Customer Reviews

Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation (Platinum Hits)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Awesome game. Sick graphics (that means very good). Excellent controls using the standard controller. The tutorial is fun and effective. The campaign mode is engaging and well done. Lots of replayability. Most of all it's FUN!

The main things I look for in a console game are: Can I pick this game up in a short time and start having fun? Yes. Does it have an engaging campaign mode that draws you in and gives you reasons to continue? Yes. Are the graphics decent? Yes. Is the game frustrating for any reason, i.e. poor control layout, lack of save game at the right times, can't do what you would logically expect to do. No.

It's clear to me that a lot of thought went into this game. Flying, which you do most of the time, is very intuitive. The planes react smoothly and you don't find yourself overreacting much (which is common in many other racing/flight games). The cut scenes are superb. The animation is high quality and the voice acting is good. The plot is obviously contrived on the old East vs West theme (Estovakia complete with eastern European accents vs. Emmeria, i.e. America complete with the lost family. But these days what else are you going to do for modern conventional warfare? It's still engaging if not highly plausible.

Compared to many of the other games out there for the Xbox360, this games offers a lot. I didn't want a RPG like Oblivion (don't have the time for it). I didn't want another lame sports game (I have the Wii for that). I didn't want -another- spaced out zombie mutated freak monsters invading the earth and save the world game (saving that for Mass Effect when it comes out). For me this game hits the spot. Plus, it's well engineered and stable.

I checked out a couple other less flattering reviews and I think they are from people who just aren't into the genre. Personally, I don't see this as a flight sim where you have to fully understand how to fly a real plane and you have to have the skill to do it. I see it as more as a game that lets you have fun flying planes and draws you into an engaging, meaningful story. And, the missions are just the right size for me. It's a great game for a casual gamer who maybe can only play for 30-60 minutes. It's also fun for anyone who wants to play longer, obviously.

To sum up... This is a very good game that you should have lots of fun with. If the thought of flying combat planes appeals to you in any way, and you enjoy being involved in a large plot, this game is for you.

In typical Ace Combat fashion, this title continues to push the envelop of visual realism in flight simulators.

If you have enjoyed previous Ace Combat games you will not be disappointed by Fires of Liberation. If you haven't ever played an Ace Combat this one is certainly a great place to enter the series.

While gameplay is solid as usual and missions vary in style and objective, one can't help but focus on the absolutely stunning visuals.

Ace Combat has always been known for great realism in its aircraft, but in this iteration the developer really put the focus on making the landscapes come to life. I have yet to play a console flight sim that provides such an immersive experience as Ace Combat.

On the other hand, (also typical of the series) the story is a cheesy mess of melodramatic fluff. You'd be better off skipping each cutscene and focusing on the gameplay.

My only real complaint is that level difficulty is inconsistent. One mission will be moderately easy followed immediately by one that is near impossible. Then you're back to easy again. I believe this is due to the fact that Wingman support is utterly useless, which makes any level with a lot of enemy planes that much more challenging.

In one particularly frustrating mission your comrades continually chime in over the radio to let you know that one or more of a dozen enemy fighters has a missile lock on you but they neither attempt to take out your pursuers (cover command) nor attack the target objective (attack my target command) whilst you shake the bogies off your six. There may be "friendly" planes occupying the sky with you but for all intents and purposes they are just spectators. As a side note, the lack of worth of your wingman is evidenced by an achievement you can earn for his taking out a mere ten enemy targets by your command, meanwhile you might eliminate 40-50 targets in a single level.

In the end, Ace Combat 6 is good for 8 or 10 hours of single player fun, not to mention multiplayer action.

So, the ACE series finally comes to the next generation. It has been a long wait, that in my opinion was worth it.

My favorite part of the whole game so far ( I am still playing it) is the abality to call for either Allied Attacks or Allied Cover. As in the past it would always be up to you to take out everthing either land, sea, or air. Now you actually get help. And they actually take out stuff or cover you if you are getting fired at.

The planes are the same as all of the other Ace Combat games, graphically they are sharper but nothing new. I will say that your planes are now more equiped with a huge payload of special weapons and regular missles, not the case in the old games. If you run out of ammo you can go back to the base and restock up, which was not the case in AC5. I am glad they brought that one back.

Missions are alot better than before, here you actually get to fight for longer than five minutes, I would say on average the missions last anywhere from 20-30 minutes, I am only on mission 10 so I dont know how many missions the game has.

Graphics are much imporved from the old series. When your plane gets hit by a bullet for example a little amber will be burning where you got hit for a moment, then it smolders out. Explosions are awesome, and the terrain looks pretty real.

