The Ace Combat series has long been the measuring stick for console based flight combat games, and Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation is no different. The first Ace Combat to make it onto next-gen consoles has established itself as another solid title from this series….

Story
The Ace Combat series is known for its grand, epic, and sometime cheesy storyline, whose pinnacle was Ace Combat 5, which had an incredibly engrossing storyline which was a delight to experience. In contrast, however, the story of Fires of Liberation, seems a bit lost and confusing at times. The story, which plays out in a cutscenes usually at the beginning and end of missions, along with a scant few in mission cutscenes, are usually divided between several characters, so it lacks the same consistency in storyline that Ace Combat 5 brought to the table. At times, the dialogue and story are so terribly cliche and cheesy it’s almost painful to witness, but at the same time, it’s a part of the Ace Combat series. It’s not a terrible story, per se, just… not very easy to relate to.

In a nutshell, a neutral country of Emmeria is attacked by neighboring Estovakia, and as a member of the Emmerian Air Force, you, callsign Talisman, must help take back your lost capitol. The other viewpoints provided to supplement the main storyline come from assorted civilians, an injured Estovakian officer, and various soldiers from both sides. It’s a nice touch, being able to see the storyline from numerous different views, but given how short the game is (more on that later) it just seems remarkably unfulfilled. 6/10

Graphics
Perhaps the greatest improvement over the previous installments, Fire of Liberation takes advantage of the hardware provided to it in the Xbox 360 to provide some of the most breathtaking graphics I’ve ever seen. The planes are incredibly well detailed, as are environmental effects such as clouds and sun. Missiles, engine wash, gunfire are also richly detailed and a pleasure to watch. Frankly, I can’t see anything wrong with this game in terms of graphics. 10/10

Sound
Another aspect that Ace Combat is known for is powerful and emotional soundtrack that accompanies the games. Fires of Liberation continues this tradition with its heavy orchestral music accompaniment to the missions and cutscenes. At times (such as a certain Mission number 13, and practically all the cutscenes) the soundtrack perfectly fits the mood, whereas others, generally mission music, it’s generally very forgettable. 7/10

Gameplay
And now, what most people want out of the game, and I’m happy to report, that Fires of Liberation is a blast to play. In previous installments, combat was usually engaged in one, or maybe two different sectors at a time, with -maybe- up to fifty targets in the mission. Fires of Liberation completely blows the box away in this game, featuring up to around three hundred targets, divided into up to six different “operations”. The only word I have to describe the scale and scope of the combat at this point is epic.

You usually operate with a few other squadrons, who you can call in for support at certain times in the mission, a tactic new to the series, and a welcome addition given the number of enemies in this game. AI in your teammates has improved considerably, they’ll actually account for up to fifty percent of the enemy destroyed. It’s all very satisfying. Other additions to the series included landing in friendly airfields to rearm and customize you loadout if you run into something you’re not originally prepared to handle.

Controls are similar to previous Ace Combat installments, and it’s a cinch to pick up and play by just about anyone. It’s not meant to be a flight sim, as evidenced the ridiculous amounts of weaponry the various planes can pack, but it’s all great fun.

After each mission, you gain credits that can be used to purchase various planes and special weapons to each of them… and here comes the major hit to the series. Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation simply doesn’t have the same number of planes its predecessors offered its gamer. A mere 16 planes are offered, as opposed to the upwards of 40 planes offered in other titles. Notable fan favorites, such as the F-4E Phantom II, or MiGs of any kind are not available. What is exasperating to some is that the Phantom is in the game… just not flyable. There has been some speculation that additional planes will be released as downloadable content, but nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

In addition to the small flight roster, Fires of Liberation suffers from another glaring flaw: it’s just really too short. There are only fifteen missions in the campaign, and while the individual missions are much longer than those of previous games, it doesn’t change the fact there’s only fifteen missions, leaving it with an abbreviated storyline just sort of an unfulfilling single player experience.

In terms of multiplayer over Xbox Live, there are good points and bad points. For the good, there are a variety of mission types you can play, from co-op missions, to siege mode (protect or destroy mission targets), to free for alls, with a large amount of players. For the bad… there’s no regulation on what you can bring to a fight, leading to massive brawls of players flying the most advanced planes with the advanced missiles. It can be aggravating at times.

But all in all, Fires of Liberation is, no doubt, an incredibly fun game to play, despite its few limitations. 8/10

Additional Note
Some copies were released with a joystick/flight throttle combination. I personally did not purchase one, but I have heard very good things about the game with them. However, I can’t personally say anything on the subject as I have not flown with one. I will say the game is perfectly enjoyable and controllable with the basic Xbox 360 controller.

Play Time/Replayability
You’ll definitely want to play through the campaign at least twice, to go through the operations you didn’t go through the first time, trying planes that you haven’t flown before on harder difficulty levels. It certainly isn’t hard to unlock all the planes, as just over one runthrough of the game will result in enough cash to purchase all the planes and weapons. However, what will take time is running through the campaign to unlock the higher difficulties, Expert and Ace. Then there are, of course, the numerous achievements to unlock, shooting down named fighters, recovering all the records in the gallery. However, most of these don’t really affect the average gamer, and only hardcore Ace Combat junkies with bother to go through all of these accomplishments. All in all, if you’re adamant about not playing multiplayer there really isn’t all that much to do. A run through of the campaign took me around five hours. So, maybe twenty hours total before you’ve see practically all the game has to offer. 6/10

Final Recommendation
To those interested in this kind of game pertaining to aerial combat, I’d definitely recommend picking this up as soon as possible. To those who are unsure about the genre or this title, it’s at least worth a rent to experience the campaign once through. To those die hard Ace Combat fans… you’ve probably already purchased it.