ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN - TOP GUN: Maverick Edition

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is an arcade flight game in the truest sense - not a simulator, not a sandbox, but a tightly designed action experience built around momentum, missile locks, and the satisfaction of threading a jet through a canyon at Mach 1. The TOP GUN: Maverick Edition bundles the base game with DLC content tied to the film, including aircraft and missions that lean hard into that blockbuster energy. If you have ever wanted to feel like the guy in the cockpit rather than the guy reading the manual, this is the entry point. From a mechanical standpoint, the game rewards players who learn its systems rather than button-mash through them. Dogfighting relies on energy management - keeping speed up, forcing overshoot situations, and timing your missile salvos when the lock tone goes solid. The Assault Record progression unlocks new aircraft across a branching tech tree, and choosing between a long-range SEAD loadout versus a close-in dogfighter build genuinely changes how missions play out. Cloud layers and weather systems are not just visual dressing either - they affect missile tracking and radar, which means flying smart sometimes beats flying fast. That is the kind of layered decision-making that keeps the game from feeling shallow after the first handful of sorties. The campaign runs roughly 15 hours and tells an over-the-top geopolitical story in the series' fictional Strangereal setting, full of ace squadrons, orbital weapons, and melodrama that takes itself completely seriously. It works precisely because it commits. Mission design is mostly linear but punctuated by set pieces that genuinely land - a tunnel run here, a carrier assault there. The multiplayer side offers Battle Royal and Team Deathmatch modes that are functional but thin compared to the campaign. Do not buy this for the PvP long-term; the online population is modest on PC. Where the package stumbles is in accessibility framing. The tutorial is adequate but does not fully explain energy fighting or the nuances of special weapon cooldowns, so newer players may spend the first few missions confused about why their missiles keep missing. Difficulty spikes in the back half of the campaign can feel punishing before you have unlocked the right aircraft upgrades. Veterans of the series will slot in immediately; everyone else should start on Normal and expect a learning curve around mission 10. There is no mod ecosystem to speak of, and AI wingmen are largely decorative - do not expect them to pull weight in a tight engagement. For the strategy crowd who usually live in grand-strategy menus, this is actually a compelling change of pace precisely because it has a decision layer beneath the action surface. Loadout selection before each mission, aircraft unlock routing, and reading enemy formation patterns scratch a similar itch to pre-battle planning. It is not a deep system by sim standards, but it is more than a pure twitch game. If you want 15 hours of cinematic aerial action with genuine mechanical texture and a campaign that sticks its landing, this edition delivers that without much waste.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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