Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (Japanese: エースコンバット アサルト・ホライゾン Ēsu Konbatto Asaruto Horaizon) was the 14th game released in the Ace Combat series. It took place in the world, albeit in a different timeline from that ofJoint Assault. Players took control of various members ofTask Force 108, most notably William Bishop, as they attempted to shut down the threat posed by Andrei Markov and other rebels from Russia.

Assault Horizon was radically different from any other Ace Combat game in various ways. The Close Range Assaultsystem added a new element of gameplay specific toAssault Horizon, and it was the first Ace Combat to be released on personal computers and the PS3.

Gameplay
Assault Horizon boasts several radical changes to the standard Ace Combat formula. For the first time in the series, the player will alternate between piloting fighter jets, helicopters and bombers as the story progresses; for example, some missions will have the player being the door gunner of an MH-60 Blackhawk, while others put them in the role of a B-2A Spirit stealth bomber.

The game runs on a revamped game engine allowing for destruction in a scale never seen before in Ace Combat, and indeed in a flight simulator. This engine allows for real-time deformation: as an example, sustained gunfire on an enemy fighter will rip off its tail, while more severe damage will either tear off the wings or (in more extreme cases) even completely disintegrate the airframe as a whole, spilling the aircraft's oil across the sky and forcefully ejecting the pilot from the cockpit. As mentioned before, buildings and other structures are now subject to combat damage, and will deform in real time. Scenery damage will be often combined with Close Range Assault to provide a cinematic feel to gameplay—for example, stray fire in a pursuit will hit nearby buildings, forcing the player to evade the debris while remaining in pursuit. However, this is only at scripted points in campaign.

Controls
The game provides players with two control schemes, "Original" and "Optimum". The 'Original' control setting is similar to the controls known as "expert controls" in the previous Ace Combat games. As expected, it gives full control of the aircraft, with the left stick making it roll (not turn) when you push right or left. On the other side, the new "Optimum" control scheme -the default mode and the one used in all the trailers released so far- is NOT the equivalent of the usual 'beginner/novice' control style of the series. It prohibits one from doing full rolls but this is to gain the stability needed to get the best of the new ‘Close Range Assault System’.

High-G Turns are still available by pushing triggers together, as well as Autopilot if both shoulder buttons are depressed. A new feature called "Flight Assistance" provides comfortable options to players like Auto-leveling, Automatic Collision Prevention, Automatic Stall Prevention, sight assist and Automatic forward Target Selection. These options can be turned on or off.

Plot
In early 2015, an insurgent group named "SRN" surfaces in Eastern Africa. Quickly overwhelmed, the region's nations request the United Nations for help, which in turn calls upon NATO to deal with the situation. The insurgence has the advantage of guerillia warfare and unusually advanced weaponry, which allows it to rapidly move through the entire African continent. Seeing how the situation worsens, NATO commissions a special unit named the Task Force 108, an international military unit comprised of aircraft pilots and military commanders from, amidst other nations, the United States of America, Russian Federation and France. Furthermore, NATO has discovered that the rebels are in command of a weapon of mass destruction - a special cruise missile named "Trinity". To make things worse, it has been confirmed that the SRN is being assisted by a group of Russian mercenaries led by Colonel Andrei Markov, a feared ace pilot and former Lieutenant Colonel of theRussian Air Force. Soon thereafter, William Bishop, leader of the Task Force, sees himself and his comrades involved in an escalating race between NATO and SRN for the control of Trinity.

Multiplayer
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon features online multiplayer capabilities, similar to its 2007 predecessor. The game's feature mode, Capital Conquest, has players from both NRF and NATO either attacking or defending cities such as Paris or Washington. All ranges of aircraft can be used, from fighters and multiroles to attackers and choppers. When a base is at critical damage levels, the B-1B andB-2A become available for that side, and can be used to cause massive damage to the opposing base. However, they require Air Strike Mode to bomb (meaning they can only bomb the HQ, and only when available), and are very vulnerable, given their limited maneuverability.