As a fan of the series I am very happy, and I can see for me, this game will have a good replay value to it.

Story line, what can I say it's Ace Combat they have never been known for a great storyline, they could have done alot more with this, I thought they would seeing how it's next gen and all.

GOOD:
- A good mix or simulation style and arcade fun.
- Photo Realistic aircraft with planes that actually show damage when shot at.
- Nice mission variety (although for some players, some missions can be pretty dull and other to over the top).
- Decent music and voice work.
- Good mix online gameplay with versus mode (up to 8 players in either battle royal or team mode) and even a co-op mission mode.

BAD:
- Might play too much like arcade or to simulation type game for some people.
- Story can be bland and can also be pretty confusing to some due to the fact that it focuses in on secondary characters that play no actual role game but they live in the world in which the game takes place.

IF IT FITS YOUR TASTE:
- Plays very much like the past few Ace Combat games on Sony's PS2
- Takes place in a fictional world similar to our own (but not like ours in many ways) but with the same aircraft as our own world. So the while you might recognize planes like the F-14 "Tomcat" (the same jet from the movie Top Gun) you won't recognize any of the peoples or places in this game.
- Game is broken up into missions (about 15 levels) in which you follow objectives and earn points to unlock new aircraft, during most of the missions you will have a few objectives (like helping the tank squad or taking down long range missiles) after doing a few optional objectives you mostly have to engage in a mandatory objective like taking down a enemy ace pilot or enemy base.
- After doing a few of these optional objectives you get an option to call all the ground/air units you have helped out from earlier in the mission to destroy enemy/enemies that you select.
- Certain missions are much easier with certain aircraft, example slow ground based missions' call for the A-10 "Warthog" and fast air-to-air missions call for the Y-F22 "Raptor", but you can still use any jet fighter you want on any level (so you never feel pigeon-holed using a jet you don't want).
- You have to unlock then buy (with money/points you earn in game during missions) almost all the aircraft you can use in the game. Also note that all planes come with a few different paint jobs and different types of secondary missiles/weapons that you can buy as well.
- All planes come with a primary two shot standard missile. You also even get to select a secondary type of missiles/weapon that can really help out in certain missions like a multi-lock-on missiles for air targets and even a cluster bomb for ground based targets, later on one jet can even have twin rail guns as your secondary weapon.

GAME ITS MOST ASSOCATED TOO:
- Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War (PS2)
- Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions (360)

ADDITIONAL NOTES:
- All the fighter aircraft in this game are replica of real life fighter aircraft (there is only one made-up fighter aircraft is the CFA-44 "Nosferatu" which is the last plane to be unlocked).
- There is plenty of online downloadable content for this game, form lot of new unique colors for your fighter aircraft (these newer paint jobs even give the jets different abilities) to new stages for verse modes, and even a few new missions for co-op mode.

Ace Combat 4 in my opinion was the best game of all the Ace Combat series. It had a (mostly) great story, terrific graphics, amazing music and the gameplay flowed together to give the player a movie-like experience. Awesome.

Not so much for Ace Combat 6. The graphics overall are spectacular, naturally, and flying around on a big screen TV in high def is seriously fun stuff. Unfortunately that's about all it has going for it. With a near-incomprehensible storyline with uninteresting characters, gameplay that is at times too easy and then almost impossible, and wingmen that are just plain useless, it's a chore to push through the entire game.

The Good:

* Visuals. Awesome!

The Bad

* Terrible story - like, really bad. Awful bad. Two or three cinematics in and I was completely lost, and didn't really care to back up and figure it out. The dialogue is over-the-top cheesy and tries way too hard to sound patriotic or remorseful.
* Missions - Too long and too expansive. Fighter pilots in reality work in teams, but not here. Where in reality a wingman would get enemies off your back, and other squadrons would accomplish mission tasks, the pilots in the air here (especially your over-chatty wingman) are just plain useless. I know the developers wanted to make a "massive, multi-layered combat environment", but such environments usually have more than one aircraft feverishly running and gunning.
* Unkillable A.I. - The "Strigon" squadron is as easy to kill as shooting at gnats with arrows. But the good news, don't even try and they'll be miraculously defeated anyway...
* Danger alerts - Oh my good lord, these are so annoying!!! Yes, I know there's yet another missile chasing me that I'm just going to out-run anyway, quit the beeping! Quit the announcements! If my wingman isn't going to help out back there, just shut up.
* Music - doesn't matter to some, but it's a personal pet peeve of mine when the music sucks. Ace Combat 4 for some reason had an amazing score put to it, but not this one.

Even with the bad though, just playing a high-def, arcade-style flight sim with unlimited missiles on a big TV is worth the included garbage.

