The Bottom Line: AC4: Shattered Skies is a brilliant, beautiful combat flight sim with little fault in gameplay. Only the story suffers from poor voice acting. "Bogey Down!"

Namco has had a great run with Ace Combat Series on the Playstation. The great arcade style dogfight combined with finger numbing action creating a great Flight Shooter with tremendous gameplay value. And now that Namco has moved on to the PS2, they now are trying to revive the AC with Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies.

I'll just come out and say it now, the power of the PS2 is what makes this game worth playing. The photo realistic backgrounds combined with stunning visuals provides a jaw dropping presentation. What is even better, some of the in game cut scenes look exactly like the gameplay, which creates a better atmosphere.
The arcade dogfighting style has made the Ace Combat series what it has become, and AC4 is no different. The almost limitless supply of missiles, the tracer bullets flying out of a raging vulcan cannon, all the right tools a top gun needs. The excellent explosions and sounds are a great addition to the already fantastic gameplay. You can't help but feel a tad satisfied with you shoot down a MIG with your machine guns while upside down. Those moments appear a lot, which make the game very involved and just plain fun.

The only thing that AC4 decided to change was relying on a more involved story, which also brought down its intense gameplay. Single frame cut scene flashbacks jump the story around constantly. It is hard to really figure out which part of the story your really fighting in. And the voice acting provided by our hero... could he become any more monotone? There is no sense of emotion in his voice. Thankfully, cut scenes can be skipped.

Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies, a great addition to the AC saga. The tradition stays alive on the PS2.