ACE COMBAT™ 7: SKIES UNKNOWN

Cipher should've joined Pixy and the Belkans and conquered the whole world in the 90s and there'll be no more wars for many centuries and Chopper and Harling would've still be alive today. But i need to take my pills for this one because this literally makes no sense since they gonna nuke everything anyway for that to happen.

8/10. Pretty enjoyable AC game but goddamn the aircraft pool is a little few and lack of variation since most of them are only available with the latest models with few 60s aircraft as an exception and some of the experimental planes and variants that were available from previous games are now sadly locked behind paid dlcs. Some of the aircraft doesn't even have animated airbrake and canards which bothers me a little bit since the old games has them but i'll let this one pass. Didn't liked the whole aircraft parts mechanics but not using them would've felt like it degrades below the actual performance the aircraft compared to previous games to perform like literal brick and it felt much worse when flying the F-16C stock the whole mechanic would've been better to just stay in multiplayer in the next game. Also the year is 2019 and UAVs are pulling 50g and we still have missiles that performs like AIM-9B/D? And the story of course its the goddamn Belkans again... Still returning to Stonehenge and Farbanti is a sight for sore eyes since atleast Stonehenge is the most iconic location/weapon in the series. Feels a little empty without functioning wingman system however.

Now please remake AC2, AC3, the holy trilogy and AC6 and please bring back AC5 aircraft pool, wingman, story and EW mechanics, AC6 battles, standard missile with prox fuse and cinematic missile trails and retains the squadron vs squadron dogfights from ACZ for the next sequel/spinoff!

Its the best aircraft game I own. its just hard to describe just how good Acecombat 7 is. so I have really high hopes for Acecombat 8!

Pretty good flight combat sim game I enjoy whenever I feel like playing flight sim/combat games.

loved the game, I loved collecting the aircraft and the great ending and the dlc missions are amazing also. gotta love the amazing on point details and graphics, if you want to get this game id way more then recommend buying it.

Funny Plane Game with John Nickleback. Play for story, multiplayer still around in certain hours

Great game with good sound design, graphics and game play. Although i did not find it as casual as it seems. Some missions are pretty difficult but each level is thorough and enjoyable. What i did not like is that the game doesn't quite tell you everything and the lack of customisation in the sensitivity of the controls.

Genuinely a good game, but needs more save points, especially during longer parts of the mission. I've been having trouble with mission 19, and whenever I die it just resets me back to the start of the section of the level and I loose a solid 5-10 minutes of progress. Everything else is wonderful however.

Checkpoints are non existent, have you just spent an hour mind numbingly repetitively killing every ground unit on the map and clearly onto the next part of the mission but accidentally crashed into the ground while doing silly acrobatics out of boredom? Restart from checkpoint? Oh, lmao, you thought we had checkpoints? This game is the epitome of time wasting, there are so many missions where it actively feels like the developers are trolling you with how boring this game is, like when you have to spend 20 minutes flying around without guns before you're allowed to engage the enemy, god forbid you fail that bit and have to spend 20 minutes flying around again until the actual mission starts, because again, there are no checkpoints.

Absolute Cinema.

Game looks bueatiful and still runs amazing. Story is incredible and so are the controls.

Ace Combat games are the pinnacle of flight sim video games. The game is entertaining and the stories are always great as well. I only hope they re-release ace combat 4,5,6 and even the wii ace combat on steam.

I really enjoyed AC7. Coming from AC2/3, the levels were interesting for a flight combat game and the story bits and characters dynamic kept the missions interesting.

I am very much looking forward to a sequel.

Amazing game. Aviation lovers new and old will love this. There are a few meh missions but overall the game including the additional missions are amazing. Wouldn't recommend this enough. Heavily optimised for old laptops and PCs. Soundtracks are a godsend from Keiki Kobayashi. 10/10.

É uma experiencia. Nunca pensei que um joguinho de avião ia ser TÃO BOM. 10/10

the game is fantastic i grew up playing this and halo...AC6 was fun but this gives me the same rush i got when i played 4 and 5 defintiely reccomend

I absolutely loved this game. I took many beautiful screenshots and enjoyed my 45h thoroughly.

The only game where you can commit terrible crimes against humanity and still be praised by your teammates and even some of the enemies.

This games cut scenes has no business going so hard. It could be its own anime

Gameplay is great, performance is great, campain is fun so far

One of my favorite games of all time. Great soundtrack, visuals, models. Hunting down all of the optional camo and S ranking added dozens of hours.