The other three modes are Domination, where two sides gain points by capturing and defending various bases; Deathmatch, where points are gained by shooting down other planes; and Mission Co-Op, where up to four players can choose from one of eight specially-designed Campaign missions to play together with increased difficulty.

A new addition to multiplayer is the "Skill Set" system, which allows players to customize their aircraft's statistics to suit their game style, in ways such as stealth, mobility and weapons. Another addition is the "Friendly Assist System" (FAS), which allows up to four players to share a skill's benefits.

Callsigns
Assault Horizon also boasts a callsign setting, which allows different flights of players to customize their callsign for that match. Callsigns can only be set by the flight leader in the Capital Conquest or Domination modes, and must be unlocked by completing a task. For example, to unlock the Garuda callsign, one must complete the entire campaign; to unlock the Mobius callsign, they must receive the "Hero" multiplayer bonus; and so on. If no callsigns are unlocked or changed, a default callsign will be used (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, or Delta).

Aircrafts
Assault Horizon allows players to fly a variety of aircraft, ranging from fighters and attack aircraft to helicopters and bombers. Available aircraft include long-runners like the F-16C Fighting Falcon and the F-22A Raptor, while also including new designs like the Sukhoi PAK FA and the Su-24MP Fencer. They also play as a gunner of an AC-130 Spectre. Currently, there are 7 post-release downloadable aircraft which include the ASF-X Shinden II, a fictional aircraft designed by Macrosscreator Shōji Kawamori in cooperation with Namco Bandai, the Su-37 (with at least one skin being of Yellow Squadron), Ka-50 Hokum, Tornado GR.4, AV-8B Harrier II Plus, YF-23A Black Widow II, F-15S/MTD, and theCFA-44 Nosferatu.

Unlike in the previous games, the player doesn't have to purchase their aircraft but can instead choose freely from whichever are available for the upcoming mission. This isn't the first time that aircraft could be picked from the start after unlock, however, as this feature originated in Ace Combat 3. The selection is limited by the nature of the mission, e.g. in an air-to-ground, the player is limited to Attacker aircraft. After selecting the aircraft, the player can also select its paint scheme and special weaponry. In missions that switch between different player characters, the player has to select aircraft for all of them, e.g. in mission 11, they must select a bomber for Janice Rehl and a fighter or multirole aircraft for William Bishop. The player has no control over the aircraft, colors, and weaponry of their wingmen, who generally choose to fly the aircraft with the best stats available for the current mission.

Paint Schemes
In previous installments of Ace Combat, special aircraft colors had to be unlocked and/or purchased. Assault Horizon is the first installment to allow player customization of the plane's colors. Different parts of the plane's paint, including the missile smoke color, may be recolored to fit the pilot's preference, and paint schemes may be saved for future selection between schemes. Paint schemes are unique to only the plane it is first made on; for example, to fly every plane in one specific scheme, a separate paint scheme would have to be made for each and every plane in that color scheme.

There are special paint schemes that may be unlocked while playing through the campaign or multiplayer, or downloaded/purchased as downloadable content (DLC) from the PlayStation Store and Xbox LIVE Marketplace. For example, to unlock the Death Rider scheme for the F-15C Eagle, it must be downloaded as DLC. But to attain the Mobius paint scheme, you have to play multiplayer and achieve the "Hero" MVP award. Each special paint scheme can also be recolored to a new color scheme of the player's choosing, and there are many hidden selections; for example the Mobius' squadron logo is normally the same color as the rest of the scheme, but can be recolored to be shown.

Soundtrack
The Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Original Soundtrack is the game's official soundtrack. Similar in nature to thesoundtracks of Ace Combat 5 and Ace Combat 6, it combines electronic music with bombing symphonic sounds, which include both Western and oriental instruments. As well, unlike previous Ace Combatsoundtracks, it is notable for the inclusion of heavy electric guitar solos in many songs. A stand-alone release has not been confirmed.

It contains a total of thirty eight tracks divided in three discs. Pre-orderd Limited Edition copies in Europe contained an "small" version of the soundtrack, whereas pre-ordered copies in Japan contained the entire soundtrack.