Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception Hands-on Preview

The Ace Combat series has been providing great arcade thrills for more than ten years now, but with the latest in the series feeling a little too similar to previous outings, something needed to change. That change comes in the form of a new game on a new system: Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception on the PSP. With a three-level preview build in my possession and the PlayStation 2’s latest still fresh in my mind, I set about taking to the skies from the palms of my hands.

After selecting the first mission from the Free Mission mode, the ease at which I picked up the controls was instantly apparent. Other than a few changes to make up for the loss of two shoulder buttons, things felt just right. While the standard PlayStation 2 controls mapped yaw (plane movement that doesn’t involve entering a roll) to the shoulder buttons, the PSP game uses the d-pad, the radar is mapped to the Select button, and everything else works as before.

In the PlayStation 2 games the right analogue stick was used to move the camera, to give you a better view of your surroundings, but because it wasn’t vital to the overall experience, Ace Combat X on the PSP doesn’t feel any worse for losing that aspect of the control scheme. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it’s one of the better PlayStation 2 to PSP series transitions that I’ve seen so far in the handheld’s short life.

While three missions aren’t really enough to get a feel for how the final game will turn out, things are certainly shaping up well. Combat felt brilliantly similar to what PlayStation 2 owners have been experiencing for years, and missions mixed air-to-air, air-to-ground, and air-to-water attacks, and despite the PSP’s relatively small screen (in comparison to a TV), the on-screen display was clear and easy to understand. Targets are easy to track by following an on-screen arrow and the screen flashes red when a missile is on your tail.

Pre-mission set-up is also very similar to what has been seen in Ace Combat games on the PlayStation 2. You get to choose your plane and what weapons you want to equip it with, and you get a 3D-ish map view of the mission ahead of you. It’s all very arcadey though, which works well and gets you from menus to the action very quickly, but flight sim buffs might want to look elsewhere.

With the preview build not even hinting at the game’s story or how it will be told (previous Ace Combat titled have excelled in this area) all that’s really left to look at is the presentation. While not yet final, things already look incredibly good. Environment detail is excellent given the PSP’s limitations, and plane models, explosions and all the rest look great too. The frame rate took a dive when numerous homing missiles filled the screen, but other than that Ace Combat X appears to be a fine example of what Sony’s system is capable of.

Ace Combat X is due for release in November, and the brief amount of time I spent with the preview build was more than enough to see the game’s potential. Assuming the single-player campaign can deliver the kind of story-linked missions the series is famous for, and the multiplayer (ad hoc only, but includes team play) mode is more than a last minute addition, PSP owners should have a great game on their hands. Expect a review in time for the games’ release.