Ace Combat HDWA Challenge - Day 11: Ace Combat X - Skies of Deception (PSP, 2006)
0HDWA = Hardest Difficulty, Worst Aircraft.
RULES
1) Beat the game at the highest difficulty using the worst aircraft available.
2) Cheats, intentional glitches and bugs are forbidden.
3) Savestates are forbidden.
4) This is not a speedrun! Take your time and try to achieve a good score if possible.
5) Choose any emulator you want.
ACE COMBAT X: SKIES OF DECEPTION
PREREQUISITES
1) Beat the Campaign on “Hard” difficulty to unlock “Ace”.
2) Complete mission 04B “False Target” to unlock the F-5.
HARDEST DIFFICULTY
Ace.
WORST AIRCRAFT
F-5. Despite being the starter aircraft, the F-4 is actually slightly better than the F-5.
HDWA CHALLENGE DIFFICULTY: 8/10
ADDITIONAL CHALLENGE
Play all the missions; shoot down enemy aces if possible; don’t install any performance parts.
DESCRIPTION
I was too lazy to change the emulator’s BIOS, so you get the game in Italian. Imparare un po’ di italiano certamente non vi farà male.
Ace Combat X takes place south of Osea, in the countries of Aurelia and Leasath.
The assets, physics and other things were recycled from Ace Combat 4 and 5, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Being a PSP game there are some limitations: to switch between HUD, cockpit and 3rd person view, you can’t just press a button, but change the POV from the pause menu instead.
Missions are chosen in a similar way to Air Combat, by flying to a given battlezone, but the main difference is that your decisions affect what happens on later missions – example: not damaging the Gleipnir early on means that it will be able to use certain weapons in future missions.
Oh boy, this game is hard.
Enemy missiles give you only half a second to react, and 70% of the times it’s not enough to dodge’em. The main strategy is to have your back clear from enemy aircraft and position your jet to be ready to perform evasive maneuvers – easier said than done!
This was the third hardest HDWA challenge, right after US and Japanese Ace Combat 3.
I died so many times, specially in Griswall and in the last mission.
The challenge was frustrating, but for the right reasons: the game difficulty and the poor performances of the F-5.
Emulator used: PPSSPP.
SHORT REVIEW
Plot: 7.5/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Soundtrack: 7/10
Controls: 6.5/10 – keep in mind that the PSP has less buttons than a normal PS2 controller
Game difficulty (besides my challenge): 8/10
Frustration: 8/10
Overall score: 7.5/10