Ace Combat Assault Horizon (Game) - Giant Bomb (2025)

Overview

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is the first Ace Combat game for consoles since Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and also marks Ace Combat's debut to the Playstation 3 and PC. Like Ace Combat: Joint Assault, Assault Horizon takes place in the real world as opposed to the fictional " Strangereal" version of Earth. Assault Horizon is touted as a reboot of the Ace Combat franchise, although as it does not take place in the same universe, this is merely a marketing ploy and not technically true. The most notable feature of the game is the new "Close Range Assault System", although it also adds destructible environments and dramatic camera angles of planes blowing up.

Story

The story in Assault Horizon is written by New York Times bestselling author, Jim DeFelice. In 2015, anti-government insurgency is sweeping Africa, prompting local governments to ask for the UN's support. The UN in turn deploys the 108th Task Force. During the African campaign, a blinding flash of light kills several helicopter crews. As word quickly spreads that the anti-government group has somehow developed an advance superweapon, Africa is revealed to be a mere stepping stone and the world plunges into war.

The 108th Task Force is a multinational armed force comprising of several squadrons commanded by French General Pierre La Pointe. Warwolf Squadron is a fixed wing aircraft squadron commanded by Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop and his wingman, José Gutierrez. Shooter and Nomad Squadrons are helicopter subdivisions of the 108th, flying the AH-64D Apache and MH-60 Black Hawk respectively. Doug Robinson is the commander of both Shooter and Nomad Squadrons and James Mitchell serves as a helicopter gunner in Nomad. 108th is further supported by an AC-130U Spooky gunship flown by Janice Rehl. Finally Razor Squadron, a group of B-2 stealth bombers, rounds out the task force. General Ivan is commander of all the 108th's Russian forces.

The villainous ace of Assault Horizon is Colonel Andrei Markov, a highly skilled ex-Russian Air Force pilot now flying as a freelance mercenary. His callsign is Akula, Russian for shark and referencing the Shark Mouth paintjob on his plane. He flies an Su-35S.

Gameplay

Assault Horizon represents a major change on the game mechanics specifically designed to attract new players who have never played a flying game. It borrows many concepts form the first person shooter genre, specifically Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Assault Horizon uses regenerating health as opposed to a numerical health, making it possible to survive collisions with the ground. The campaign also has much more generous checkpointing compared to previous Ace Combat games. Various "Flight Assistance" options can be turned on such as Automatic Stall Prevention and Auto Levelling to further help newer players.

The biggest change is the introduction of the Close Range Assault System. When positioned near an enemy aircraft, a circle will appear on the target. Pressing both bumpers or the L1 and R1 buttons will initiate Dogfight Mode or DFM, which turns the game into something more akin to an on rails shooter like the After Burner series. The aggressor has limited control over the aircraft and instead is focused solely on aiming. The target plane can either speed up and turn erratically to disengage DFM or slow down until the green arrow and red arrow overlap so that he can perform a counter-maneuver. If the aggressor times it correctly, he can perform a counter to the counter-maneuver, allowing him to shoot down the target before it gets behind him. Airstrike mode (ASM) is the air to ground version, which makes the aircraft fly in a straight line and allows the pilot to focus solely on destroying targets. Close Range Assault frequently takes control of the plane to allow the player to see scripted events in the campaign such as a building collapsing or an aircraft exploding.

New to the series is the ability to pilot helicopters and bombers. There are also opportunities to operate a minigun out of a Blackhawk helicopter as well as an AC-130 sequence. Aircraft can now use flares to spoof missiles. After completing campaign, the player can unlock skills to enhance their aircraft for Free Mission and Multiplayer. Up to six skills can be equipped and the first skill will benefit other members of the player's flight.

Multiplayer supports up to 16 players online. There are four different modes: Deathmatch, Domination, Capital Conquest and Co-op. Deathmatch and Domination are standard fare. Capital Conquest is an assault type match in which both teams attempt to destroy the other team's HQ. Capital Conquest is much more class based compared to the other two competitive multiplayer modes as only multirole and attacker aircraft can attack the HQ. Finally Co-op supports up to three players as they play through modified campaign missions.

PC Port

A PC port titled Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Enhanced Edition was released on January 25, 2013, marking the first appearance of the Ace Combat franchise on the PC. The port comes at a reduced price of $34.99 and features increased resolution graphics up to (1900 x 1200), an improved frame rate cap of up to 60fps, as well as almost all the DLC aircraft, skins and maps from the console versions. The game includes support for the Xbox 360 controller as well as several brands of flightsticks.

Aircraft

Assault Horizon initially featured 34 aircraft, two of which are helicopters and two of which are bombers. New planes that have never been featured in previous Ace Combat games such as the Su-25 Frogfoot and the Su-24 Fencer make their first appearance. Additional aircraft have been released as DLC. All aircraft have at least three skins with some aircraft having more based off of previous Ace Combat heroes, such as Cipher's F-15C, or through DLC.

Fighter

Fighters carry air-to-air weapons and can initiate DFM

Multirole

Multiroles can initiate both DFM and ASM and can carry air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons.

Attacker

Attackers are air-to-ground aircraft that can only initiate ASM. To compensate for their lack of air-to-air, they typically have more defense and flares

Bomber

There are only two bombers in the game and only two opportunities to fly them. One is during the campaign and the other in Capital Conquest. They have 99 flares, very little maneuverability and can only attack in ASM however they can deal significant damage.

Helicopter

Helicopters don't have a defined role in the game, however they can shoot down missiles and bombs with their machine gun. Their ability to hover makes them excellent for the Domination game type.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Ace Combat Assault Horizon will be released sometime in the early of 2012. The music was composed by the Namco Sound Team, such as long time Ace Combat composer Tetsukazu Nakaishi and Hiroshi Okubo, and other new composer like Rio Hamamoto and the Yuval Ron Ensemble.

A shorter (one disc) soundtrack with 14 tracks was included with the Limited Edition release of the game.

Disc 1

Disc 2

Disc 3

Limited Edition Soundtrack CD