ACE COMBAT 7 Gameplay Walkthrough

ACE COMBAT 7 Gameplay Walkthrough

There are moments, particularly when chasing down with a tricky opponent, when your reflexes are put to the test. All that strategy flies out the window as you focus solely on keeping up with the jet in your sights and lining up that perfect missile lock. You can pick it up and play at a basic level, but dogfighting in Ace Combat is, and has always been, surprisingly complex: there are tricks and advanced maneuvers to figure out using the advanced turning controls that bring lots of nuance to the combat.

ACE COMBAT 7 Gameplay Walkthrough

Figuring out tilting your nose up can slow your forward movement down without losing speed, integrating advanced pitch and yaw controls to tighten up your turns, or simply fine-tuning your sense of the ideal angle from which to approach an enemy fighter to get a quick, decisive shot at them take practice and knowhow. As someone who’s played Ace Combat games before, I came in with some of that knowledge but it still felt like I had a lot to learn.

ACE COMBAT 7 Gameplay Walkthrough

For that reason, I was baffled by the fact that Ace Combat 7 offers little to no help. Whether you’re a new novice player or an old fan returning and looking to take your piloting skills to the next level, there is no training mode and no advanced tutorials. Many mechanics, such as using bombs to attack ground targets, get no instructions at all, even when they’re incorporated into missions. Even on easy, the difficulty meant for those “who are new to the Ace Combat series,” there are a just few text prompts in the opening missions telling you how to brake, accelerate, use your missiles, etc.