This was a first time for Ace Combat franchise for me and it was very fun,very difficult for myself overall i give it 10/10 for the story Mission and I've watched Top Gun 1986 and 2022 when they announced DLC for Maverick Edition when they release the movie around May 26 2022 and now it feels good and feels like ''THAT'S RIGHT ICEMAN I AM DANGEROUS''.

I hope they make next story game in 2025 of Ace Combat Franchise if we can able to do CO OP Mission in the Campaign.

nice game and nostalgic game for me, hope they can make this positive trend continue to the next series of ace combat

Ace Combat 7 is a good Ace Combat with a few things dragging it down.

Enemies are the most annoying they've been in any Ace Combat, and drone enemies especially so. There's a ton of scripting in big fights, which really slows the game down on replays and makes bossfights a chore rather than exciting. There's also a lot of gimmick missions with annoying failure conditions, but missions are checkpointed now at least. I found myself enjoying the score attack and CAS/ground support (Mission 12 especially) missions the most.

There is another problem, and that's the usual Ace Combat MRP grind has been vastly expanded. This is good in the sense that there's about as many variants of the F-15 as there are Gokus in a Dragon Ball fighting game, but a lot of the actually good Optional Parts (which are critical in making older aircraft as performant as the newer or fictional prototype ones) are locked as multiplayer only.

There's a mod on the nexus that disables this to let you use MP parts in SP, and it's a godsend. It does make the game really easy but AC7's difficulty curve is frankly a bit too high for people new to arcade plane games and who dont want to deal with bullshit like Cape Rainy Assault (a fantastically written mission let down by that opening sequence) or any mission with an altitude restriction. Like it's fine for me, I've been playing these games for a little bit but I can really see how it would be frustrating if you didn't learn it already playing the previous (and much easier) games in the series that these gimmicks reference. Like going back to AC4 or 5 from AC7 it's incredible how easy those games are compared to AC7 on Normal, especially when you have zero MRP and still need to buy planes.

Still, the game is good enough to warrant every boring scripted interaction with Mr. X or installing a mod to take High-Speed Data Link Antenna so you dont have to gun down drones. Also, go play Project Wingman. That's got the PS2 feel of the classic Ace Combats that got us here, and *especially* if you liked AC7.

Air Combat was the first game I got way back when I got a Playstation 1, The series peaked on the Playstation 2 with several great titles. Assault Horizon was a big disappointment, but with Ace Combat 7, we are SO BACK!
Honestly, I just bought this on a whim kind of expecting it to be crap, as I had given up on the series over 10 years ago because of Assault Horizon, and how the company treated the PC release. But now I want Ace Combat 8. Get it.

Great arcade fighter "sim". Packs a lot of action with a wide array of jets to choose from. It brings "childhood" memories. Great game overall.

Ace Combat is the best, hands down! Not like War Thunder, AC7SU, is a buy to fly and worth every penny. I first got the game on PS4, and when it came out on PC, I just had to get it! Unlike any other and the best in my opinion.

great story final mission was a bit tricky but my new favorite game

I really do like the game, and i might play it more (hopefully) after this review, but the third person camera and weapon balancing is pretty horrible, your gun basically deals 0 damage compared to one shot missiles, and the camera has a VERY low field of view, to the point where when you are looking around your cant even see your full plane, which makes the game extremely confusing to play imo. There are mods for the game that fix these things though

9.99/10, I cannot recommend this game highly enough! It's arcade flight combat at its finest, mixing the intense dogfighting action of a Top Gun movie with plot elements from Stealth(2005), all wrapped in a game that'll challenge your skills at just about every step. Granted, there are some missions in the campaign that will test your patience and frustrate you, and the story can feel a little disconnected from the gameplay at times, but stick through it with the incredible soundtrack, endearing characters, and stellar mechanics and everything will wrap up nicely. The only drawback left to mention is the price tag, while it's an amazing game, $60USD for the base plus the roughly $83USD for all the DLC is a bit much to ask. Wait for a sale, then snap it up quick.

Fantastic fun, just like playing H.A.W.K.X on the PS3, good story, lovely visuals, great jets and awesome to play.

its a fun game especially campagne and multiplayer it a fun game to play

9/10 game with a great soundtrack and fair difficulty, unlike other Jet games it does not cost an arm and a leg or constant grind for jets. If you are looking for a hyper realistic simulator game this is NOT IT, this game feels very anime like and cinematic which is awesome. The sci fi element blend perfectly into the universe. The story and lore flew over my head honestly, I had to watch a video explaining some of it, but I have not played any other ace combat game. Multiplayer, once again I must iterate this is not a realistic piloting game, as within the multiplayer it is constant missile spam. If you ask me the story is a lot better then the multiplayer, but I might just suck. Overall great game, would recommend.