If you liked Ace Combat 4 for PS2, I think you'll love this title for XBOX 360. The basic format hasn't changed. The game has the same look and feel, albeit better graphics and sound. The planes can be customized with different paint schemes and weapons. I'm glad they didn't make the payload count realistic (100-200 standard missles plus special weapons)because it would be boring to keep flying back to base to re-arm every 5 minutes.

The missions are expansive and, at times, frustrating. Yes, I do have to put the controller down once in a while to cool off. Wouldn't you after 40 minutes of playing and then get shot down? However, I find myself quickly picking up the controller to finish the mission soon after. There is a very addicting aspect to this game.

They've added a few nice features. You have a dedicated wingman who will try his best to keep up with you. You can order your wingman to engage a target or cover your 6. You also select his plane and ordinance before the mission, so he can be handy taking out airplanes while you take care of the ground targets. They've updated some of the special weapons, but you'll be familiar with their usage if you've played the other titles. They've added a t.v. camera view for the target you are locked onto. This allows you to see their vector up close to choose a better missle shot. Some of the missions have you bomb the bejeezus out of an airport and then you can land there to re-arm instead of flying all the way back to base. Nice touch!

Like the other AC titles, the cinematic plotline is lame. Skip it.

Overall, this is a great title but I am suspicious as to how long it will hold it's replay value. Yes, the missions are long and fun, but unlocking EXPERT and ACE mode doesn't seem enough. If you can wait for a used or discounted price on this title, do so. Either way, you will be enjoying the best fighter jet sim on the planet. Since I paid 60 bucks, I was hoping to find cheat codes to unlock all of the planes, cash, and weapons. No dice.

Once you get over the fact that this isn't a traditional flight sim by any means, you can have a lot of fun with this one.

The graphics are superb. I am suprised at just how good they got them to look and still manage and excellent frame rate. Lighting effects (flare) and smoke/particle effects really build a realistic atmosphere.

What is not realistic is the fact that you can carry a couple of hundred missles to shoot the bad guys. Also, the flight model is not that accurate. This game is more about having fun flying around and blowing stuff up rather than trying to be an accurate sim (in fact, try not to think of it as a sim at all).

One gripe I have is that it seems that you could easily use just a handful of the available planes to complete the missions - completely ignoring the strengths of some of the less overall capable planes (I really wanted a mission designed just for the A10 for example).

Enemy AI is ok, with the harder levels providing a challenge for seasoned gamers.

One problem I have is with the cut scenes. They are beautifuly rendered but clearly the story line and the dialogue was written by adrunken 4 year old. Surely they could have come up with something more compelling.

Overall, this game is worth it. With multiple difficulty levels and online play it has some lastability.

This is far better than Ace Combat 4, 5, or AC Zero because it includes a full replay video of your game, a stunningly superior graphics detail and realism with high-definition quality, making your replay videos look seriously better and more realistically entertaining to watch than a video made from an actual airshow. If you describe the graphics in Ace Combat 4 and 5 as photo-realistic, Ace Combat 6 is high-definition video-realistic, worthy of recording onto the XBox 360's hard drive for watching again or over lunch or showing to jet-enthusiast friends. You can even play the introduction video with the aircraft of your choice after a certain point and also show your wingman's plane with the weapons loadout of your choice for both aircraft.

The aircraft selection with stunning detail and realism in the game are as follows: Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon, Dassault Mirage 2000-5, A-10 Thunderbolt II, Panavia Tornado GR-4 Strike Fighter, Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet, Mitsubishi F-2 Multirole Fighter, Northrop Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat, Sukhoi SU-33 (Advanced) Flanker, Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle, Dassault Rafale M Multirole Fighter, F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter, Eurofighter 2000 Typhoon, Sukhoi SU-47 Berkut, Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor (Advanced Tactical Fighter), and a highly-advanced, slightly fictional CFA-44 Nosferatu (Air Dominance Fighter).

