Ace Combat 5 Review

You know what I love? I love flying, I love shit exploding, and I love it when I can fly and make shit blow up simultaneously. If there are boobies jiggling around on screen and “America fuck yeah!” is blaring in the background? All the better.

So, naturally, one could see why I enjoyed Ace Combat 5. While, sadly, there ARE no bouncing funbags, nor is there a blaring anthem telling terrorists to lick my butt. Ace Combat 5 is an excellent flight simulating game that lets you climb into the cockpit of 1 of over a couple dozen (The reviewer can't be arsed to look up the exact number) planes, take off, and zoom through the skies making your enemies explode in fiery balls of death.

The game has a fairly simple premise. You start off as a pilot fresh out of the academy, your call-sign “Blaze” you are part of the Wardog squadron, a small 4-man team of pilots stationed on your home base “Sand Island”. Hailing from the nation of Osea, it is tasked to you and your 3 other wingmen to defend the skies of Osea! But, there hasn’t been a large scale war since the Belkan conflict so many years ago! So, naturally everything will turn out all good right? This is really only a 15 dollar game that will end with you doing boring patrol routes over the land and seas of Osea before you eventually retire as an old man right? NOPE. I FOOLED YOU!

The game starts off fairly slow, with you following the orders of your flight lead Captain jack Barlowe as you patrol a small stretch of sea and spot an SR-71 spy plane... However, attempts to hail it down are met with hostility, and you are quickly ambushed by a squadron of planes... But they are Yuktobanian fighters, a country with which you were allies for back during the Belkan war! Things quickly begin to spiral out of control as Jack crashes into the ocean below, making YOU the flight lead! Suffice to say, you have your work cut out for you as you have to fight tooth and nail for your country against Yuktobania's super weapons, and try to unravel what EXACTLY is going on behind the scenes.

What with the story out of the way. Let us examine gaming mechanics, yes? Ace Combat 5 is a good game with excellent controls. Fans of flight simulators will be pleased by the responsiveness and small changes you can make as you zoom and roll through the skies, and even if you aren’t a large flight simulator connoisseur the game's “Novice” mode allows you easier control over your plane for faster, easier maneuvering.

Graphics are to be expected of a middle PS2 game. It won't blow your mind by any means, but the planes are still QUITE pretty, and modeled accurately. The soundtrack is DEFINENTLY a place where the Ace Combat games have ALWAYS shown through. The music that plays throughout your journey will pluck at your heart, and make you feel mournful as you look down on the sea of your dead crewmen... Or revitalize your courage, and make you feel like you can break through any of the obstacles in your path with a BOATLOAD of missiles. Even if you do not PLAY the game, taking a look at the soundtrack alone will be a rewarding and enjoyable experience.

Some of the pros in this game (Besides those listed above) are it's excellent plane selection, and use of squadron customization. One can choose the EXACT planes which you and your comrades will dive into battle with, and while in the beginning you may have a mish mashed assortment of planes that look a bit goofy, by the end there is NOTHING more satisfying that diving through the battlefield with you and your partners in jet black F-22s blowing up everything in your path. Speaking OF satisfying, the game delivers when it comes to feeling like a badass. Enemies will wail and lament as you fly into the battlefield during the later levels, while allies will rejoice. Yelling such things as “The wings of Sand Island are here! There's nothing we can't do!”

However, it is NOT a perfect game by any means. The graphics for planes ARE pretty, but the ground usually just looks like a mash-up of random splotches of color. It LOOKS like the ground... But it isn't eye-catching by any means. Other things may depend upon the person playing. While -I- personally did not mind too much. The constant chatter of your wing mates saying “War is bad and wrong and badwrong” while gunning down a ton of enemy pilots got a LITTLE bit on my nerves after the 20^th time is was repeated. Also, while this PERSONALLY was a plus for me, the strange-real world that the Ace Combat games are set in may be a little off-putting to some. With such names as “Osea” “Yuktobania” and “Belka” being thrown around, it may be a BIT hard to keep track of the separate countries.

Despite those flaws, Ace Combat 5 is a solid game with a fun story and even better game play. And, with it's New Game+ mode, it will keep you coming back for more and more to unlock the most powerful planes, and new custom paint jobs for your favorite jets. I would say that this is DEFINENTLY a game that anyone with a PS2 should get, especially as it's cheap, fun, and easy to access (This reviewer got his copy for only 15 dollars). In closing, I would like to give Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, an 8/10. An excellent game with very minor flaws. Aces who have been flying the skies for years, and Nuggets who don't even have their wings alike should give this game a try.