The latest "free to play" update of one of their classic franchises from Namco.
Let's get the ugly side of things out of the way first. The system is you can hold up to three fuel units, one of which is replenished every 3hrs 45mins. Playing one time uses up a fuel unit (offline or online). That is very limiting. However you also get given a secondary set of fuel (stocked fuel) that can be topped up by completing game challenges, or buying it with cash from the store.
I currently have 9 stocked fuel units and I have played a bunch of times in the last couple of days, i was given 10 when I started and I've earned enough by doing challenges to keep it around that level.
Planes, upgrades and weapons are earned RPG style, you basically earn experience and then unlock paths on a flow chart towards your desired aircraft or weapon. You also earn credits that you have to use to purchase them once unlocked. Some challenges reward you for unlocking specific planes, so there is incentive to diversify.
Right now there are a lot of good reasons to play online (more limited drops in the first ten days, rare plane skins to be had etc etc) so I have basically ignored the campaign to concentrate on getting the nice stuff. You can buy unlimited campaign play for 2000 yen. I havent done so.
Online play is nice, its basically co-op but 4-8 players are divided into two squadrons (less than 8 introduces bots to the teams), and the competition is between the two squads to kill the most enemies. This is where the pay-to-win aspect comes in because you can buy an elite pack of superior aircraft and weapons with real cash, and teams with those players invariably win. It doesnt matter though, as nobody really loses. However there is a trophy for getting the MVP in a match, and you wont be unlocking that unless there is a level playing field in your game sometime... I was in second place once and only lost by 500pts, very frustrating. Yesterday I had great connections all day, but today I've had some lag and disconnects. Happily you get to keep your fuel unit if you are disconnected mid match.
Regular missions are interrupted by extra objectives, such as a fleet of bombers or a super-carrier type plane that has to be eliminated. There are also occasional 'emergency sortie' missions that come up in the lobby and change the selected mission. the current one involves shooting down four super-carriers but I have never seen it completed successfully.
My other experience with F2P was Soul Calibur lost swords. That game makes it far more obvious that you are disadvantaged by not paying for good equipment. There is enough going on in Ace Combat Infinity that personally I havent yet felt the same handicap, although it is undoubtedly there - in these early stages i dont feel its much of a problem.
Oh, the final point - this is classic Ace Combat, as per the PS2 games. Nothing like that horrible PS3 version they made. However the music is all recycled from older games (environments are new though, unless they were in the xbox game - one of the missions takes place above Tokyo which is nice).
Its also got full English support (currently only available on the Japanese store).
Let's get the ugly side of things out of the way first. The system is you can hold up to three fuel units, one of which is replenished every 3hrs 45mins. Playing one time uses up a fuel unit (offline or online). That is very limiting. However you also get given a secondary set of fuel (stocked fuel) that can be topped up by completing game challenges, or buying it with cash from the store.
I currently have 9 stocked fuel units and I have played a bunch of times in the last couple of days, i was given 10 when I started and I've earned enough by doing challenges to keep it around that level.
Planes, upgrades and weapons are earned RPG style, you basically earn experience and then unlock paths on a flow chart towards your desired aircraft or weapon. You also earn credits that you have to use to purchase them once unlocked. Some challenges reward you for unlocking specific planes, so there is incentive to diversify.
Right now there are a lot of good reasons to play online (more limited drops in the first ten days, rare plane skins to be had etc etc) so I have basically ignored the campaign to concentrate on getting the nice stuff. You can buy unlimited campaign play for 2000 yen. I havent done so.
Online play is nice, its basically co-op but 4-8 players are divided into two squadrons (less than 8 introduces bots to the teams), and the competition is between the two squads to kill the most enemies. This is where the pay-to-win aspect comes in because you can buy an elite pack of superior aircraft and weapons with real cash, and teams with those players invariably win. It doesnt matter though, as nobody really loses. However there is a trophy for getting the MVP in a match, and you wont be unlocking that unless there is a level playing field in your game sometime... I was in second place once and only lost by 500pts, very frustrating. Yesterday I had great connections all day, but today I've had some lag and disconnects. Happily you get to keep your fuel unit if you are disconnected mid match.
Regular missions are interrupted by extra objectives, such as a fleet of bombers or a super-carrier type plane that has to be eliminated. There are also occasional 'emergency sortie' missions that come up in the lobby and change the selected mission. the current one involves shooting down four super-carriers but I have never seen it completed successfully.
My other experience with F2P was Soul Calibur lost swords. That game makes it far more obvious that you are disadvantaged by not paying for good equipment. There is enough going on in Ace Combat Infinity that personally I havent yet felt the same handicap, although it is undoubtedly there - in these early stages i dont feel its much of a problem.
Oh, the final point - this is classic Ace Combat, as per the PS2 games. Nothing like that horrible PS3 version they made. However the music is all recycled from older games (environments are new though, unless they were in the xbox game - one of the missions takes place above Tokyo which is nice).
Its also got full English support (currently only available on the Japanese store).
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