Ace Combat: Zero : Review

There is something beyond the gameplay of Ace Combat games that just warms a small place in my heart. Ace Combat 4 told a story though the voice of a boy, whose house was destroyed when one of his countries pilots was shot down. You find out later that you were the one that shot him down. The story unfolded nicely and was really soft and nothing at all like a war story.

In Ace Combat Zero, the main narrator is a documentary director. He first interviews a pilot who goes by the callsign, Pixy. After a long war, controversial war, the documentary gathers interviews from retired pilots from the war who fought with or against "demon", you. Before every mission, the director describes the historical significance of each level before you play through it, as he hopes to find out more about the mysterious mercenary.

I'll always love the subtle and emotional narratives in these games. They have a Myst sort of quality to them that almost makes the gameplay an annoyance. You just want to hear the story.

This time around, though, they included full-motion video, instead of the great art and sound design in Ace Combat 4. I wasn't too happy with the video because it never synced correctly to the voices, or the actors weren't actually the speakers.

Nevertheless, if you can appreciate Ace Combat games, this is definetly a keeper. I can't wait to play through it again to keep a different Ace Style and unlock more stuff through the levels.

If you want to know more about the series, Wikipedia has a great resource on it.