Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies


I want to start off this opinion piece by describing how I started off with this game. Many years ago, I was in high school, and a friend of mine had gotten for Christmas that year, one of those cutting-edge Playstation 2's. Around mid-January I was able to visit his house and during this time he briefly showed me some of the amazing graphical abilities of the machine. Among the titles in his collection was Ace Combat 4, a game he had been playing a lot of, and one that piqued my interest simply because it had a pretty jet on the front of it. I, if nothing else, was an Air Force nerd at the time, so yeah, it caught my eye.

He had a save game on the "Stonehenge" mission, so he flew around a bit while explaining the controls. Then he restarted the mission, handed me the controller, and I played it. It was fun but no big deal. Around a year later I got a PS2 of my own, and since it was one of the few titles I knew about, I made sure to pick up a copy of Ace Combat 4 for myself. I had no idea at the time, the sort of impact that game would have upon me. It completely blew my mind and to this day still colors how I view and judge games. It became the par by which all games are measured.

I generally try to talk little of my opinions, and I speak even less frequently of opinions I hold strongly. But what I feel for this game is powerful, and it's taken me a long time to truly understand how I feel and start to really articulate those feelings. I am going to use metaphors further on in this opinion piece that may offend some people, but in order to relay how I feel, I'll be using a lot of metaphors that some might find sacred and therefore blasphemous to invoke in discussion of what some may feel is just a trivial video game.

And to be clear, it is just a video game. It's not a major watershed or cultural event, but I do feel that the game is vastly underrated even within its own circles and within the genre.

That said I think I should also frame how I judge games, which of course is based on several factors. The most important of which, for the sake of this opinion journal, is that I judge a game based on what it promises to do, what it tries to do, what it should do, and how well it lives up to those things. I also try to judge a game for what it can do based on what resources are available at the time (especially important when considering retro games, you have to keep in mind what was possible during that time period, both in terms of hardware and society). I think that is absolutely necessary for being balanced and fair when judging a game. It is this context I like to have framework my opinions, because is necessary when I give games like "Mass Effect" a rating of around 10% or 15%, and games that are widely despised like "Dynasty Warriors" franchise a score of at least 40%. Because context is everything.

So I have posted a journal before about my top favorite video games, and I rated Ace Combat 4 as second-favorite to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, despite giving Ace Combat a perfect 100% and Metal Gear a 95%. In retrospect, I may have rated Ace Combat too low. If you were to ask me today, I'd have to give it higher than a perfect score. I'd give Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies at least a 115% because it did something, in my eyes, that you can't test for or judge until well after the fact. It stood the test of time.

I listen to a lot of movie and game reviews and I've come away with an understanding of things. Critics have ways of seeing things that color how they review, and I believe that context is important, which is why I shared my thoughts on the process above. But not all critics are equal. To make an example of movie critics, many people disregard movie critics because "Oh these critics don't understand the movie", or "they just don't, you know, get it". And they can be correct. Some critics are better are articulating a point or judging a certain genre better, because they are more familiar with the concepts, ideas, executions of said ideas, and know what works and what doesn't in those circumstances. But some people do listen to certain movie critics when they judge certain genres of movies specifically because that critic gets it. And likewise, as a consumer, sometimes you just feel a movie or a game is just so freaking awesome and did everything right, but sometimes you're not quite sure what specific point or points made it stand out from the competition. This movie or game just did it right. It gets it.

As a consumer that isn't all that well educated in the process of making, developing, or executing the creation of a game, I certainly do not hold myself as any sort of authority on the matter. But there's one thing I can say for certain, heroes really do exist. We've just seen one and now he's... Ace Combat 4 gets it.

The game starts off with an intro sequence that doesn't really tell a lot about what's going on. At first, there's a few somewhat ominous quotes that seem to be from a poem. There's a seagull that gets sucked up into a jet engine, a shaky camera zoom-in on what appears to be a crater from some sort of really large impact, and a few fly-by's of an F-22 and a few more shots of seagulls. That's it.

From there you dive into the game with little immediate idea of what is going on. Wars generally don't need much explanation to American audiences, so you just go with it. But the narrative is told through incredibly-illustrated storyboards and the narration of a now-older man who was just a boy when the war occurred. In reality the game isn't about you, the player; it's about how the war affected him. Your actions have direct consequences in his world, but at the same time the narrative is never really about you.

The first thing that really hits you is that they use WW II-era Germany as a paradigm for the setting. Little nuanced things like the fuel rations, the certain way military vehicles are framed against civilian settings, and the way the military interacts with the civilians just cries out "occupying Germans!" Even the boy's original home looks to be French countryside. Little details like the small black-and-white TV, the architecture of buildings, everything is made to look antiquated. Then to finish the metaphor, you initiate the re-invasion of the mainland from a little island not too far off the coast and fight your way across the continent.

