Game Stooge

Ace Combat: Fires of Liberation Demo Impressions

• Scribbled on July 15th, 2007 by Mitch Dyer
• Filed in Features, Flying/Space, Game Demos, Microsoft Xbox 360

Ace Combat is a renowned, dominantly Sony Playstation property that has made the shift to the X-Box 360. In Fires of Liberation, players take on the role of a hero pilot yet again in the aerial combat game that offers plenty of gameplay that will no doubt impress. The demo, now available on Live Marketplace, lets you sample Mission 01: Invasion of Gracemeria of the campaign. Light up the afterburners, because this is indeed one wild ride.

Cerberus Team takes off with you, Garuda 1, at their helm. As you fly over the city of Gracemeria and chatter with your team, eye-candy invades in a sensory overload. Never has an air-combat game looked so crisp, what with the glowing heat around your afterburner pulsing blurred waves over the glistening aircraft that reflects the clouds, water and tormented city in real time. The fighter jet itself screams as it maneuvers in to formation over the chit-chat of the team as you are cleared to take down any hostiles in your way. Rock and roll.

Getting used to the easy-to-learn control scheme takes little time, as the yaw, pitch, accelleration and movement are all clearly where they should be, and can easily be manipulated in to some sick movements. Cycling through your two sets of missiles, homing and non, is done via the “Back” button, and firing them is no more difficult than a press of the big red “B”. While engaging in combat, you’ll primarily use your machine guns, “A”, and use the missiles when you’ve got the chance. Holding down the “B” button will pull the camera away from your jet, and follow the cruising missile until it hits it target. Nothing is more satisfying than taking a missile shot, following it, and watching it sail in to the cockpit of an enemy jet. The flames and smoke that billow out of the descending wreckage rival that of the Call of Duty games, which is something in itself for Namco to be proud of.

On top of simple controls that allow anyone to simply pick up and quickly learn how to maneuver a war-craft, the audio is astounding. The orchaestral soundtrack exemplifies the intensity of the action packed aerial fighter, along with a lot of what must be real audio recorded from real jets, because the booming base and screaching engines blew me away like a homing missile fired from 200 meters away. The amount of enemies that attack the city is overwhelming at first, but seeing rockets being exchanged by your allies and enemies is a relief, and the skies are littered with smoke trails. Allies will often come to your rescue, should you order them to cover you, and they’ll aid you from afar if you deal out the order to attack. The attention to detail is astonishing too. The city, split up in to islands, is surrounded by battling boats, burning bridges and is home to an extremely dense amount of structures that make the experience that much more visceral. You’ll be pounding rounds in to dozens of enemies as you defend the area from the invading bogies.

The combination of all of this makes for a really great, fulfilling experience, and although the level isn’t terribly long, it’s a true blast to play and I can’t wait to play more of this in October. There’s a flight stick to be launched to immerse you even more fully in to the sixth itteration of a truly wonderful series that we should all be grateful is being spread across more platforms. Ace Combat: Fires of Liberation is a fantastic endeaver in its demonstration form, and the small taste makes me rabid for more. The topsy turvy nature of it all makes you a little dizzy at times, and you’ll often find yourself reorientating the jet so you know what’s happening, and the game does offer a lot of difficulty at times. I found myself crashing into the water when I couldn’t pull up fast enough while chasing a batch of baddies, but overall it was my own foolish flight tactics. What might not be my own foolishness is the ability to switch camera-modes; I found no indication, or button, that would allow me to take the fight on from the view of my cockpit, which might anger a fair amount of players, but I’m sure that it will be included in the retail version if not in the demo already.

The delivery of the title overall is very impressive. It’s satisfying not only for the die-hards, but looks to be a great way to get new players in to the flight-combat genre, since the simple controls allow the fun to flow much more easily than expected. Just be careful not to lose your lunchg whike playing online modes, like a 16 player deathmatch in October. See you in the skies this fall.