Let’s cut to the dogfight chase: Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (ACAH) is shameless entertainment and makes no apologies for it. The over the top (and barely existent) plot, endless collateral damage in remote warzones, and air combat insanity combine to produce a title that will either invoke gaming bliss…or a quick trip to the trade it in line.

I found myself falling somewhere in between these two extremes. Ace Combat, for those new to the series, is a classic Namco Bandai franchise that literally dates back to the original PlayStation. Like many of their legacy titles, Namco Bandai’s Ace Combat line has a dedicated fan base behind it, individuals happily wedded to this very Japanese, wacky arcade air shooter.

This dedication is not surprising. Good air-based, console titles are as rare as pleasant weather in Canberra. Just recently have decent flight simulations crept their way onto next generation consoles, risky endeavours that only smaller publishers seem willing to experiment in. Even less take the plunge with arcade-esque air brethren, often half-arsed initiatives limited to download only status.

Thus, ACAH is a bit of a renegade in its own right, a bona fide air combat release with a legitimate marketing budget behind. Production values march in step, as this is one beautiful game to both watch and listen to.

Playing it…that’s a slightly less gratifying experience. What is intended as nail-biting arcade fanfare too often presents itself as chaotic, uninspired and redundant gameplay experience. Wave after wave of similar enemy types, terrible partner artificial intelligence across accompanying pilots, and finally combat dynamics more random than actual are a troika of monotony that even gorgeous landscapes and presentation values can’t overcome.

Speaking of troika and all things Russian, I’m amazed an award-winning writer could produce such plot garbage. To Namco Bandai’s credit, they literally commissioned a New York Times bestselling author to help the series step out of fictional conflict into a world of United Nations and NATO, Africa interventions. What they got was a slew of stereotyped characters, a rehashed plot of Russian betrayal, and nothing interesting enough – other than new aircraft types and/or interaction anticipation – to keep one awake in Campaign mode. While Homefront was playable rubbish, at least the plot is solid.

Thankfully, however, ACAH stuck to what Ace Combat does best. Aircraft are terrific in rendering and surprisingly diverse (fighters, helicopters, attackers, oh my!) Sure, differences appear as dumbed down, speed/defense attributes and/or weapon types. Still, these differences are very noticeable in actual play, also beat the heck out of endless customization to nowhere (you hear me, Moto GP?). Camera angles are limited to the usual flight sim three (in cockpit, behind aircraft, altimeter naked), but do what they’re intended.

To keep things interesting, ACAH introduces a much touted dogfight mode (DFM), one aimed at livening up showdowns (especially online) against enemy aircraft. This new mode allows lock on, mano-y-mano engagement, where speed tweaks are essential also good awareness of evasion counter-strikes. The mode is certainly cool to play, as is witnessing resulting, slow-mo destruction from downing baddies. Ace Combat veterans are likely to either love or hate this mode due it simplification of combat…but simultaneous increase in finger twitch stemming from closer pop-pop.

Once more, I’m somewhere in the middle. An irritating horizon line plus enemy locator dynamic drove me so crazy, that DFM was the only way to keep track of who I was killing and where headed. In multiplayer, this horizon line/locator dynamic produces chaos that only an iPhone launch could possibly emulate.

On a similar note, let me be the first to plead for switching the game immediately on ‘Expert’ mode….even for newbies. Anything less finds your plane auto-leveling constantly and/or failing to execute proper rolls. Even with more realistic flight controls – and noting this an arcade title – ACAH, however, is never truly intuitive in its control scheme. Quite frankly, only the helipcopter-based, rails shooter levels didn’t drive me loco. Likely because they were on damn rails.

Not a big ACAH online community as of yet, but one that no doubt will grow over time. Online game modes are carbon copies out of ‘Call of Duty,’ with deathmatch, capture the flag, and cooperative heading the pack. When I finally connected to a match, the chaos overwhelmed me. Too much going on, no clue what I was doing, and getting shot of the sky far too often. I conjured epileptic fits from the barrage of pop-ups, warnings and noises on my screen when in online matches. Perhaps after a few more hours it will make more sense. Or perhaps not.

In closing and in writing this review, I’m simply torn. On one hand, I want to laud a game and publisher willing to mix things up within a tried and true, successful series. The other hand sees an inconsistent title that could – and perhaps should – be so much more. Ace Combat: Assault Horizon looks wonderful, stays true to the series, and has a nice mix of aircraft to keep the fun coming. Still, it also plays somewhat poorly, has a plot devoid of substance, and is redundant to a point of frustration.

In conveying these thoughts, a mate of mine – an Ace Combat fan for two decades – simply responded with: ‘well, that’s Ace Combat for you.’ He remained just as enthused of picking up his reserved copy, living the arcade flight battle dream. Touche’, work buddy.

Three stars for the casual Ace Combat gamers…perhaps just under four for those – paraphrasing the Bob’s in ‘Office Space’ – ‘that celebrate its entire catalogue.’