The graphics are great for the time period and stand up decently even today. The gameplay is very intuitive, blending basic aerodynamic physics with arcade-style "realism" to create a game that is easy to pick up but still a challenge to master. The story is touching and rather relatable, with an orphaned boy finding a father figure in his life but secretly harboring resentment because he blames said father figure for the death of his parents. The missions are fun and switch it up with challenging objectives, vastly different landscapes, and a superweapon that occasionally pops in to make your life miserable.

The story is very simple, but yet, it drives the game so very well. For what could have been any number of generic storylines (if any at all) to hash out a war, this one always did stand head and shoulders above others. You get a unique perspective into how the allied forces' operations effect the people in occupied territories, as told through the eyes of a person who doesn't really fully grasp the consequences of what's going on because he's so young.

From your own perspective, things get interesting during missions. You intercept occasional enemy radio traffic, and you hear everything from straightforward field commanders barking orders, to lighthearted banter between troops, to the occasional soldier recognizing the insignia on your plane from prior missions.

He's the one! That one with the ribbon insignia! He's the grim reaper!

And when you initially start to hear this change in tone as the game progresses, it can be easy to dismiss it as an interesting and quirky thing to be put into a game. Puts a little grin on your face to be sure, as the enemy starts to keep tabs on you.

The war progresses. Through the narrator, you see how the military is starting to fall back and fall apart. Civilians start to rise up against the occupiers. You can really start to see your own impact on the war in a way much more intimate than these games usually achieve. The narrator goes through some emotional events of his own.

You'll notice there's one, usually small detail I haven't mentioned yet that relates to games in general. I think it was so important that it required its own section.

One of the most enduring parts of this game for me has been the music. And right there, that sentence, hundreds of Ace Combat 4 fans just gasped lightly and said under their breath "Megalith". I didn't even have to say it. It's just known because that outstanding part of the game is held in such revere. Putting that aside for a brief moment and with all due respect, the music in this game is phenomenal. Not every track is platinum, but it always meshes very well with each level, giving each level a very personal sort of taste and feeling that makes it really stand out. But the standout, as I said, is the last level, Megalith.

If I've now written two and a half pages on this game, this one level deserves at least as much time in explaining every significant detail, every nuance, every metaphor present, and every bit of symbolism. But luckily, someone's done much of the work for me, and I'll link that youtube video in a bit. For now, let me just iterate; in almost every book, movie, or game, everything leads up to the final battle. In some poorly written media, sometimes the events prior can seem disjointed, or the final battle may simply be the natural order of events. And therefore, not too much beyond what you were expecting.

But Ace Combat 4 pulls a tricky punch on you. Mission 17, you take over the capital of the enemy forces, and it's announced that the war is pretty much over. But instead of an interesting final video sequence detailing your heroics, you're dropped into another mission briefing. And everything from here on in is so deliberate in its every nuance and detail that I am only one-hundred percent certain that an entire team of people slaved away endless hours to make everything about this perfect.

This final mission briefing starts off dramatically different, with a very stark schematic representation of your final objective, all in black and yellow. And instead of your normal briefing background music, it's dead fucking silent except for what sounds like a dull heart beat. Whomever was part of programming this final mission obviously spent some time researching how best to effect the psychology of the player, because the stark emptiness of the audio and the dark images of your final target simply makes a shiver go up your spine and think, "What the fuck am I about to get into???"

They coyly place some uncertainty into your mind assuring you that "fly into this...with full confidence that the unit will be able to get you out again". And you're here thinking, "You've never needed to assure me of that before, should I be worried about this?".

Then it shows the computer-generated grid of the mission start, showing enemy locations and yourself. And it's dead fucking silent. It has been said once that in a world of loudness and flashy colors, if you want to be heard, you whisper. Well these subtle details do a very good job of whispering just how different this is going to be. Everything is setting you up for that feeling in your gut that this, this is where the shit is about to hit the fan.

Then you get to the plane-selection screen. And for the only time in the game, instead of just the normal background music playing, you get a motivational speech from the commanding officer of the operation. And not only is it rather gripping and inspiring after everything you've been through, they time it so well with the music that one has to wonder if the speech was created first and the music later to match, or vice versa?

It's at this point you figure out that while every detail of this has been very carefully orchestrated, the most powerful signals you've been getting have been auditory. The lack of music, the heart pounding, the speech, everything is playing to your ears. And you know why? The big finale, the fireworks spectacular, everything is leading up to one of the most powerful and dramatic music tracks you will ever hear in a video game.

