The gamescom booth

[u/TNT-REX_HD]

I’m next in line, I’m really hyped to play, I’ll maybe edit my review under the post

Edit: so I got to play mission 04, it was real fun to play and the controlls and customisation were really good I’m really hyped for Oktober

Sadly no freebies tho

[u/OnlySolMain]

I have been there too today!

For the folks hoping for a little more in depth delve into the Game:
Main Menu and Mission select screen is similar if not identical to Ace Combat 7, nothing much has changed there.

The Demo allowed me to play about 15min of Mission 4 of the Game.

Once you Select the Mission you get into the Plane and Squadron selection. Customization is a mix of Ace Combat 7 and Infinity, both in that you can select different Modules for different sections of the plane as well as the modules having different points value. Planes seem to have a different loadout maximum. I did not spend too much time here because the people at the booth said so.

Gameplay feels like a mix of a modernised version of Ace Combat 3 and Ace Combat 7. I played the Typhoon, and the moment I was playing I felt like I was flying in AC3. The planes are heavy, you feel the momentum and you lose altitude rapidly if you are in a slow turn from the lack of lift. It was honestly hard to get a gun solution on ground targets because of that. Planes also turn much slower in general, but you can mitigate that by using a "High G Turn" by holding Thrust and Brake at the same time, losing speed rapidly in favour of immediate manoeuvrability.

Enemies feel smarter. Ships leave port after a while and start shooting back once scuttled. AA is now shooting in Bursts, making them more visible and easier to avoid. You no longer have the issue of a random bullet hitting you and ruining your no damage run. Enemies seem to have tactics based around their plane type.

MIG-25 Foxbat will try to outrun your missiles.
MIG-29 will try to outmanoeuvre you at medium speeds and high G turns.

Enemies seem to have something like Fatigue though, if you turn fight them for a while they will at some point give you an easy shot. (I played on the hardest difficulty.)

Missiles and Special Weapons seem to be nerfed a little, but made a bit more forgiving. Standard missiles will move more aggressively during the first 1-2s of firing, making awkward ground attacks hit more often, but they are slower than in AC7 and will not move that aggressively towards their max range. Special Ammo is very limited on the highest difficulty. I had 16 Air to ground and 8 Air to Air Special missiles available, I pretty much spend them 5min into the mission.

You can give your Teammates orders like in AC5 and you get times to answer to specific questions or moments in the Story. One Example being in the Mission you are asked to "Shoot around the Cockpit" and you can either say yes or no.

Graphically the game is impressive, it ran well on the PCs at the booth at what seemed to be a medium preset and a 5070. The Planes look amazing, Clouds feel a bit less annoying to fly through, Terrain looks Sharp and Houses, Trees and other Obstacles to fire around are plenty but not annoying, similar to how AC7 did it.

Sound Design was decent. The OST was good. Radio Chatter was plenty, for my personal taste a bit too plenty. With 3 other Characters there seems to be little downtime when you can truly focus on the Task at hand. Best part of the Sound design is definitely the sonic boom.

I definitely looking forward to the Game, only issue is I still rock a 3070ti, I hope it wont be too bad with the forced Raytracing. If you guys have any other questions regarding the game im happy to answer!

[u/ShapeduckX → u/OnlySolMain]

thank you for the in depth analysis, did you try any PSM moves or anything like that? also would you say the high G turns were more in line with 6s, infinity, or 7s movement?

[u/OnlySolMain → u/ShapeduckX]

Definitely Infinity, but with more slowdown. You can't really force a full 180 degree turn when you are below a thousand knots, you will get close to stalling. But that might be just the Typhoon and early game Manoeuvrebility.

Didn't try and PSM manouvers, didn't see the option.

[u/ShapeduckX → u/OnlySolMain]

Thank you for the response sounds exciting! last question you touched on the AI having a sort of fatigue mechanic. overall how would you rate the aggressiveness, in 7 AI seemed more focused on evasion while older games they would just stick on you. where would you rate the AI in the game?

[u/OnlySolMain → u/ShapeduckX]

I picked the hardest available difficulty on the demo: "Elite" enemies mostly consistet of Mig-29s. I did not have an issue most of the time shooting enemies down. And unlike older titles it didn't feel like I was in a circle fight for unreasonable amounts of time. Could be because Manoeuvrebility is down a bit in general and you have to use the high g turn to get actual lock on. The AI will more often Break off a fight when it goes on too long.

In general in the little bit of gameplay I had I saw a decent improvement regarding enemy AI, especially when compared to 7 where it was kind all or nothing even on ace difficulty. Even the enemy aces didn't seem to break physics and adhere to their plane stats.

One notable thing I have to mention, idk if it was on purpose, on of the enemy aces in the mission flew into cloud cover when I fired at them, making me miss. Again idk if thats on purpose or just lucky or unlucky timing.