Summary

The Good

The Nitpicks

PC Version Impressions:

Within 50+ hours of game play there were no crashes and the frame rate and frame pacing was always stable.



The PC version's highest settings are on par with the console versions, it doesn't aim higher, but has a resolution support for up to 8K downsampled to 4K, unlimited frame rate toggle and basic visual quality setting options in case you want to turn off particular effects or your PC isn't able to handle stable 60 FPS. In its current state the game doesn't support 21:9.



There are really aggressive LODs in place, thus you see world's smaller elements like vegetation fade in not far from you, but at the same time it's probably thanks to this the game runs really well even when maxed out.



There's native support for gamepads and "T. Flight Hotas One" flight stick. Experience on an Xbox One pad is seamless and enjoyable.



I wasn't able to trigger any bugs or abnormalities during the whole experience.



Overall, if you're looking for the best visual and frame rate experience then the PC version has got you covered, as long as your hardware can handle it.

Conclusion:

ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN brings back everything that was good about the series and delivers a fantastic experience for both veterans and new players.The game is a love letter to all the fans of the series and you can tell that the PROJECT ACES development team had a clear vision of making this one of the best Ace Combat games of all time with a refined combat, smooth controls, praiseworthy soundtrack, signature mission design, dramatic story with a big cast and high attention to detail: all of which combined leaves you yearning for more.The controls are responsive and feel just right: the planes control the way you'd expect them to in an Ace Combat game, allowing you to pull off any kind of stunt, maneuver at low altitudes between level geometry with ease, be it expert controls or cinematic. High-G turn allows you to do sharp turns, giving that extra edge when it's needed the most and there are no game play gimmicks that would force you to play this game in a particular play style like AC:Assault Horizon's "Dog Fight Mode".Music is a core part of an Ace Combat formula and it excels at setting the atmosphere and mood: briefing screen puts a serious mood on, hangar raises excitement and eagerness to play, mission themes breathe life into the playing field, adding that unique touch. Themes are dynamic, whenever you enter a cloud the track gets muffled. If a mission has multiple segments then each one of said segments gets its own theme. Cutscenes and themes are synchronized one with another, making scenes feel impactful, dramatic, satisfying to watch and play. The game has one common main theme that echoes throughout the whole soundtrack and a fantastic culmination theme that stands next to AC04's "Agnus Dei" and AC5's "Unsung War".The level design is one big fan service: if you've played any previous classic Ace Combat titles then you'll find a lot of familiar mission concepts saturated in one bundle. Majority of said ideas do not repeat, meaning that the game offers a breath of fresh air with every single upcoming mission. Visually, maps themselves look nice, clean and are an eye candy for the player.Story of AC7 is presented through semi-photorealistic cutscenes, mission briefing and radio chatter. The attention to detail that is put into chatter, story and general presentation is a pleasant surprise that keeps on giving when you end up discovering and noticing new things throughout multiple playthroughs. One may play AC just for the action, but the story of Strangereal, the alternate universe of the game, should be given a chance: it's well-crafted, full of plot twists and references to older titles for those that have played them, while still staying beginner-friendly.The plane design is better than ever before: they're sharp, hi-poly and clean, each cockpit is unique and makes you want to switch between different view modes just to witness all the eye candy the game has to offer. Planes have unlockable skins, which are mostly for bragging rights and unlockable parts, that can be purchased with MRP (in-game currency). Plane parts are re-usable, allow tweaking, improving plane properties and performance closer to your liking, it's not complicated and won't cause a headache. The game encourages you to try out every single plane and every single weapon by having unlockable nicknames for eliminating X amount of targets with said plane/weapon.Unlockables add extra replay value to the game. It will take some time to S rank all missions on all difficulties, get all medals and nicknames, trigger and take down all ace pilots for plane skins, purchase all planes, parts and do special challenge runs. On top of that there's multiplayer content that has its respective rewards waiting to be unlocked.Every single mission in the game has a timer showing how much time you have dedicated for that particular segment, however, the game never directly mentions the optimal time you're supposed to spend during the whole operation before time bonus points are rapidly reduced. Which leads into the next issue: to get S rank you're supposed to have high time bonus and enough destroyed targets. Meaning, that you're supposed to take out most high-value targets as fast as possible and it doesn't matter if you've wiped out all targets in the mission, because if you've spent too much time you won't get enough time bonus points. As a side note if an ally destroys a target it won't count towards your score and if you use Restart from Checkpoint then the time spent prior to the restart will be added on top of your total time. AC3 shows the time limit you have during the main segment of the operation, AC04 shows your current score's rank during the operation itself, in AC7 it's mostly trial and error: you're supposed to figure out the time threshold yourself and then try to get as many destroyed targets within that limit, strong-arming you into speedrunning all missions, except the destruction ones: those have set timers and you can enjoy destroying as many targets as possible. On a positive note restarting a completed campaign mission keeps your score, money and unlocks, meaning you can grind same mission for profit even if you're not using Free Mission mode.All cutscenes are skippable, but chatter sequences aren't. If you're trying to get the highest rank and keep restarting a mission you may end up with an unskippable scripted chatter scene through which you're forced to sit through every single time. It's not too bad and at worst it's below two minutes.With higher difficulty setting the game turns into a missile dodging simulator. So prepare to hear "MISSILE, MISSILE, MISSILE" and "EVADE" often, as enemies are going to target you constantly and your allies cannot be commanded to cover your six. Flares partially help, but you can carry from 2 to 6 flares and the better the plane, the fewer flares you get. That also should describe the multiplayer in a nutshell.And for the most ridiculous nitpick: the game is so good that there aren't enough single player missions to satisfy your needs. Fortunately, there are three upcoming missions via Season Pass and, hopefully, they'll be worth the wait.While being delayed for two weeks in comparison to the console release date the PC pre-release code is really stable.Ace Combat 7 shows that a war is never black and white as it may seem to be and leads me to believe, that AC as a franchise has a bright future ahead.If you've never played an Ace Combat game before, then this is an opportunity to change that. If you're a veteran looking for a classic AC experience then this will be your cup of tea.Review copy provided by BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment.