Tag: Assault Horizon Legacy

Another change I find curious is the aircraft choice. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that some aircrafts from A e Combat 2 are outdated by modern standards, or some licensing issues, but while previously you started with F4, now your starting aircraft is F16, which was present in the original game, but was more of a midgame option.
Also something they probably could afford because they were using the Assault Horizon engine is cockpit view. It didn’t exist in the original, and I love it.

Ace Combat 2 came up with the concept of unique enemies, but they were low key, easy to miss. Here, they are in your face, introduced with a cutscene, and an entire squadron of them (5 planes) each time. Also, each seems to have a gimmick. For Beast Squadron, for example, they are invincible when they are together in the same zone, so you have to lure them one by one.

The entire economy has been rebalanced. There is less planes, and those are harder to buy. I skipped MIR2000, because I wanted to save for F14.
They tried to modernize some missions. The ravine mission where you need to hit the submarine is not a chase after the sumbarine, before it hides in the dock.

This is such a weird game to make. It seems they took the engine of Assault Horizon, and the “story” of Ace Combat 2. The ironic part is, Ace Combat 2 didn’t have much story to begin with. Yeah, your first mission is to down some bombers. But almost every Ace Combat game starts with such a mission. Story in early Ace Combat 1 and 2 where, like in porn, just an excuse for some action.

With that said, it looks and plays amazingly. This is probably the most impressive game I’ve seen on 3DS. I’d even say that it looks better or at least on par with PS2 installments. And the first game that actually uses the second thumbstick of New 3DS, and the ZL/ZR buttons.

In terms of mechanics, this is more of Assault Horizon than Ace Combat 2, since you get to pick your load out. Moreover, something I haven’t seen in any other Ace Combat yet is ability to customize parts of your plane, in an RPG like fashion.
And there are also defensive and offensive maneuvers. Once a bar fills up, you can either magically place yourself behind enemy or magically evade the next missile. To counter that, missiles are harder to evade regularly.
Also, they added checkpoints, something I don’t remember in other Ace Combat games. But at least you don’t have to replay 10 minutes.