This small trilogy of DLC comes to an epic finale in the classical sense of the word. SP 03 pulls out all the narrative stops: a perfectly set stage, a breathtaking score (even for someone who prefers riffs), arguably the most beautiful scenery in Ace Combat history, and perfect dialogue (by AC's standards) to round it off.

It's worlds apart from the Unexpected Visitor and especially Anchorhead Raid the boundless freedom had been replaced with an extended set piece, though one spanning large areas of the map rather than minute targets. This provides a fairly unique experience unseen in AC we'll have to see how it ages. The lengthy inactive sections, long flight times and rigid structure might not bode well for replayability, but it sure as hell is cool on first sight.

Those who know me best will ask: but what about the gameplay? Well, it's there, and mostly of your own making: just like with Scin/Hrimfaxi, you can pick your difficulty by your special weapon. I believe I'll pick A2A weapons in the future, both to better tackle the Rafales and UAVs and to allow the Alicorn to be a far more fearsome foe.

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