Ace Combat Online, 1 Month In - A Review
It's been one month since Ace Combat 8 released, alongside its multiplayer mode. The verdict? Fans wanted Ace Combat Infinity back - Bandai listened.
Last year, we wrote an article about Ace Combat Infinity's legacy and how it provided the series with its best multiplayer experience to date. Now I feel as if that article is in dire need of an update, or at least an addendum.
Ace Combat Online, Ace Combat 8's multiplayer mode, definitely feels like Bandai Namco listened to player feedback about wanting Ace Combat Infinity - or something like it - back. It inherited many of its strong points and features which made it a great game to play with friends - but also many of its flaws.
Measuring Up to Infinity
Let's start with the similarities: Ace Combat Online brings back ACI's unique "competitive PvE" mode in the form of Co-Op Assault, where players do not fight each other directly, but compete for points in two separate 4-player teams, where the winning team gets a major rewards boost. It also brings back "Emergency Sorties", boss fights against iconic superweapons from the series, where boundaries between teams are erased in pursuit of an S-rank, which will guarantee all players involved bountiful rewards.
However, whereas AC Infinity's PvPvE mode, Naval Team Deathmatch, was quite lackluster, ACO brings us Co-Op Warfare, a player-versus-player experience which retains NTDM's tactical complexity in featuring ground targets which can be farmed for points (a coordinated team with a dedicated attacker can easily win matches by taking advantage of this), but is overall much more refined and entertaining.
It has also been elevated to an equal standing with its PvE counterpart, rather than a mere sidekick: Both modes give out roughly the same amount of rewards, with Co-Op Assault netting out a small XP bonus, and Co-Op Warfare a small ZOLL (in-game currency) bonus. This means players can choose to stick with whichever mode best suits their playstyle and competitiveness with no detriment to their in-game progress.
Naturally, there are significant changes that come with switching from an ostensibly free-to-play game to a multiplayer portion of a paid title. Gone is ACI's "fuel" system which restricted free-to-play players to 3 sorties per day; this is perhaps the biggest, and most welcome change. There is a price to pay for it, however; in its stead, the new monetization scheme follows well-known game publisher formulas: loot boxes for cosmetic items, in-game "premium" currency, and the "Ace Pass", Ace Combat's version of the Battle Pass system cursed upon this world by Fortnite.
So far, however, it wouldn't seem this monetization has been overly predatory comparing it to the industry standard: Most items which can only be bought with real cash are cosmetic and have little effect on gameplay, with the glaring exception of the ADFX-02 Morgan, a day-zero reward for customers of the Premium Ace Pass. One month in, it is disputable whether this aircraft grants any advantage at all, as it is outclassed by most high-tier aircraft. However, in the initial days of ACO, when most players were stuck with beginner-level, low-tier aircraft, the Morgan granted an enormous advantage and quickly became the playerbase's most hated aircraft. There are other minor changes, such as player avatars: While players wait for matches, they can now roam around in a physical lobby with other players. It adds little to the game experience, but is a neat concept. Past all that noise, however, at its core Ace Combat Online brings back the most important part of what Ace Combat Infinity had to offer: Being able to play Ace Combat alongside friends and fellow fans, in an environment which is remarkably causal and non-stressful.
Servers, Trees, and User Interfaces, Oh My
Sadly, it seems Bandai Namco might have taken the AC fan base a bit too literally when we asked for Ace Combat Infinity back, because it also retains some of its predecessor's most glaring issues.
The servers are perhaps the most egregious issue. Disconnects, both prior to and during matches, are fairly common, though their frequency has somewhat decreased with previous updates. Their occurrence can be fairly frustrating however; a mid-match disconnect will cause the affected player to lose all rewards for the points they had accrued that match; a pre-match disconnect will force all other players to wait for the start of the match only to be sent back to the lobby.
Some retained features also seem anachronistic: the "Special Contracts", roughly equivalent to War Thunder's boosters, are a feature designed for a F2P game which feels misplaced in Ace Combat Online, where the player has already paid for access to the game itself. The "grind" - earning enough experience points and Zoll to advance on the research tree - can also feel quite slow and more like what you'd expect in a free-to-play game. Combined with the new monetization scheme, the choice to retain these F2P characteristics from Infinity may also help explain why the available airplane roster is so much smaller than ACI's: perhaps we will see new aircraft drip-fed to the playerbase as Premium Ace Pass rewards, as the publisher seeks to maintain a steady supply of revenue through the game's lifetime.
