There's a certain level of expectation for Ace Combat 6, especially since it's the first in the series to arrive on the current generation of consoles. Sure, recent Ace Combat games have had laughable, melodramatic stories, but they do little to detract from the game's focus on supersonic speeds, rapid-fire explosions and sleek, sexy, highly expensive aircraft. Ace Combat's dialed into that innate human craving to blow things up, and on that front Namco's latest venture skyward delivers with flying colors.

In Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, players take up the role of an ace pilot whose country was recently invaded. Of course, it's up to you to lead your nation's forces into your homeland to reclaim what's rightfully yours and eliminate the enemy threat. You'll be subjected to a storyline delivered in typical AC fashion, told from several perspectives by people who must deal with the trials of war. The story itself is forgettable and acts as an interlude between missions, so if you decide to skip them to hop straight into the action, you wont be missing much.


As soon as you initiate your first sortie, you'll be treated to some spectacular visuals. Whether you're flying under bridges in metropolitan areas or negotiating lonely mountain ranges, you'll be constantly impressed with how great the environments look. The fighter models are spectacular, too; when you make a hard bank, you'll see the air breaking over your wings; when you throttle up your engines, they'll flare to life as the engines cause heat vapors to erupt. As you approach a battle already underway, you may find yourself marveling at all of the distant action -- planes dancing around in the skies with missile trails all over the place. And once you arrive at the dogfight, you may get so distracted by the chaos and beauty around you that you forget about the enemy fighter on your six. Simply put, Ace Combat 6 is gorgeous.

The game itself provides a tried and tested experience where you simply blow up all of the red dots on your radar. You hardly even need to pay attention to your mission briefings as it's all rather straightforward and obvious to anyone who's played an Ace Combat game before. However, there are a few new tricks at your disposal, as you'll be able to command all of your ground and air forces to do your bidding. As you shoot down various targets, a meter will charge up, which will grant you the ability to call for support, and once that call is placed, your forces will aggressively assault your enemy or cover you. They're rather effective, capable of punching a huge hole in the opposing forces.

Despite their simplicity, missions are now longer and most include multiple operations per sortie, making for more stressful and chaotic action. You'll be able to select which operation to assist before the mission starts and from there you'll do everything from covering your ground forces to battling with elite enemy squadrons. With all of these operations going on, the battlefield can quickly become intimidating as there's so much happening. And during all of the chaos, you may be called in to support other operations before you're done with your existing task. A tense balancing act emerges, which is a refreshing addition to the series.

Enemy AI is a lot smarter this time out, which you'll quickly find out for yourself as you get nailed time after time. Luckily, there are checkpoints within the various assignments, so you won't have to start from the beginning every time you're shot down. As you find yourself getting hit, a new need to return to your base of operations for repairs and rearming your fighter kicks in. However, as your base is so far from the battlefield, some strategy will need to be employed. At the start of any mission with multiple operations, you'll be able to choose which base you'll start at. You'll be able to capture airports in some stages, providing a place closer to the battle to land for repairs, which quickly becomes an essential operation, or you'll be able to jump straight into where the fighting is the heaviest, making sure your forces don't get decimated. It's your call to determine where you're needed most.