Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies

by Ace

Product Features

• Soar through the blue in 24 missions, piloting the fastest & most powerful aircraft in the world
• Incredibly detailed aircraft are modeled from real jet fighters in 3D
• A rich and engaging storyline will impress you -- it unfolds as you fly in deadly combat missions
• Realistic speed effects will practically make you feel teh G-forces crushing your chest
• Real weather effects will affect your flight abilities -- will you be thrown off by cloud cover or glare for the sun?

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005NN5J
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches ; 6.7 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: October 23, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (207 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,111 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #4 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Simulation
  • #7 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > Racing
  • #100 in Video Games > PlayStation 2 > All Games
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies is as close as console owners can come to owning a PC-class simulator. It still has the arcade sensibilities of previous entries in this popular series, but the graphics, number of planes (all with different flight characteristics), and story line kick this dogfighting experience into full afterburner.

Things don't start out too well. Early in the game you're saddled with what amounts to a flying brick, and are forced to fly a few boring mud-moving missions. Stick with it, though. By the end of the game, you'll have earned enough money to buy a hangar full of incredible aircraft, each with special weapons, capabilities, and shortcomings. The F-14, for example, has a slow roll rate but can engage multiple targets at long range. The A-10 is horrible in a dogfight, but is devastating down low. You'll need to familiarize yourself with all the planes, as picking the right plane for the job always spells the difference between success and failure in the later missions.

The game is nearly perfect in the audio department, with booming engine noises (taken from recordings of the planes' real-life counterparts) and constant radio chatter during missions. Graphically, it's a bit of a letdown, especially the anemic explosions. Up high, everything is picture perfect, and the plane models are gorgeous, but close to the ground the terrain melts into a pixilated mess. This is offset somewhat by the inclusion of dense urban areas and twisting canyons that are thrilling to fly through. All things considered, Shattered Skies is the best mix of simulation and arcade action ever burned onto a disc. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Photorealistic terrain (at least when viewed from high altitude)
• Nonstop action backed by an engaging story
• Intense dogfights, sometimes involving dozens of planes

Cons:

• Scripted mission design doesn't give players much freedom
• Pathetic explosions
• Terrain that loses detail when viewed from a low altitude

Product Description

Ace Combat 4 takes fans of high-flying air combat further than they've ever been! It's all-out speed & combat in this high-flying adventure!

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drop dead gorgeous, October 26, 2001

By 

James Marohn (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies (Video Game)

The photo realism must be seen first hand to be believed, screen shots and movie clips found around the net cannot describe half the beauty that this game is. The graphics, consistent frame rate, and responsive controls successfully creates an immersive environment of flight. There are times where I would ignore the mission objectives and fly at incredible speeds, low to the ground, amongst snow-capped mountains. One word: Bliss.

The gameplay sits somewhere between simulation and arcade. Personally it's a perfect balance. I find simulations (Jane series on PC for example) too steep of a learning curve. The massive amounts of micro-management required to fly a plane is a bit daunting, if anything, definately not 'fun'. On the other end of the spectrum, arcade fliers are too simplified with unrealistic physics, dumbed down controls, and gameplay mechanics that offers nothing but a mindless blast-a-thon. Shattered Skies is not a shoot-em-up. It offers an incredible sense of flight with controls that anyone can pick up after little practice.

Only drawback...18 missions seems awfully short. But short games seem to be the trend with these next-gen console games <sigh>. The missions, however are varied enough, and since you can revisit them with any of the 21 air crafts (each with a distinct style of flight), the replay value can be arguably good.

Bottom line - finally, PS2 games are starting to show off the system's capabilities. AC4: Shattered Skies is no exeption, even the controls take excellent advantage of the analogue buttons. Dog fighting, bombing missions, avoiding anti-aircraft gun fire, shaking off missle locks, etc. etc. etc. everything you'd expect and want in a title like this, you will find. And all of this is presented in a style that is polished and, for a lack of a better term, very slick. If anything, for the genre of the game, it is Fun. Blissful and Gleeful in immersive flight.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Yowza!, November 1, 2001

By 

Bob Manson (Berkeley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies (Video Game)

Unlike the rather disappointing US version of Ace Combat 3 for the Playstation, AC4 is awesome. If you like arcade flight sims, this one's an easy purchase. I originally set myself up for a disappointing experience, but I've been playing it for the last three hours and I'm one happy camper.

It has a (amazingly) comprehensible story with enjoyable narration--something that was sorely lacking from AC3. The battles make some amount of sense; there's a definite flow and feeling of achievement after each mission, although it's still fixed in terms of the actual events that occur. (There were aspects of AC3 that were cool, but the whole branching storyline made no sense without any cutscenes--it was just weird.)

The money system is a great idea, especially since planes in AC3 seemed to show up at the whim of the designers or as a result of contrived storyline events. You earn extra money for shooting down additional planes and earning higher mission grades, which can be used to purchase alternate weapons and new planes. It gives some real motivation to do a better job on the missions other than just getting an "A" beside your name.

The difficulty levels are a nice change as well--there's a "very easy" level that is reasonably easy to play, but still presents a bit of a challenge. There's also a tutorial, which isn't that great but at least it's something--it was rough for beginners to get started with AC3. (The biggest problems with the tutorial are that the text goes by too slowly, and there's not much in the way of feedback. I was hoping for a way to practice various things like missile usage and bombing, but no such luck.)

Graphics: beautiful. They're good enough that I don't pay any attention, and that's precisely where they need to be. I haven't noticed any anomalies at all in fact--no funny popup problems, weird blurring effects, slowdowns, whatever. The sounds are quite good as well, tho the "pilot chatter" can be annoying at times...it's also useful (warns of enemy planes etc) so it's acceptable.

Of course it's still Ace Combat: flight isn't terribly realistic, near-insane amounts of ammunition, surprise storyline changes, an amazing array of airplanes to choose from. That just makes it all the more fun...sure, realistic flight sims have their place, but that isn't what AC is about and that's OK.

Don't be scared off if you were unhappy with AC3 for the Playstation--this is a totally different animal, and well worth it.

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great arcade action, October 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies (Video Game)

I was brought up on the Falcon/Jane flight simulators for the PC. I wish the reviews that I read had mentioned the following:
1. For a single player, there is only one mode of play. There are 18 relatively easy missions to complete. The average person will probably wrap this game up in 7-10 days of casual play. Thus, this game probably isn't the best value out there.
2. This is not a simulation -- it's an arcade game. If you're expecting full control over all aspects of the game, you may be disappointed. For example, you're not expected to land or takeoff. Each plane can hold 60+ missiles. The radar/weapons system are also simplistic.

With that in mind, there are several neat features of the game. The planes are very detailed and everything looks very life-like. The computer AI is pretty good; some of the opponents are excellent pilots. There is a wide selection of weapons, and each plane has its own distinct strengths and weaknesses.

Overall, there's lots of obvious additions that the programmers could have included (more modes of play/better replay mode). However, the game is fun to play and it looks great. I would recommend this game for everyone except someone looking for a true flight combat simulator.