All the people knocking the IGN review seem to be missing key points of the reviewer's arguments.
I technically saw one of them take down an enemy, so it isn’t as if they are completely inert, but they’ll never advance an objective or take down a bogey on your tail. Instead, you are saddled with inept AI teammates who cannot pull their own weight. Demanding you take care of multiple problems at once, it oftens seem as if your missions were designed for a squad of capable pilots working together, but there’s no co-op option. It doesn’t help that many of the missions divide your attention across its wide levels. It adds an element of randomness that the mission does not allow for, since a single downed ally forces you to start over. Despite each fighter having a character name, the jets are all marked “ally” on your HUD and radar. In one mission where you and your squad must protect a group of fellow pilots you are constantly fed chatter about how different protectees need help, but nothing to tell which pilot, specifically, is calling for help at a given moment save for a temporary blue outline that can only be seen if the pilot is already directly in front of you. You also aren’t always given enough information to properly track your objectives.
You can eventually master missions through repetition, learning where enemies come from and honing your response, but that kind of trial and error grinds the flow of most missions to a halt. but often come with specific time limits or procedural constraints that aren’t made clear, so you only find out about them when they cause you to suddenly fail the mission. The descriptions of mission objectives are often defined broadly - protect an ally, take down the enemy bombers, etc.
There’s also a steady stream of inane commentary from your squadmates and mission commands during each level, and you need to pay attention to that dialogue because it sometimes provides context that will help you understand your mission.Īce Combat 7 expects you to understand what’s going on at all times but rarely tells you what it wants.Īnd you need all the help you can get on that score, because even though Ace Combat 7 expects you to understand what’s going on at all times it rarely tells you what it wants from you. There’s a heaping helping of exposition in every mission briefing, which you can also skip but shouldn’t because that’s where your objectives are explained.