Overview

A realistic combat simulation that is actually easy to play? No, it can't be. Wait a minute. It is! Ace Gainsay 2 is easy to play. You don't have to be a real-life pilot or military officer to fly your missions. This is truly a rarity in today's combat sims.

Ace Combat 2 throws you in the airplane pilot seat of upwards to 8 actual armed forces fighters to have on tons of bad guys. You engage in furious air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, and it is upwards to you and occasionally your wingman (or -woman) to put an end to information technology all. Information technology seems every bit if some military rebels have decided to perform a little uprising and have managed to seize the United Forces administrative heart. Of course, this was non enough -- they are rapidly marching onward, taking over everything in their path. So the United Forces calls on y'all to lead a mercenary tactical strike force and stop the rebels at all costs. Sure, no problem. I was simply going to watch the brawl game and drink a beer, simply saving the world sounds a bit more fun.

Gameplay

Different most war machine war games I've seen, you lot don't have to be an aeriform combat expert to play Ace Combat 2. That has always been my biggest complaint almost flying games: yous either boot donkey or you lot can't play at all. And unfortunately, I have had to circle the "can't play" box. I always spotter people who could and thought it looked so cool, but I could just never get the hang of information technology. If you lot have the aforementioned problems, then wait no further. Ace Combat 2 is for yous.

The primary matter that makes the game easy to play is the unproblematic controls. Most of the buttons on the controller are used, but they are all logical and piece of cake to larn. Afterwards one mission, you lot will be flying similar a pro. Also, the radar is very simple and it maps out where your enemies are and the direction you need to head to find them. The radar is always nowadays in the lower corner of the screen, so you don't have to stop to look at a different screen every time yous want to see where to go. The other thing that makes it easy is that you are not bogged downward with tons of weapons choices to acquire. Y'all have a machine gun and some missiles. You lot don't have 312 dissimilar types of missiles, either. Y'all just have missiles. Just shoot away.

The game is mission-based with up to thirty missions to complete. The object is to complete the missions equally quickly and accurately as possible. At the stop of the mission, yous volition receive a rank depending on your performance, as well every bit a cash award for completing the objective. As the game progresses and your rank rises, dissimilar aircraft become available for you to purchase (even though you are working for the government, they still make you buy the planes -- typical). Each plane has unlike characteristics, although to a novice like myself, they all felt pretty much the aforementioned. Anyhow, the farther you go and the more missions you complete, the more money you accept available to purchase the better planes.

Y'all tin buy new planes all day long, only I think the all-time-spent money is on a wingman. Y'all accept the option on some missions to hire a wingman and give him directions. If my mission included erasing a footing target, I would command my wingman to appoint enemy shipping and so I only needed to concentrate on the ground targets and not the other shipping. Don't get me wrong. You will even so take to fight off your share of aircraft, just at least y'all have assistance. This helped me out more than any fancy new airplane ever could.

One of the things that makes Ace Combat 2 cool is the environments yous will fly through. You will fly above mountains, through river valleys, in the middle of cities and over h2o. Every 1 of these terrains changes the whole complexity of the game. For example, some missions crave yous to fly low through a deep river valley considering the enemy has surface-to-air missiles that would knock you out of the sky and then fast you would not know what hitting yous. So you lot are forced to stay below radar, and the merely mode to do this is to fly inside the valley. This ways your focus is not only on the enemy, but also on not crashing into the wall. One of the coolest missions places you in a urban center with a harbor. You are fighting ships docked in the bay, taking out bridges to stop traffic and flight between skyscrapers. That is a total rush.

I thing I did non understand was occasionally you lot were asked to country your plane either on a landing strip or an aircraft carrier. It did non seem to make much difference if you succeeded or failed. It was almost like a throw-in at the final infinitesimal. Someone said, "Wouldn't it be absurd if you had to land your plane?" Anybody groans considering the game is almost prepare to ship, but the CEO thinks it's a dandy idea, and then the programmers threw it in. I don't know if information technology's truthful, simply since landing the aeroplane lacks any real signal in the game, it seems logical to me.

Graphics

The graphics in Ace Combat ii are great. All the dissimilar environments were awesome. I felt like I was really flying through the valley -- with one small flaw. I did non really get a truthful sense of speed of some of the terrain. When you are flying over long mountain ranges at 600 MPH, yous really did not feel similar you were flying that fast. On the other mitt, if you tried flying that fast through the city, y'all would not live very long.

The other thing that stood out graphically was the enemy fighters. When you were in a dogfight, you felt like information technology. The other planes were realistic-looking and somewhat intelligent. They did not just let y'all lock onto them and blast away. When you finally did nail them, the explosions were well-rendered and dramatic. Also, some planes would start smoking and dropping before exploding -- a nice touch on of realism.

Lesser Line

If you have never been able to master a flying combat game, your time has come. This game has some of the nearly simplistic controls and easiest flying system around. Outstanding graphics and intense gameplay make this game fun that will last for a while. The different environments that you fly through are a welcome add-on. I am starting to call back that Namco may exist the surprise developer for the PlayStation.