Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

The player firing missiles at enemy fighters

Ace Combat Zero's gameplay is split into a single-player campaign mode and a two-player versus mode. The mechanics themselves are a mix of features from Ace Combat 04 and 5.

The game features primarily older versions of fighter aircraft seen in its predecessor game, such as the F-15C, F/A-18C, and several second- and third-generation fighters like the Saab 35 Draken. The player begins the game with an F-5E, an F-1, and a J35J, but is able to unlock and purchase more advanced aircraft by completing missions and destroying targets to earn credits. The game introduces the ADFX-01 Morgan superfighter (resembling the cancelled PZL-230 Skorpion attack aircraft), but players can also access the ADF-01 FALKEN from Ace Combat 2 and the X-02 Wyvern from Ace Combat 04.

The game revives Ace Combat 04's aircraft customization system - players can buy up to three special "SP" weapons per plane but can only choose one for the mission; they can also pick their wingman's SP weapon but not their plane. Another returning feature from Ace Combat 04 is the ability to withdraw from the battlefield for rearming at home base during long missions.

Zero retains Ace Combat 5's wingman-command system. During most campaign missions, the player can issue orders to the AI wingman using the DualShock controller's directional pad.

The game continues the Ace Combat series tradition of taking on aces who fly aircraft with unique paint schemes. Aside from the pilots and their squadrons whom the player faces as boss characters, many missions will have other enemy aces scattered throughout the game map; defeating them will list their unique plane and short pilot biographies in an in-game digital album.

The plot of the game is told via a frame story, being a historical documentary covering the events of the "Belkan War" which ended a few years before its publication. The author of the documentary, a journalist named Brett Thompson, recounts how he discovered several allusions to an unidentified mercenary, whose actions played a pivotal role in the war's outcome. Thompson resolves to trace the mercenary's activities throughout the war, hoping to uncover his identity.

In March 1995, the Federation of Belka invades the Republic of Ustio, a former Belkan province, in an attempt to seize newly discovered natural resources required for Belka's economy. With much of Ustio rapidly fallen under Belkan occupation, the Ustian government allies with Osea, Sapin, and Yuktobania to fight off the advancing Belkans from their territories as the Allied Forces. Part of Ustio's war effort includes hiring mercenary pilots for their air force, including two pilots with callsigns "Cipher" and "Pixy", which are the 2 main characters of the game.

Cipher and Pixy work with Allied combat units in driving the Belkans from Ustio, allowing the Allies to go on the offensive and begin pushing deep into Belka with the aim of crushing its warfighting capabilities; Cipher distinguishes himself after destroying a massive Belkan tactical laser installation named "Excalibur," but Pixy starts to question the validity of the offensive, especially after an incident in which the Belkan city of Hoffnung is indiscriminately bombed by Allied forces. In response to the Allied advance, the Belkans detonate seven nuclear weapons on their own soil, killing tens of thousands and shocking the Allied Forces into temporarily halting combat operations. In the confusion of the nuclear blasts, Pixy fires upon Cipher's aircraft and deserts. After withdrawing, Cipher is paired up with PJ as his new wingman.

In the aftermath of the detonations, the Allies call for Belka's surrender; the Belkan interim government accepts the terms, reducing the size of the remaining Belkan military and partitioning much of Belka's resource-rich territory among the Allied countries. As the Allies argue over the newly gained territory, pilots and soldiers from all five nations show their resentment by forming a terrorist organization called A World With No Boundaries (AWWNB), that seeks to erase the concept of borders between countries and create a unified world.

Cipher and PJ deploy on several missions to suppress AWWNB, destroying the Belkan XB-0 Hresvelgr air fortress serving as AWWNB's mobile base, but it is discovered that AWWNB has taken over Avalon Dam, a Belkan ICBM installation containing a massive nuclear superweapon codenamed V2; AWWNB plans to use the weapon to force global unification. During the battle, Pixy, who had defected to AWWNB, attacks and shoots down PJ in a prototype fighter, and forces the V2's launch, challenging Cipher to a final aerial duel. Cipher battles Pixy and shoots him down, self-destructing the V2 and ending AWWNB's threat.

Throughout the game, Thompson's documentary plays between missions. Many of the enemy aces Cipher fought managed to eject from their planes and survive the war, and Thompson interviews each one about their battles with Cipher from their own perspectives. The final interviewee, Pixy, states that while he survived his dogfight with Cipher, he grew disillusioned with his AWWNB ideals, but continues to try to find meaning in them wherever he goes. He also thanks Cipher, in hopes that he may be watching the interview. The narrator concludes that while there's not enough information to truly uncover Cipher's identity, the fact that all of Cipher's former enemies smile when they recall him is enough for him, stating "that, perhaps, may be my answer".

The game received positive reviews. It holds a 75/100 score on Metacritic.[1] As of January 2008, it has shipped 792,000 copies worldwide.[7] IGN's Juan Castro graded the game at 8.8/10, stating that Namco took a chance in slowly evolving the series, and it offers "slight modifications" into the engine." He also took note of the story as different from other console flight games and the cooperative mode is a blessing to fans.[6]

Computerandvideogames.com lauded the game's release date as a refresher from the multiple games of different genres that came out at the time. He noted the good graphical presentations and the sheer difficulty provided by the Aces.[2]

Eurogamer's Rob Fahey, however, said the game's "incremental" changes confuse players with what has changed between this and Unsung War.[3]

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