Third time replaying this, this time on Steam.
Fun arcade flight sim with good handling and decent progression system. Gameplay keeps you engaged with plenty of unique mechanics throughout the story. Story leaves a lot to be desired when compared to it's older games, but alongside it's great lists of soundtracks it did fine for what it's attempting to do.
AC7 also serves well as an introduction to the Ace Combat series for newcomers with it's more modern gameplay, alongside it's story that's quite independent from other Ace Combat games with some references to older games that doesn't matter too much if you don't know the context.

Highly recommended if you're interested in an arcade flight sim with an engaging story.

TLDR; Ace combat 7 is a okayish game within the series of Ace Combat. Taking many references from Ace Combat 5 the Unsung War while failing to learn from it at the same time. Only get on sale, be prepared for a lackluster and confusing story unless you actively pay attention while getting nagged at to do X and Y within a time limit...

Ace Combat is not usually known for it's story, it rarely is, but when a good story in the series appears it's quite lovely, and written well enough for you the player to actually care about. Ace Combat 7 story is hot trash simple and clean, while it makes many references to AC5, and it can be cool seeing these in the game. The story is mostly Blah blah blah, some other characters that you don't care about, lots of characters that are just annoying, a crew of allies that do have potential but are never written beyond "follow the player character he's that GODLY" and the story is hard at times to understand because it suffers from "titanfall story" which they tried explaining a lot of stuff in missions but with some of the missions requiring you to "Score attack" or "defeat X enemies within y minutes" you're more worried about the score than the story...

The gameplay is what you'll be here for most, the game play is acceptable, it does a few new things with the "weather system" but be forewarned it's never really intended as a "highlight" just a accent on the main meat and potatoes, which is flying and shooting planes. Moving it's a lot easier, thanks to the devs adding in a "hard brake" system which is referred to as "G-turn" so you're not spinning around in circles forever...but you will do FASTER circling and circling around enemies.

There is also a new system, for all planes allowing you to customize "parts" which adjust the stats of each plane. Thankfully its very easy to understand and it just well works allowing you to make weaker planes into powerful machines if carefully tuned. But for the most part, the game suffers from "Throw all the shit at the player" and "hehe" your allies don't do jack.
You'll be surrounded by enemies left and right and your allies don't do anything to help you as you're constantly getting pinged from missile alert, with the game being more "expansive" than ever means a lot of enemies get to exist as well, which means you vs many....which can get rather annoying..

Anyway the game is lacking in several key points, and fails to up-hold the ace combat legacy it has built upon the legendary Trio of Brothers in the PS2 Era, Ace combat 4: Shattered Skies, Ace Combat 5: The unsung war and Ace Combat 0: The belkan war, if you go back to play these and then replay play AC7: Skies Unknown you'll be puzzled on how it lacking it is beyond the "Graphics" but graphics are nothing if the game suffers from it. Skies Unknown could've been a great game but is extremely average at best and even then only the most hard core AC fan after playing it might feel pity instead of victory

The game is complete and has a full story written. If you like anime of any kind, you'll definitely like the story telling in this game.

Fun game, lots of planes to choose from, good variety of missions, very re-playable.

Fun gameplay, good story and cool planes

Multiplayer is great fun. Be ready to be destroyed a good few times but the MRP rewards are worth it and you can move across the aircraft tree!

This has all of the feeling of Top gun, but no volley ball. Story is also a bit tedious. But if you got some pals for it, this game is peak
7/10

If you’ve ever wanted to know what it feels like to play an air combat game while also being the star of your very own soap opera, then Ace Combat 7 is the game for you! Imagine strapping yourself into a fighter jet, only to realize you're also the reluctant protagonist in a dramatic love story about international tensions and existential crises. Who knew aerial dogfights could come with such emotional baggage?

Graphics:
The visuals are absolutely stunning—if you can manage to look at them while frantically dodging missiles. The clouds look so realistic that you might just forget you’re in a life-or-death situation and start contemplating their fluffiness instead. I found myself thinking, “Wow, I’m really soaring through the sky,” just before plummeting into a mountain because I was too busy admiring the scenery.

Gameplay:
Flying is a blast! If you’ve ever wanted to pull off maneuvers that would make a seasoned pilot faint, this game is for you. Just don’t expect to be the next Maverick; I spent more time spinning like a top than actually engaging in combat. My biggest achievement? Accidentally crashing into my own teammates more than the enemy. I’m not saying I’m a bad pilot, but even my jet’s GPS started suggesting I take up gardening instead.

