This deep jet fighter experience takes the following awards:
"Best jet fighter experience"
"Most videogame quotes to have made it on my bands' albums"
"Best characterised enemies"
"Longest time it to took to write a post about a game on the list so far"
"Best giant laser"
"Most nucleair explosions"
"Best 1 versus 1 aerial face-off"
"Best wingman"
I used to play the demo for Ace Combat 4 over and over. For a couple years I was in limbo whether I should buy an AC game. When I finally moved from allowance to a job on the side after school I got my hands Ace Combat Zero. It was a great decision.
The battles with Wizard, Sorcerer and Gault are ones I've relived countless times.
Ace Combat Zero has been the most memorable jet fighter experience yet. The gameplay is solid but it’s presentation, pacing and deep dark undertone are where this game threads into the land of literature. Dogfighting gets the emphasis throughout boss battles with enemy ace squadrons. These are particularly interesting, as each has their own personality as a pack and as indivuals. While engines roar and missiles soar, these figures light political discussions we can overhear as enemy radio chatter. They often have idealist, philosophical views and the result is (like the previous game on the list) a game sparking my thoughts and makes me think about our world. Borders are the main theme but politics, economy and our right to claim and exhaust the earth also come into play.
Don’t underestimate what seems like detail: there has been some serious thought put into every line coming through the radio. Enemy pilot’s personalities have been considered, their morality questioned, their flight style described, their stresslevels perfectly portrayed as the battle heats up. Ace Combat Zero makes you feel for the enemy, and that is a very rare trait in the world of videogames. Towards the end I was almost rooting for the revolutionary (extremist) rebel organisation.
The fights with enemy squadrons grow even larger in importance when the game shows it’s intermezzo cutscenes with monologues of the pilots you have downed and survived.
The bigger picture is a morally grey conflict where the agressor becomes the defender and the defender the agressor. A lot of tragedies happen, and we follow what this does to both enemies and allies.
Which brings us to our wingman: Solo Wing ‘Pixy’. Our loyal companion grows morally conflicted and he shifts his priorities. For good reasons, as is perfectly explained. His motivations are totally understandable, even. Our paths seperate, and as later stated: we’ve become two sides of the same coin. Tragedy follows when the conflict is pushed to it’s apex. In the arena are just me and my former wingman. Both believe that they are fighting for good, but know they are also both the bad. There is only one outcome.
Ace Combat Zero has such an intriguing story and well written dialogue I have even used samples from the game for both studio albums I have made with my band the MAYDAYS. As listenable on the final track of the album 'MRK II':
The radio chatter as listed in the lyrics and credits: Pilot #1: "What are you fighting for?" Pilot #2: "Clashing greed is the cause of all conflict." Pilot #1: "What do you mean?!" Pilot #2: "Neither nations or nationalities have meaning. We will erase these unnecessary borders.People live and people die - that's all there is to it. ... Are you fired up? We're going to start over from scratch. Territories, peoples, authorities: all will be liberated. The world will change. It's time."
If Ace Combat Zero was real and I were a fighter pilot, I may even be fighting alongside A World With No Boundaries.
Last edited by Pete for President; 02-12-2014 at 06:23 AM.
Reply With Quote