After having completed the campaign on hard, the VR portion of the game, and 100 multiplayer matches split evenly between the two modes, I can finally give my verdict on the game. It's pretty darn great.
The story follows a similar arc to Unsung War, my favorite story in the franchise, and while it can be incoherent at times, I rather enjoyed it. My biggest gripe with how the story unfolds is that it's mostly done through narration, rather than actual interaction between characters. The Princess and science dude are rather underused, and their motives aren't very interesting. Still, I like how the story unfolded within the missions themselves and the world. I'm currently halfway through my 2nd playthrough, this time on Ace, and doing it in English this time so that I can better follow what is going on in the story. While the Japanese voice over is much superior to the English one, it can be very difficult to read subtitles during the more intense moments in the game. In mission 19 in particular, I was pretty much entirely unable to follow what was going on, as I was simply too busy to read them.
Graphics and audio are both top notch, although their does not appear to be much difference in audio feedback of the different machine cannons mounted in the planes, which is disappointing. Furthermore, the A-10 and F-104 do not appear to have their iconic sounds. A missed opportunity as far as I am concerned. The music is brilliant, as per usual, and I got genuine goosebumps when "Daredevil" kicked into high gear. Might just be my new favorite piece in the franchise. The problem older games had with the music is that it wasn't timed with what was going on in the actual game, where as in Skies Unknown, important events will usually have the music behave dynamically to suit it. SOL encounters and mission 19 are the best examples of this. The boss fights are definitely a step above what we've previously seen in the franchise. As brilliant as the Razgriz and Zero themes were, they weren't made to fit their respective missions in a dynamic way.
(Favorite music piece)
The return of the much loved PS2 era gameplay, with the additions of the well implemented cloud and weather system and taking place on some really pretty battlefields with lots of throwbacks for the fans of the series. Love it. Still would like to see a greater focus on energy management and different radars/IRST, so as to make the planes more unique from one another. I've already criticized what I feel is excessive missile spam on the harder difficulties and a time limit that, at times, is too short, but other than that, I'm really happy with it.
The multiplayer is pretty fun, but really needs a nerf on SP weapons so as to reduce missile spam, especially regarding the QAAM's. I'd also like a mode where ground units are involved. Say, team deathmatch, but where the objective is to destroy the other team's base/army while at the same time defending your own. I never tire of seeing the intro to the online matches, with all the pretty planes on display.
The VR portion, while better looking than I had expected, didn't do all that much for me. Sure, it's cool to be able to track targets with your head and the sense of speed and agility is amazing in VR, but I think we need the next generation hardware for it to be on a similar level to what the main campaign offered. The graphics fidelity, especially on things not close to you, simply isn't there yet. At the moment, VR is better suited for games in enclosed spaces, such as Resident Evil 7, where the graphical limitations aren't really obvious. Given how little VR content there is, I'm somewhat baffled that you have to unlock stuff in VR separately.
Lastly, there is the plane list which, while perfectly decent, is lacking some very noteworthy planes. And it really bothers me that the back of the game case says 50 different aircraft, when we only have around 30. How does false advertisement of such a caliber make its way onto the case of the finished product? Here's hoping the season pass brings some interesting aircraft.
Ultimately, the game has met my expectations, and even exceeded them a little. I strongly recommend people to at least try the Japanese voiceovers, as they are markedly superior to the English ones, especially for your wingmen.
I didn't video it since it's not an original idea, but maybe I will do it again some day and record it, perhaps go down then back up the elevator to be different.
