"For fans of the series a great new game, for newbs not so much."

I Just picked up my North Americans copy of the game Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. I was impressed and at the same time left wanting just a little. I havint Finished it entirly but am far into the second half of the game as of this review.

Gameplay 9/10

I love the gameplay on this game. It's smooth and easy to remermber from Ace Combat 5 so I'm not learning too much new stuff. The controls responde pretty well to just about any commands. The AI is smarter now and seems to actualy try and avoid you and actualy try and trap you. Even on very easy you can find yourself being targeted by pleanty of missles. The Enamy Aces add a new Elament to the game in that they work as teams and thust make it harder to beat them using the same old tactics you use on your average idiot pilot.

Story 8/10

The story is great for vetrans of AC4 and AC5, you can follow along with it fairly easily but at the same time not feel like your watching a baddly scripted movie. But as great as the plot and story are if you havint at least played AC5 you can get lost as to whats even going on. Sure it's an ok stand alone game and story but much of it's depth comes from the events in AC5. So I wasint able to give this better than an 8 for that reason.

Sound 10/10

The sounds are great from Radio chatter to musical scores to the missles alerts and sounds of battle. This seems to be a hallmark of the AC series, I simply love the way everything fits so perfectly togather.

Graphics 8/10

Crisp smooth and very nicely detailed air units and large structures. The clouds the sky the sun it all looks great and makes it feel more realistic. The only draw back is ground targets and terrians are kinda bad but thats how all AC games have it so while I wished they had upped it abit it's not a terrible loss.

Replay value 6/10

Replay is pretty good here to get all the planes and medals, being that the missions are not all the same always it makes it easier to do without feeling like you got railroaded, so decent replay value.

I reccomend this game to those who liked or loved the prior games but maybe not to buy if ou havint played the others. Try renting it see if you think it stacks up then if you like buy it unless like me you already kinda knew what you were in for.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/28/06