Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon
North American Cover Art
Developer(s)	Namco (Project Aces)
Publisher(s)	Namco Bandai Games
Director(s)	Kazutoki Kono
Series	Ace Combat
Platform(s)	Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Genre(s)	Arcade, combat flight simulator
Mode(s)	Singleplayer

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is an upcoming installment of the Ace Combat arcade combat flight video game series developed by Project Aces and published by Namco Bandai for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It is the first in the series to be released for the PlayStation 3 system.

Development

The game was first hinted at by a trademark filing by Namco Bandai in April 2010. It was officially announced along with a gameplay trailer on August 9, 2010. Gameplay has been expanded to include the use of helicopters. The trailer showed the player using a AH-64D Apache Longbow gunship, and occupying the gunner's position on the UH-60 Black Hawk while attacking a desert village. Additionally the setting appears to have shifted away from the conflicts between fictional nations from previous games to the 21st century Earth. In the trailer the US Air Force is engaged in dogfighting with Russian Navy fighters (or forces posing as such) over Miami. The player in an F-22 engaging and destroying several enemies before being shot down himself. A man briefly mentions an Ace leading the attack on Miami named Col. Markov who has been nicknamed Akula (Russian for shark) because of the design on the nose of his plane. Another scene showed a US A-10 attacking a fleet of naval ships. The extended trailer had additional scenes of air battles with the player flying an F-35 and an F-16 over Dubai and an attack on a desert oil facility. It is also revealed that the time is sometime in 2015 and will also take place in East Africa.

Flights/Squadrons

Four squadrons are known at this time, and they are all elements of the 108th Task Force (which means they are all allied with the player). No enemy squadrons have been named as of yet (the only one referred to so far is the one led by Colonel Markov).

108th Task Force

• Warwolf Flight: An Air Force flight participating in the fighting over Miami. It may be the player character's main squadron. They fly F-35B Lightning IIs and F-15E Strike Eagles.
• Razor Flight: An Air Force flight that flies B-2 Spirits. It is depicted performing a bomb run over AA fire.
• Nomad Squadron: Addressed at the beginning of the debut trailer in the desert. It consists of the group of MH-60 Black Hawks depicted in the same scene, and is a part of the US Army.
• Shooter Squadron: Another squadron of the US Army, the Shooter squadron flies AH-64D Apache Longbows.

Antagonists

• Colonel Markov's Squadron: One of the enemy squadrons participating in the battle of Miami. Colonel Markov is leading a squadron to fight for African forces.

(Note: A Flight consists of three to six aircraft, while Squadrons consist of three or four flights, with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft.)

Characters

9 characters are known at this time:

108th Task Force

General Pierre La Pointe

The commander of the 108th Task Force.

Magic

A character asked to give a SITREP about the situation over Miami. It may be the callsign of the AWACS supporting the player, or the call sign of the 108th Task Force itself.

Spooky 01

A US Air Force AC-130U serving as a fire support gunship.

Major Janice Rehl

The pilot of Spooky 01, assigned to the operations over Africa by Colonel Bishop. Likes to tease Guts.

Warwolf Flight

Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop

The character who is portrayed in first and third person in the trailers over Miami in an F-22. He is shot down over Miami by Col. Markov, who seems to intend to ram him as he is parachuting. This is later to be revealed as a dream foreshadowing his encounter with the enemy ace. He is the leader of Warwolf Flight. He is also presumably the player's main character.

Captain Jose "Guts" Gutierrez

Bishop's close friend and wingman in Warwolf Flight.

Nomad Squadron

Captain Doug "D-ray" Robinson

The commanding officer of Nomad Squadron.

James "Hawkgunner" Mitchell

He mans the M134 on his MH-60L Black Hawk, and a fellow soldier can be seen accessing his twitter in the opening scene of the debut trailer. He wears a skull mask over his face.

Antagonists

Colonel Andrei "Akula" Markov

An Ace, and leader of an enemy squadron during the attack of Miami. He is nicknamed Akula (Russian for shark) because of the design on the nose of his Su-35BM.

Gameplay

Ace Combat Assault Horizon proposes two control schemes: 'Original' and 'Optimum'.

• The 'Original' control setting is similar to the controls in the previous titles under the name 'Expert'. As expected, it gives the player full control of the aircraft, with the left stick making it roll (not turn) when pushed right or left.
• The new 'Optimum' controls -the default mode and the one used in all the trailers released so far- is not the equivalent of the usual 'beginner/novice' control style of the series. It prevents the player from doing full rolls but this is to gain the stability needed to get the best of the new ‘Close Range Assault System’.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon makes the infamous "spamming missile" or "pixel shooting" techniques ineffective now especially when battling against humans. In order to shoot an ace the gameplay now requires the player to either surprise them or to enter close combat. The 'Optimum' mode makes it easier to learn.

In addition to these settings there are many options to tweak the controls and adapt to the player's style. It includes the choice of normal or reverse settings for the Pitch Control, Camera Control, Throttle, Yaw, and the order maps and weapons are cycled through. High G turns return from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation by pushing triggers together, as well as Auto Pilot if both shoulder buttons are held down.

Last, the Flight Assistances provides options to players such as Auto-leveling, Automatic Collision Prevention, Automatic Stall Prevention, Sight Assist, and Automatic Forward Target Selection. These options can be turned on or off.

External links

• Ace Combat series Wikia
• Official Website
• Official US Website