choice, but I'm not sure about the full price... Personally I'm glad I paid it full price to have it immediately, but I knew what to expect, so maybe it's better for you to wait a few months for the first sales if you don't feel like it; I think by the time of Summer Sales you'll be already able to find a good deal.

[hot dog]

Watch some gameplay on Twitch or YouTube. It's what I did and I bought it, never having played any of the earlier games.

The missions get harder as you progress, there are three levels of difficulty and you can replay any of the missions you have completed outside the actual campaign itself, as a standalone mission.

And as you unlock better aircraft and upgrades, you can go back to try and improve your score.

I think you'll be waiting some time for it to go on sale, so it's up to you whether a 25% discount is worth a year's gameplay.

I'd say not!

[Young Erusean Officer]

Yes it is. Jump right in. Instead of buying or playing the other games you can watch playthroughs on youtube from someone like Tomcat171 of AC4, AC5 and Zero.

You can also learn watching him play since the gameplay is largely unchanged.

[Useless Bunny]

Originally posted by Dog Sausage:

there are three levels of difficulty

Four.

[strask]

It's worth it if you don't care about the following major problems:

1) Has non-steam DRM (Denouvo). yuck.
2) No native 21:9 support. (third party patches available to make it mostly work)
3) No support for most HOTAS or flightstick models (but an XBox controller is better for this anyway)
4) No rebinding of most controls -- you will learn the controls they select, and you will LIKE them. Or else.
5) Learn-by-dying gameplay (this is how all the Ace Combat games are, but wanted to red flag it just in case you weren't aware).

Point 5 is actually kind of the counter to your worry about "only" 20 missions. 20 is a lot when they take 20+ minutes to play and you re-try each one 2 or 3 times before getting it right. On average this game will take you anywhere from 20 hours to complete for the first playthrough (if you are decent at flight games and pay attention to briefings and radio chatter) to 40 hours or more (if you are new to the genre or don't pay attention to what you are told).

That's just your first playthrough. Most people who enjoy the game end up doing at least one playthrough on each difficulty level, and you may repeat certain missions many times in order to attempt getting better scores on them, or try completing them using different solutions, be that a novel approach to which order to hit the targets, or simply a plane or special weapon you haven't tried before.

For me, the DRM was a dealbreaker and I held out for weeks after initial release, but finally gave in (because I'm an old-school fan of the series) and bought anyway.

The 21:9 stuff is an annoyance, but as I said it can be played in modified form to mostly work the way you'd want it to. Must apply a patch after each official update, of course.

Even if you are disappointed by the lack of flight stick suport, do give it a try with a controller as that's the way the game is meant to be played and works well.

So it's a qualified "yes, worth it" ... if none of the things I mentioned made you decide to disqualify it. Good luck and enjoy it if you get it!

[Nedbrytar-Yngve]

I just finished it, first flying game ive ever really played. and first Ace combat ive ever played.
Its easily already one of the best games ive played. but of course this depends on the person.

[strask]

Originally posted by Dog Sausage:

Watch some gameplay on Twitch or YouTube.

Originally posted by Young Erusian Officer:

Instead of buying or playing the other games you can watch playthroughs on youtube from someone like Tomcat171 of AC4, AC5 and Zero.

I would actually plead with you, The Ish, to not watch more gameplay than is needed to make your purchasing decision. If you enjoy 7, you will want to some day play 4 and 5 and Zero, and knowing successful approaches to each mission ahead of time from watching youtube would take a lot of the problem-solving challenge out of those games.

[xstar960]

Originally posted by The Ish:

Just curious if anyone could let me know their thoughts on whether or not Ace Combat 7 is worth it for full price, for someone who isn't at all familiar with the series . I read a negative review on the front page saying there were only 20 short missions for singleplayer , so it made me a bit wary as the single player is the main reason I wanted to play.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I want to be able to say it's worth the money.

But the pc port is still in need of a lot of work.

I would wait until all the issues have been patched out before thinking about buying it.

