Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown Torrent is an action shooter game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The storyline of Skies Unknown plunges back into the fictional series universe last witnessed in 2007 and revolves around a clash between the well-known forces of the Osean Federation and the Kingdom of Erusea. You assume the role of a mute, anonymous Osean aviator who will undergo some shifting loyalties, but half of the storyline actually unfolds in scenes that run parallel to and diverge from your real missions, presenting the viewpoint of seemingly minor participants around the edges.
It’s a conflict tale that pivots with the deeds of its small ensemble of characters as much as it does military triumphs and delves deeply into themes of the human experience–the nuances of constructed notions like citizenship, boundaries, and cultural identity, as well as the morality of advancements in technological warfare.
In Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown Torrent, your attention is directed solely towards your aircraft and your surroundings. There’s a range of familiar factors to consider while airborne–diverse air and ground-based hazards, the topography of the terrain when battling at low elevations–but a noteworthy new aspect is clouds and the tangible hazards and possibilities they present.
Dodging into a mass of clouds can disrupt missile locks and provide you with the element of surprise, but it comes at the expense of diminished visibility, the potential of icing up your aircraft and hampering maneuverability, and even factors like strong wind currents and lightning strikes disrupting your ability to maintain control of your jet. Clouds are genuinely valuable strategic considerations, in addition to simply being a visually appealing feature, and they enhance the skies of Ace Combat 7, making them a more captivating environment.
There’s also an impressive array of distinct scenarios across the game’s 20 campaign missions. Generally, the scale of most confrontations is quite extensive and compels you to divide your attention between various types of clashes across the map with a broader goal in mind. Yet, many missions also present unique challenges that create some noteworthy moments–engaging in aerial combat in a thunderstorm at night, executing stealth canyon runs, and evading extensive area-of-effect explosions in the midst of a hectic battle are some gratifying highlights.
Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown Torrent’s limited number of boss-style encounters is a standout as well, pitting you against extraordinarily skilled ace fighters and the game’s elusive superweapon–which itself saturates the map with an alarming number of antagonistic drones. However, there are a few scenarios that lack excitement–the pursuit of trucks in a sandstorm and the pursuit of ICBMs became tedious rather swiftly, and the ultimate challenge of the game was a challenging exercise in aircraft maneuvering that feels like it necessitates multiple retries by design, putting a damper on an otherwise spectacular conclusion.
The act of retrying will inevitably come with a twinge of resentment, too, as checkpointing in Skies Unknown is infrequent. Checkpoints typically only arise at the midway point of a mission, and it’s common to get halfway through a battle before failing to achieve an objective and having to commence from the very beginning. This can become frustrating in the final stages of the campaign, where threats are more prevalent and more unrelenting, and the overall demands are higher. Admittedly, there is a slight focus on score performance, and your mission score endures even if you need to retry from the midway point, but a bit more leniency wouldn’t have been unwelcome.
Ace Combat 7 Skies Unknown PC/System Requirements
- OS: Windows 7/ 8/10/11 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i3-7100
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750Ti(2GB)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 50 GB available space