Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies
Game cover showing two F-22A's
Developer(s)	Namco
Publisher(s)	Namco
Aspect ratio	480i (SDTV)
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2
Release date	JP October 23, 2001 NA October 23, 2001 EU February 8, 2002
Genre(s)	Flight simulator
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Media	1 DVD

Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (Ace Combat: Distant Thunder in Europe and other PAL markets) (エースコンバット04　シャッタード・スカイズ, Ēsu Konbatto Zero Fō Shattādo Sukaizu^?) is a semi-realistic flight simulation developed by Namco for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first in the Ace Combat series to be released for the PlayStation 2.

Game premise

The player takes on the role of the Mobius 1, an elite fighter pilot serving in the Independent States Allied Forces' (ISAF) air arm, fighting against the Eruseans who have occupied almost all of the Usea continent after an apocalyptic event in 1999. A massive asteroid, codenamed Ulysses 1994 XF-04, struck Usea, killing 500,000 people and turning many into refugees. Erusea use this as an opportunity to occupy the continent after a prolonged military buildup. They achieve military supremacy via the superweapon Stonehenge, a megastructure battery of railguns that were originally designed to destroy asteroids but have been found to be effective against airplanes as well. This allows Erusea to dominate much of the airspace over the continent giving their military a powerful tactical advantage. Consequently, ISAF has been pushed back to the eastern coast of Usea.

Between the missions the story is told through flashbacks, later revealed to be a long letter to Mobius 1 about the war and living inside the occupation. The letters are written by an unnamed boy whose parents were killed when a fighter jet crashed into their house in San Salvacion. This fighter jet was shot down by Yellow 13, the Erusian's top fighter pilot, and a member of the Elite Yellow Squadron. Following his parents death the boy is taken in by his uncle, in the city who lives above a tavern frequented by Erusean soldiers, a failing taxi driver due to low fuel rations issued by Erusea. While in the tavern, he befriends Yellow 13 after meeting him and the other Yellow Squadron members. He also learns that the owner of the bar is a member of the local resistance against Erusea and becomes a "spy" for them due to his friendship with Yellow 13.

Gameplay

During the course of the game, the player has the opportunity to purchase 21 different planes, from models that actually exist to prototypes or relatively new aircraft that were in development (at the time of game production) and their weaponry. Every plane has two alternate paint schemes, gained by achieving a superior, or S, ranking on a stage in hard difficulty mode, by shooting down the ace pilots on each stage, or by completing the challenge modes.

The difficulty mode affects how many enemies are in a stage, how smart/accurate the enemies are, how much damage the enemies can take, and how much damage the player's aircraft can sustain in total. On the hardest difficulty level, a single missile from the enemy will down the player's aircraft, whereas on the easiest level it would take several missiles.

The player must purchase all aircraft and weapons they want to use, but only once. Identical weapons for different types of planes cannot be used interchangeably. Players gain money by destroying enemies, or selling aircraft/weapons between missions. Only the default aircraft, the F-4E Phantom, cannot be sold. It is sometimes advantageous to buy/sell different combinations of planes & weapons depending on the mission requirements outlined in the briefing, as some planes are more suitable than others for certain of missions. Once all of the mission objectives are complete, the player is awarded bonus money for performing above and beyond the requirements of the mission objectives (neutralizing extra targets and assorted enemy fighters, etc.). In order to purchase all planes and weapons available in the game, the game must be completed at least three to four times.

Series

This game is the fourth in the Ace Combat series, the first three being Air Combat, Ace Combat 2, and Ace Combat 3. The game is called Ace Combat 04 because the 04 in the title stands for the time period in which the game mostly takes place — the year 2004. The next title in the series, Ace Combat 5 returns to the old numbering scheme, as the game starts in the year 2010. Ace Combat Zero takes place 15 years before Ace Combat 5 in the Belkan War.

Superweapons

The two main superweapons are Stonehenge and Megalith. Stonehenge is a megastructure battery of railguns in a circular arrangement that have remarkable range of fire. The massive shockwave produced by firing them, used primarily to destroy asteroids, is also very capable of shooting down airplanes. It's only weakness is that it can't fire below 2000 ft.

The next superweapon is Megalith. Housed on an island south of the Erusean capital, Farbanti, it is primarily used as a ballistic missile launch platform to shoot down asteroid fragments in orbit. It has a remarkable ground range that can reach the entire Usea continent. To destroy Megalith, the player must fly inside three tunnels beneath the base to destroy three generators, then they must destroy the large missile contained within. After flying through the opening silo doors to escape, a cut scene will commence showing Megalith exploding after the player's narrow escape.

External links

• Official Website
• Ace Combat series wiki
• The Electrosphere - AC Database
• Ace Combat Wiki