[Useless Bunny]

Originally posted by strask:

It's worth it if you don't care about the following major problems:
5) Learn-by-dying gameplay (this is how all the Ace Combat games are, but wanted to red flag it just in case you weren't aware).

How the hell is that a "major problem"? What is this? Baby "gaming journalist" generation? Every single good game worth its salt is difficult and ace combat is not even really hard; you got checkpoints, dumb AI, enough health to be hit by FOUR missiles (in past games you got 2 and you were dead), machine guns do irrelevant damage even in the hardest difficulty. The fact people die until they learn means the game is good, they stick to it, they improve, they overcome an obstacle.

[Young Erusean Officer]

AC7 actually has the closest to a tutorial every Strangereal game had so far. With the text pops and Mage 1 giving you hints in mission 1.

So far all other games the game basically strap you to a F4 or F5, pat on your helmet and you are off intercepting.already.

[strask]

Originally posted by BEEP BEEP BEEP MISSILE ALERT:

Originally posted by strask:

It's worth it if you don't care about the following major problems:
5) Learn-by-dying gameplay (this is how all the Ace Combat games are, but wanted to red flag it just in case you weren't aware).

How the hell is that a "major problem"?

You misunderstood my little list. Would it help if I rephrased it to something like "It's worth it if none of the following are things that you consider problems:"

I have purchased and enjoyed every ace combat except the one that shall not be named, and I love love love the series and I've completed mission 9 only once ever but recorded 80+ short videos of me screwing it up and crashing or getting nuked from orbit. I've done that because I randomly decided to take on several optional (and some completely imaginary) challenges for my second time through.

So no, I personally do not think "learn-by-dying" gameplay is a problem at all.

Some people do. And those people would be better off spending their money on other games. So I mentioned it.

Originally posted by BEEP BEEP BEEP MISSILE ALERT:

What is this? Baby "gaming journalist" generation?

That was a rude outburst, it seems, but I can't tell if it's directed at anything I said, or if you are just lashing out randomly at journalists, people you think are younger than you, or people who enjoy different sorts of games than you. None of which are narrow enough target groups to warrant a blanket insult, even if the only insult is being held up as related to each other some how.

[strask]

Originally posted by Young Erusian Officer:

AC7 actually has the closest to a tutorial every Strangereal game had so far. With the text pops and Mage 1 giving you hints in mission 1.

So far all other games the game basically strap you to a F4 or F5, pat on your helmet and you are off intercepting.already.

True, although my PS2 copy of Ace Combat 5 at least came with a little booklet that not only had a basic manual about which buttons to press and how to navigate the menus and work the flight controls, but also had a few pages with illustrations of basic FCM stuff; how to dodge a missile, the classic moves everybody knows the names of but I still can't spell immelman correctly, etc.

A manual. On paper. For a game. Those were the days...

[Young Erusean Officer]

Originally posted by strask:

Originally posted by Young Erusian Officer:

AC7 actually has the closest to a tutorial every Strangereal game had so far. With the text pops and Mage 1 giving you hints in mission 1.

So far all other games the game basically strap you to a F4 or F5, pat on your helmet and you are off intercepting.already.

True, although my PS2 copy of Ace Combat 5 at least came with a little booklet that not only had a basic manual about which buttons to press and how to navigate the menus and work the flight controls, but also had a few pages with illustrations of basic FCM stuff; how to dodge a missile, the classic moves everybody knows the names of but I still can't spell immelman correctly, etc.

A manual. On paper. For a game. Those were the days...

:OpenTreasureChest: :red_pointer: :scroll1: :red_pointer: :FullBookshelf:

You can download the manual on Bnamco's website. They put out some video tuts on YT too.

[Herald536]

Not worth the 50 quid asking price for what's on offer. Would wait till at least 50% Off to be close to actual VFM.

[hot dog]

Originally posted by BEEP BEEP BEEP MISSILE ALERT:

Originally posted by Dog Sausage:

there are three levels of difficulty

Four.

Ha! Yes, not having completed the campaign I didn't know about "ace" level.

One day, one day...