Storyline:
The plot is thicker than my grandma’s gravy—full of twists, turns, and a plethora of characters you’ll forget faster than you can say “air superiority.” There’s enough melodrama to fuel a daytime talk show. One minute, you’re battling enemy jets; the next, you’re tangled up in a love triangle involving a rogue general and an ancient prophecy about… well, something. Honestly, I lost track while trying to dodge a missile with my mind on the next cutscene.

Soundtrack:
The music is epic! Every time I took off, it felt like I was about to drop the hottest album of the year. Unfortunately, my flight skills are more akin to a kazoo solo than a symphonic masterpiece. If only I could blast my way through enemies with catchy tunes instead of missiles!

Multiplayer:
Multiplayer mode is where the chaos really shines. Picture a bunch of pilots trying to communicate, only to end up in an aerial ballet of confusion. It’s less “Top Gun” and more “Top Blunder.” I swear, I’m pretty sure I crashed into my own teammate more times than I actually shot down an enemy. At one point, I even considered switching to co-op baking instead—less chance of friendly fire!

Final Thoughts:
Ace Combat 7 is a delightful mix of high-speed action and dramatic storytelling. Just don’t take it too seriously—embrace the chaos, laugh at your own crashes, and remember that every dogfight is just a chance to work on your aerial ballet skills. So grab your controller, take to the skies, and prepare for a hilarious ride that’ll leave you questioning both your piloting skills and your life choices!

The story is beautiful, the cutscenes are wonderful to look at, there's a ton of planes to fly and the campaign makes you feel like a Badass and your the best pilot to have ever been birthed

Hi. It took me a little while to remap just a few buttons for my X52 but once I did and had a few goes, I've had a ball Playing this. I spent an extra $8 on sale to get the the F15 & F22. They are both complete Beasts. Highly recommend.

a 20 year old girl, who needs an ego check, and more importantly to wash her hand, got captured by military... why you ask? because she thinks it's perfectly fine to repair an unlicensed military aircraft, and to do drag race with it in the MIDDLE OF A FOOKIN WAR. none the less, the missions were good and fun to play, even if have spent most of the time playing with "trigger". i had to tolarate whining from this avril waman all game long..
.
And the other side of story, where i play as "trigger" is just a resemblance of a man's real life, no matter what u do, the general of spare squad is not happy. if you do it right, he has nothing to say,,

if (AND ONLY IF) you like fast weaponised aircraft and you are comfortable doing roll pitch and yaw controls without motion sickness, an excellent game awaits you!

there's lots of nice comms, cutscenes and mission briefings to keep the scenarios fresh and alive too.

its game-like. typical payloads have at least 2600 gatling rounds and 80ish general purpose homing missiles. you'll fly in all sorts of locales. you'll get struck by lightning in a dogfight.

the bundle with the top gun tie in was on special when i got it, it is also funny to have a laser blasting fictional SR-71 successor and accidentally backflip into the ground at mach 5 because of the cloudy weather.

Great game for military jet enthusiast full of combat and very fun.

its great mindless fun.

YES PLEASE GIVE ME 30 MINUTE MISSIONS WITH NO CHECKPOINTS IT IS SO FUN ON ACE DIFFICULTY!!!!!

The game's main campaign and multiplayer are fun but the SP missions are so ass you might as well shoot yourself in the head and get the same experience

If you played and loved the old PS2 Ace Combat games, this one goes back to its roots and feels awesome. There are a couple frustrating missions (target locks on all targets, friendly and enemy start out neutral and you have to either remember who is who on future runs or waste time scanning them) but, all in all a fun experience and makes me come back to it again and again.

I have not played Multiplayer, nor have a desire to.

i would rather be served a steaming pile of piss with a garnish of manure than play this game's final mission again.

Initially i was just trying out this game but then got addicted. Wonderful graphics and story. Multiplayer is not that fun but still worth spending time in this game.

As an avid ace combat fan from PS2 days, AC7 brought the much beloved series into PC, and it did not disappoint.

Great graphics, optimization, and mission content. In short, great to see that AC has come to PC, and hope to have more AC in the future.

This is PEAK gaming, epic storyline and epic gameplay, although I am having a major skill issue. Haven't hopped onto the multiplayer though maybe sometimes. Nicely optimized game, ran fine with 30 fps on 1080p on my potato laptop while having that good graphics.

Should you buy? YES!!!!
Should you play? YES!!!!