Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation review (X360)

You either love the Japanese storytelling in the Ace Combat series or find it rather awful. Despite loving the action on offer in many of the episodes I've found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with the hackneyed storytelling, overwrought acting, poor scripting and performance direction. After all, these actors and actresses are speaking English surely they have some idea to put the correct emotional inflections on what they're saying?

The story of Fires of Liberation are told in a series of very well realised – at least in visual terms - cutscenes that tell the story of the nation of Gracemeria (yes really!). The names are all very silly but in effect it amounts to a something like Nato vs the Warsaw Pact. Namco deserves some kudos for trying to tell the story from both sides but given the cheesy gung-ho nature of the voice chatter during missions these angst ridden scenes do seem rather incongruous.

Danger Zone

All that seems less important once you're in the air because Ace Combat 6 really is a lot of fun and is one of the better games in the long-running series. Once again you'll be flying various real-world aircraft, albeit ones armed with an (almost) infinite supply of weaponry. And as you'd expect in the latter stages of the single player campaign things get a bit silly – with giant enemy bases and weapons systems, but that's what we expect from the franchise isn't it?

Now while AC6 isn't a sim the actual aircraft handling offers a satisfying if simple flight model. Special people can opt for an easy control scheme but anyone who can spell their own name will opt for the normal option. Planes speed up when pointed at the ground, slow down when pointed upwards and can be turned by rolling and the use of the rudder.

Namco offers a neat solution to the problem of sensitivity when using small joysticks. So in most cases the left stick offers enough sensitivity for gunplay, but squeezing both triggers at once allows you to pull higher-G manoeuvres.

Combined with the excellent choice of external and internal views, informative HUD, the ability to move the view with the right stick the aforementioned flight model really draws you into the game. Ace Combat 6 lets you experience hyper-real flight and that's a real joy.

Mighty Wings

The missions themselves are rather expansive affairs. The early selection isn't the most thrilling you'll have played – but once the story really gets going the tasks you're faced with get pretty interesting. Missions often consist of several operations being carried out by various squadrons of your air force. Before starting the mission you are invited to choose an airframe and weaponry for you and your AI wingman and then choose your mission starting point – which operation you'll be engaged in.

Don't expect this to work in a sim sense. Yes your comrades will be working hard on the other components of the mission but not well enough usually to complete them. You'll have to join in and finish up once you've completed your orders.

Take My Breath Away

To aid in this task success against mission targets fill a gauge that once full enables the player to target co-ordinated allied attacks or requests they cover you. In action it enables you to target a whole wing of enemy aircraft or batallion of tanks for destruction by allies.

While there aren't as many missions in the game as you'd hope their depth and length makes for a pretty solid single player experience. Death in mission means returning to a previous automatically saved checkpoint rather than having to start a mission again yet it would have been nice to also return to these checkpoints once the machine is switched off. Some of the missions are too long to be comfortably completed in one sitting for those of you with families and other commitments.

Another problem with saving is that mission success isn't saved until the briefing for the next mission. I've been caught out a couple of times by this – switching off the machine only to find on my return that it didn't remember that I'd completed the last mission. So make sure you get to the next briefing before hitting the console off switch.

Playing with the Boys

The core gameplay is excellent though. The missions draw you in as does the sense of scale in the battles. Multiplayer isn't quite as successful – but played with friends the co-op missions offer a chance to split the air and ground tasks between you. AC6 isn't perhaps the best game to play with strangers but then most of the idiot teens are playing Halo 3 so you're relatively safe online here.

What makes Ace Combat worth your time is the atmosphere and experience of these huge battles. This is built up from several attributes – the large scale battles which we've already discussed. But the other element is the excellent graphical style. The planes look amazing and much of the scenery does too. Explosions are superb and the first time you see the sky criss-crossed with missile trails you'll become a real believer in this game. I've found myself repeatedly watching mission replays because this is one of those games that's as thrilling to look at as it is to play.

Through the Fire

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation is by no means perfect – the storytelling is rather overwrought and one might argue a few more missions wouldn't go amiss, but the core play is rather splendid. The downloadable content – which appears to be really just unlocked from the disk – is a bit of a ripoff but you really don't need it to succeed in the game.

In a market awash with racing/shooter types this Christmas, Ace Combat 6 offers something a little different for Xbox 360 owners. A real victory for blue skies in games and the very welcome return of a great franchise.