Ace Combat: Wings of Liberty

Ace Combat: Wings Of Liberty is a role-playing game combat flight simulation developed by Project ACES, Intelligent Systems and Blizzard Entertainment, and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is a spin-off to the Ace Combat franchise set in the Strangereal universe. It was released exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

The single-player campaign takes place in Strangereal in 2017. The player character is Nathan Zachary, an Osean Air Defense Force pilot hired by the International Union Peacekeeping Force during a series of disputes in Fodlan. After Zachary was shot down during a mission, he is sent to the famous Ustian Air Force 6th Air Division mercenary unit. The game's cutscenes follow numerous characters in the war.

Plot
The game takes place in Fódlan, Verusea. The landmass is divided into three rival nations who are now at peace: the Adrestian Empire to the southwest, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus to the north, and the Leicester Alliance to the east. At the center is the Garreg Mach Monastery, a neutral territory home to both the Church of Seiros and the Officers Academy. An extreme Nazism right-wing political group finally comes to power on the 12th of January 2017 to become known as the Fascist Empire of Fodlan and invaded outwards merging the three nations into one. These actions prompted the International Union to maintain peace to the nations.

Nathan Zachary begins in the war fighting for Osea and the IUN, defending the Lord Roberts Island air base and helping Osea destroy Fodlan forces at Sreng. After he was shot down by an unknown unit after Osean squadrons suffered losses due to attacks from one of Fodlan's top aces, he was sent to the famous Ustio Air Force 6th Air Division 1st Air Force Unit "Raynor's Raiders" as a mercenary. Raynor's Raiders were out of money and morale, but Zachary had been trying to reverse this by sortie into numerous difficult tasks in Fodlan while the IUN-PKF is busy maintaining struggle.

Gameplay
Typical of the Ace Combat series, most of the game takes place in the air, seen from the cockpit of player’s plane. During the course of the game, the player has the opportunity to buy 62 different planes, from real-life aircraft to prototypes and fictional planes. With the default controls, players steer their plane with the Switch controller’s left analog stick and aim the camera with the right analog stick, with the arrow buttons used for interaction with the wingman. The player can choose between three different control schemes: either Zero-specific, or based off Ace Combat 5 (“ACE5 A” and “ACE5 B”). The player can now talk in-game, previously featured in Assault Horizon.

The Boresight System from Ace Combat Zero allows the player to select their lock-on targets manually with a thumbstick instead of cycling through bogeys and ground targets.

Like Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Clouds still play a major role in gameplay. Units inside of clouds, including the player, will gain stealth. However, visibility is poor inside clouds, and the player will risk crashing into other aircraft or the terrain. The player's aircraft will ice and stall if they stay in cloud cover for too long.

The HUD will be very reminiscent of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.

The player can also manually perform Post Stall Maneuvers, returning from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. If successful, the player can get behind an enemy aircraft and turn a dogfight in their favor.

Character Interactions
Nathan Zachary is the main character, and the player will direct him, determining to some extent who Nathan will become based on their choices. This is different from the numerous silent protagonist in the previous Ace Combat games. The player will have the choice of bending Zachary's path in life.

Interactions in briefings also changed, as Nathan Zachary can interact with those around him (e.g. he can walk around the Air Base or talk to characters like Jim Raynor and his second-in-command Matt Horner. The player can choose which characters to interact with.

Aircraft
Main Article: Ace Combat: Wings of Liberty/Aircraft

Wings of Liberty features 63 playable aircraft, of which 59 are real or prototypes and 4 are fictional. To purchase aircraft for Nathan, the player has to unlock them by completing missions, then buy them by expending credits. Credits are earned by destroying hostile or neutral ("yellow") targets. Only the T-45 Goshawk is available at the start of the game.

In addition to a machinegun and all-purpose missiles, each plane is equipped with a reasonable number of special weapons, specialized against either ground or air targets. Like previous games, Wings of Liberty allows the player to select two types of special munition after selecting their plane at the beginning of each mission. Only one special weapon type is available for each aircraft upon purchase and two more can be bought later (which special weapons each aircraft can carry is predetermined for each plane, see the list).

Also like in Ace Combat 5, the player can buy and select a plane for their wingmen.

All of the gauges inside the aircraft are fully functional and give accurate information from sea level.

Before each mission, the player can also select the paint scheme for their plane (but not the wingman's). Paint schemes are purely cosmetic and do not cost anything (unlike in Ace Combat 04). Each plane can have up to five paint schemes, with two exceptions:


 * Osean, the default paint scheme the plane is purchased with.
 * Fascist Fodlan, available for most planes by shooting down the same model.
 * Special, only available after certain conditions are met (see list).

Mobius 1's F-22A Raptor, Trigger's F-15C Eagle, Talisman's F-15E, Mihaly's Su-30SM, Sol Squadron's Su-30M2, Strigon Squadron's Su-33, Phoenix's Typhoon, Blaze's F-14D Super Tomcat, Yellow 13's Su-37 Terminator and all Ace Combat Zero ace squadron paint schemes are also unlockable.

The mascot aircraft of Ace Combat Wings of Liberty is the F/A-18E Super Hornet. The super-fighter introduced in this game is the FE-X1 Baphomet.

Missions
Main Article: Ace Combat: Wings of Liberty/Missions

Characters
Main Article: Ace Combat: Wings of Liberty/Characters