After another ominous poetry quote, we're given an intro video sequence. A powerful chorus belts out a few amazing verses in what seems to be Latin while a dramatic camera zooms out from the fortress you'll be assaulting. And this thing is fucking huge. Then it cuts to a chase camera of a seagull flying (circling back from the opening video, linking that to this) and it's fucking raining meteorites!. The camera shows a flock of seagulls flying towards the battle area while meteors fall all around them. And you're like, "What sort of hell am I about to fly into?!" Then the camera shows your AWACS plane flying through this meteor storm, determined to stay with you through the final battle and barely missing the falling rocks on either side of him. Then a final zoom-in to the fortress, a zoom-out with a quick shot of a seagull again, and finishes with a meteor flies by the camera one last time. The entire thing screams out, "WELCOME TO HELL'S MAW!!!"

You get one last poetic verse, then the mission starts. It's silent for a moment while AWACS makes one final round of communication calls to the other pilots flying with you. And they're all responding with denominations of your moniker. For this entire game you've been "Mobius 1", and every other pilot has had their thing. But not here. "Mobius 2 on standby!" "Mobius 3 through 7 on standby!" "Mobius 8 on standby!" These aren't just allied pilots anymore. These people are now your squadron. This is your group, your family, your brothers-in-arms as you are tasked with leading right into the jaws of hell one last time. The AWACS tells everyone to follow you into combat and the mission really beings.

The chorus starts chanting the final mission music and it just gets your blood boiling already. This incredible music pounding away with your team covering your back, you charge headfirst into the enemy ranks...

...and holy fuck they pop up on your HUD and they're all members of the elite squad that had given you trouble throughout the entire game. And it's not just one or five, there's dozens of them, and they're headed straight-on for you. But before you can even tighten your grip on the controller, they see you and the rest of the Mobius squadron and they freak the fuck out. The initial shout-out comes from the second-in-command, "You're not going to believe this Jean-Loius! THEY'VE ALL GOT RIBBON INSIGNIAS!!!", reflecting perfectly what you were just thinking a second ago about them.

So now you have an enemy fortress you have to destroy, dozens of elite fighters between you and the objective, meteorites showering down around you, and insanely epic music blasting...and you just fist-pump and scream out in the most manly way "FUCK YES I CAN TAKE ON THE WORLD!!!" And you hit the afterburner and go screaming full-throttle into the enemy ranks and start what will undoubtedly be one of the most memorable battles in your gaming life.

You sweep through waves of enemy fighters, and the enemy and allied banter continue over the radio. The enemy starts out confident, saying they'll sweep you from the skies. Your allied ground crew is going through some pretty tough times trying to force their way into the enemy fortress to do their part. At some point you kill the enemy squadron commander, and his successor reluctantly takes over from there. Pilots worry out about the meteor storm and ponder if the rocks are going to hit them. Enemy pilots beg for assistance from their comrades when you get a lock on them.

The longer this goes on, the more pilots die, you can hear the change in tone in the enemy squadron. They're freaking out, most of them sound rather young, and you almost start to pity them as they become uncoordinated and scared for their lives. Your ally pilots freak out over the size of Megalith, and how insurmountable it is. Ground forces are suffering major casualties as they try to infiltrate and sabotage the facility to open some missile hatches for you. The tone changes rather radically from the start, where you had a mixture of fear and bravado to start, it just becomes absolutely desperate as the battle wears on. The Megalith facility is continuously firing missiles up at the meteors, so you've got crap flying from below, with occasional sweeps of laser targeting just in case you forget why you're there.

With the incredible music, setting, dramatic escalating radio traffic, story, everything just blends to make this climactic sequence truly an entity that is truly more than the sum of its parts. Even describing it in the most endearing and fond terms I believe doesn't do it justice.

The game, and especially that last mission, create within me such a flurry of positive emotions and sheer energy that I have trouble describing to people precisely how it's like. I have the music to this game on my computer, on my mp3 player, and I listen to it almost every day. The last level music in particular is something very powerful for me. To give an example, one day I was running on a treadmill for a while, getting tired and sweaty, and then that music came on and oh fuck I can take on the world again! and started sprinting full-speed and not even sweating anymore. It just instantly put me into the zone.

To this day I've not yet seen a final mission done with such grandeur successfully, or even attempted. What's funny is that each tidbit detail by itself is interesting but nothing without the other parts. Mission where meteors are falling all around you in a hellish landscape setting? Okay, probably been done before, probably been forgotten about before. Radio intercepts from enemies? Cool, but never really consequential. Music? Good music, but loses a lot of importance without the context of the game to give you flashbacks to the epic battles.

So yes, I feel the game was good, then great, then outstandingly spectacularly perfect by the last mission. And afterward, it passed into legend, because it's just that fucking good. That I haven't seen a game so perfect since only makes Ace Combat 4 that much better. Sometimes, everything just comes together in a way so perfect that it can't be duplicated or replicated.

Oh and I promised a link to an in-depth review of the last level in all of its glory. Here you go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYEXEooM2VM