The special weapons loadout can be customized for each aircraft depending on the mission and can be changed within the mission upon landing at the airbase or by crossing the return line. The F-16 can be armed with 4 AIM-120 AMRAAMs, or 4 2000-pound unguided bombs, or 4 rocket launchers, along with the standard 2 AIM-9M Sidewinder Heat-seeking missiles which comes with every aircraft. The Mirage 2000-5 can be armed with Exocet Long-range Anti-ship missiles, Long-range air-to-air missiles, 2000-pound laser-guided bombs, or Self-forging Fragment Submunitions along with the 2 ASRAAM. The A-10 can be armed with 12 rocket launchers, 5 FAEBs, or 6 AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles. The Tornado can be armed with 2 Bomblet Dispensers, 2 Kormoran Long-range anti-ship missiles, or 2 Electronic Counter Measures Pods. The F/A-18F Superhornet can be armed with 8 AIM-7 Sparrow Radar-guided Long-range air-to-air missiles, 4 JSOWs (Joint Standoff Weapons) with dispenser submunition configuration, 6 AGM-65 Maverick Air-to-Ground missiles, or 4 Electronic Counter Measures Pods. The F-2 can be armed with long-range anti-ship missiles, quick-maneuver air-to-air missiles, 4 AMRAAMs, or 4 2000-pound unguided bombs. The F-14 can be armed with 6 Phoenix long-range air-to-air missiles, 6 AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided missiles, or 4 GPS-guided JDAMs. The SU-33 can be armed with 8 AA-10 Archer Quick-maneuver air-to-air missiles, 6 Medium-range air-to-air missiles, or 4 rocket launchers. The F-15E can be armed with 6 AIM-120 AMRAAMs (Advanced Medium-range air-to-air missiles), 4 2000-pound unguided bombs, 12 cluster bombs or self-forging fragment submunitions, or 6 AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles. The Rafale can be armed with 4 SCALP standoff dispenser, 4 semi-active long-range missiles, 6 medium-range active missiles, or 4 Exocet long-range anti-ship missiles. The F-117 can be armed with 2 1000-pound laser guided bombs, 2 high off-boresight AIM-9X Sidewinder II quick maneuver missiles, or 2 AGM-88 HARM (High-speed Anti-radar missiles). The Eurofighter 2000 Typhoon can be armed with 6 long-range air-to-air missiles, 8 AIM-120 AMRAAMs, or 6 rocket launchers. The SU-47 can be armed with 2 quick-maneuver air-to-air missiles, 2 long-range semi-active air-to-air missiles, or 2 unguided bombs. The F-22 can be armed with 6 AIM-120 AMRAAMs and 2 AIM-9M Sidewinders, or 4 AIM-9X Sidewinder II Quick-maneuver high off-boresight air-to-air missiles, or 2 standoff dispensers. The CFA-44 can be armed with 36 All-Direction Multi-purpose Missiles, 48 Electromagnetic Launchers, or 2 Elecronic Counter Measures Pods along with 600 short-range air-to-air missiles.

The actual number of missiles and special weapons in the game is exagerated to hundreds in number to make the game more fun and playable than the real thing of course, but you can still run out of ammo after a few sorties so you will need to cross the return line or land on an allied airbase, which also gives you a separate replay video of the landing. This will be a carrier landing in the case of naval aircraft, which is also awesome to watch in the replay video. In easy mode, it only takes one missile to destroy an enemy aircraft or ground target. Lots of attention to detail has been put into the realism and quality of the replay video, making them hugely entertaining to watch such as the high-tech yet rugged look of the mighty F-15E Strike Eagle roaring with thunderous afterburners while carrying a full load of ordinance such as AMRAAMs or Maverick missiles and the pair of navigation and targeting pods hanging under its sleek belly, along with the dark gray paint scheme and tail markings make it visually and stuningly similar to the real thing when watching the replay videos. I just wish Namco let us customize the weapons loadout with a more balanced variety such as combining AMRAAMs with Mavericks, or carrying JSOW on the versatile F-15E Strike Eagle which in reality can carry such variety of ordinance for multi-role missions.

If you like the other Ace combat games you'l enjoy this one. Its a cool game overall, but lacks the large selection of Fighters and cool Camo's we had to unlock. You get a wingman to help but he doesnt do to much. Plus the story and radio chatter gets annoying when they refer to the Dog Fights as "Dancing with the Angles". Its a great thing that you can mute it.
Graphics look great but the replay value stinks. I found myself not really wanting to play it again once I finished it on Hard then unlocked Expert(You get Ace after that). Namco will be allowing you to download thing off xbox live, and they have a few skins right now but not much. The online play is cool at times but you get into a room and everyone is useing the F-22. I expected that much once I saw which planes were available. They have a co-op but it not like that of Halo 3 which would have been sweet. I miss the Su-35/37 and the F-4.
True fans will not be let down by the game, but I'd tell anyone else to rent it first.

This game is a very good game for a few reasons. The first reason is the graphics, I cant believe the graphics on this game it looks so real (especially the airplanes). Second reason is the game play, The missions vary so you never do the same thing over again. The third and final reason is story, the story makes sense and it is understandable.

There is only one con to the game but it isn't a big one the dialog is stupid and corny but i don't play games for the dialog so it doesn't matter.