Last but definitely not least, there are also some new features Ace Combat Online brings to the table which are, to say the least, questionable. The most annoying one is the most basic: the User Interface. There are so many nested menus which the player is required to navigate through in order to complete the simplest tasks, such as readying up for a match or inviting a friend to your party; this means lots of clicks/button presses, and waiting for the animations of transition between menus. Not game-breaking in the slightest, sure; but UI is something you will, well, interface a lot with as a player.
OP Aircraft / Special Weapons?
One great feature Ace Combat Online has retained from ACI is the ability to "level up" your aircraft as you fly it on more and more missions. Combined with acquired or purchase "Parts", which grant various bonuses, this allows players to turn even the lowest-tier aircraft into viable, sometimes even competitive builds.
An interesting new feature is Combat XP Memory: If you play a game with an aircraft you've already levelled up to its maximum (or to the level cap), that does not mean the XP acquired during the mission goes totally to waste, as you will be awarded some of these items which can then be used to "gain" XP in any aircraft of your choice. This is a great addition, as it allows players to continue using their favorite aircraft with no detriment, or pick the most appropriate aircraft for a certain mission even if it's not the one they are "levelling" right now.
Of course, it follows that if you can turn an F-4E Phantom into a respectable competitor by upgrading it to Level 20, then a Lvl. 20 F-22 will be nothing short of an absolute menace. This can be somewhat less relevant in Co-Op Assault, where proper special weapon selection and strategically opportunistic positioning can often result in an F-4E player making MVP; but even in the PvPvE Co-Op Warfare, where high-tier, high-level builds unquestionably dominate, one should underestimate the Lvl. 20 Fishbed at their own peril.
When it comes to special weapons, there is only one which could truly be said to be overpowered: ECM, which in PvP settings gave teams employing it an incredible advantage: 20-second windows where they'd be basically untouchable by anything other than guns. If paired with its brother, ESM, this could potentially allow a team to re-enact the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot. Notice the past tense however, as it has already been nerfed into the ground: the new 10-second effect window and reduced area of effect makes both of these much better balanced in PvP modes, but nearly useless in PvE modes.
It is good that this nerf was applied only to the Multiplayer mode, leaving ECM and ESM untouched in Ace Combat 8's campaign. However, I feel as if a distinction between Online PvP and Online PvE is also warranted, as the current implementation takes away a lot of the potential for "support" builds in PvE, which were a staple of Ace Combat Infinity's "Hard" missions. Perhaps in the future we could see a "Hard" Co-Op Assault mode come to ACO, with boosted ESM/ECM effects. As things currently stand though, you'll see MVPs disproportionally choosing one of the following special weapons: Air-to-ground area of effect weapons, or LAAM.
Area of effect weapons, such as UGB, SFFS and SOD, are extremely effective in Co-Op Assault since clusters of tightly packed targets are plentiful. They are also a sure ticket to MVP in Co-Op Warfare if you have a well-coordinated team of fighters to protect you; in uncoordinated teams however, if multiple people choose attackers dreaming of becoming MVP, they will quickly learn why teamwork comes before personal glory as their dreams are relentlessly crushed by users of the next weapon on the list:
The Long-range Air to Air Missile - LAAM. LAAMers are perhaps the most hated players in ACO right now, and for an understandable reason - air targets suddenly disappear whenever they're around, and you're bound to see MiG-31 LAAM builds taking MVP every other match.
Now, there's nothing special about the MiG-31, other than the fact it turns much better in-game than its chonky airframe should have any right to; It is widely used simply because it's the cheapest LAAM boat to upgrade to Lvl. 20. An F-14 or Typhoon can do the same job, even better, if you have ZOLL to spare. The thing about LAAM is that it combines decent guidance with the longest range in the game by far, doubling the SAAM's 5 kilometer range into a 10-kilometer range, utterly insane by Ace Combat standards and approaching some real-life BVR definitions.
These characteristics allow LAAM users to make short work of NPC air targets before any other players can dream of reaching them, making them a great choice for Co-Op Assault - but also for Co-Op Warfare, since farming points from NPC targets before engaging players is a core tenet of that mode's gameplay.
