Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Demo

So just the other day, I tried out the Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Demo on my Xbox 360. It was an interesting experience, but I'm not sure I like it a lot. First thing I want to say is that my comparisons will mainly be to Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. I think that's reasonable, considering that was the last game in the series to come out on the Xbox 360. Anyway, there are two modes in the demo, fighter plane mode and attack helicopter mode. I tried plane mode first.

There are two control schemes you can choose for plane mode. One is called Standard, and the other one is called Original. Standard is an easier mode where the plane auto-levels in the absence of control inputs, and you simply push the left control stick in the direction you want to go. The rudder is still a separate control though that can be used for yaw adjustments. The demo defaults to this control scheme. Original gives you full control, making the x-axis of the control stick control the plane's roll, and making the y-axis control pitch. Plane mode begins with you in control of an F-22 Raptor, and they stick you right in the middle of the action. Immediately, they want you to try out their new game mode, known as Dogfight Mode (DFM). It's a mode you can activate once you somewhat behind another plane and sufficiently close enough by hitting both yaw buttons. It somewhat auto-tracks the plane you are locked onto, letting you dodge buildings and such more easily, as well as letting you have an easier time of firing on your opponent. Opponents can also initiate DFM on you, and you can get out of it by either speeding up and shaking them off, or slowing down until you get close enough to hit both yaw buttons to initiate the counter maneuver, which is simply an inside loop to get behind them in DFM mode instead. I would assume on harder difficulties, the enemies will shake you off more effectively, or use counter maneuver to get behind you, making it a challenge to take down someone, even in DFM. I wasn't a big fan of the mode though. While it allows them to make the game more visually interesting, with exploding plane debris and collapsing buildings, it makes me feel like they've gotten rid of a lot of the challenge in trying to stay on someone's tail. Anyway, once they introduce basic DFM to you, they do the standard introduction of the controls. Everything is the same as Ace Combat 6 except for the high-G turn. Now you accomplish that by hitting just the brake and pulling up, instead of having to hold both the brake and the boost. At the end of the demo mission, they have you do some Quick Time Events, although I haven't tried yet to see what would happen if you failed to pull them off.

Helicopter mode is a brand new mode. This mode also has two control schemes, this time labeled Type-A and Type-B. Type-B is closest to being like the plane mode controls, so I recommend using that for minimal confusion. This mode made me very nauseous after playing for a while, but I get nauseous fairly easily, so I assume it won't be a problem for most people. In this mode, you can sort of lock-on to an enemy by holding the appropriate button, but switching enemies requires letting go of the button, aiming your reticule at the new enemy, then pressing down and holding the lock-on button again. It's hard to re-orient your helicopter while locked on, but it seems for the most part, your helicopter can shoot in just about any direction. Shooting down other helicopters was quite difficult though, as it was quite hard for me to actually hit them with rockets, while machine-gun fire wasn't really enough to take them down. Maybe I was just bad at it. Hitting LB+RB while being targeted by a missile will initiate the counter maneuver for the helicopter, which is simply a barrel roll to evade it. It's a pretty challenging mode too with the fact that the environment is very urban, so a lot of the targets take cover behind buildings etc. Truthfully, I hope there isn't much of this mode in the final game, especially since I got very nauseous playing it.