Is LAAM, then, overpowered? For PvE, perhaps. However, in this author's humble opinion, in order to unequivocally qualify as overpowered, it would need to also be the be-all end-all pick in PvP.
And the truth is, precisely because of its greatest strength - the amazing range - LAAMs give players a huge reaction time with which to evade. They can easily kill newbies and unaware targets, but a moderately experienced player with decent situational awareness is unlikely to be killed by a long-distance LAAM shot barring one specific circumstance: If they are currently stuck in a dogfight another player.
Caught in that situation, the target will be forced to choose between defending the LAAM shot and giving an opening to the close-range opponent, or continuing to turn against their opponent and potentially take the LAAM shot. In the ideal situation, where all enemy players are stuck in a furball against 3 of your teammates, this allows the LAAMer to stay far away from danger and pick off the enemy players one by one.
Notice how the teamwork does most of the heavy lifting here: If there is no teamwork, as soon as the opposing team realizes the threat posed by the LAAMer and forces them into close-range fighting, they'll be stuck alone, far from their teammates, and unable to take the easy potshots.
LAAMs are also not the only viable long-range weapon: HVAA and SAAM, despite having around half the range, are more effective against skilled players. HVAA's speed reduces reaction time, while SAAM users can employ lock-on-after-launch or target-switching techniques to set up favorable geometry for the missile or confuse targets.
And when it comes to short-range weapons, QAAM is another candidate for the potentially overpowered list. AC8's QAAMs do not feature homing as good as AC7's, let alone AC4's - but are still quite the menace, being decidedly the most dangerous short-range special weapon available to players. You're likely to be shot down by QAAMs many times during your stay in ACO.
Nevertheless, this not guarantee success: Fighting against a skilled player in a 1v1 fight, a QAAM user can expect to spend several missiles to get a hit, and will need to use BFM skills (BFM? In my arcade flight game?!) and subterfuge to shape the fight's geometry in a way that increases the chances of a QAAM hit - ironically, head-on shots tend to yield the best results. However, head-on shots are dangerous because it's not only QAAMs that benefit from them. Other short-range weapons are also viable: SASMs are incredibly dangerous head-on, and even HCAAs, a weapon I never thought of using during the campaign, turned out to be fairly effective in multiplayer if the player is able to exploit their guidance mechanics.
In short, through there are definitely some "meta" builds out there, you most definitely do not need to stick to them in order to have a good time; it is perfectly possible to make viable builds with pretty much all aircraft, and competitive builds with some low/mid-tier aircraft blessed with good special weapon options. The only truly overpowered weapon is, as is often the case, teamwork.
Final Considerations
The reviews in Ace Combat 8's Steam page are, unsurprisingly, overwhelmingly positive. It is an incredible game and, in this author's opinion, in contention for the best game in the franchise. Look for the negative reviews though, and you'll find a good number of them are complaints about the multiplayer. Most of these are reasonable complaints from customers who did not receive what they expected to the paying for. Ace Combat Online struggles to work in Linux, and the servers have serious stability issues. For those who bought the game primarily for the multiplayer experience, it must feel incredibly underwhelming. With Ace Combat 8, Bandai Namco and Project Aces clearly put the vast majority of their focus in the single-player campaign, with the multiplayer coming second. Having talked to my fellow writers at Skyward, we're glad they took this path. Ace Combat has always been story-focused as a series, and AC8 has delivered an incredible single-player experience, with great storytelling, an amazing soundtrack, and one of the most satisfying campaigns so far.
Most of Ace Combat Online's flaws can be fixed if Bandai Namco is willing to put in the effort and money to do so. They have already shown some commitment towards improving server stability, and the currently lackluster roster of maps and aircraft is almost sure to be expanded with future updates, even if they come in the unfortunate form of battle passes.
Even so, despite its flaws, Ace Combat Online has been doing a good job of filling the hole Ace Combat Infinity left. It's allowed fans and friend groups to team up and play Ace Combat together again. When you get a party going, it's very good fun.
It might not have all the content Infinity had, but it also lacks its greatest hindrance, the fuel system. And let us not forget ACI was likewise infamous for server instability and many other issues.
When one takes all of those considerations into account, Ace Combat Online may very well be the best multiplayer experience the series has ever had.
Here's to hoping Bandai Namco recognizes its potential and makes it even better. We'll see you in ACO's skies!
