During E3, Bandai Namco stealthily released a new trailer for their upcoming flight-action game Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. For the first time, we hear more about the story and the protagonist, albeit still not much. Ace Combat 7 is set to come out sometime this year on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. Check out the trailer!
Ace Combat 7 is the newest entry to Bandai Namco’s long arcade-action flight sim, which started in the early 90s on arcades. As series trademark, you are able to pilot a number of real-world fighter jets, in a fictional setting where countries are at war.
Skies Unknown was first announced in 2015 and received several trailers throughout the years, mainly showcasing the beautifully modeled aircraft. So, it is nice that this new trailer puts a little more emphasis on setting up the story. What we can make out so far, is that the player is some kind of criminal, imprisoned and forced to fly combat missions. I know, it sounds highly illogical but this is where the fictionalised part of the game is. As a rookie member of Spare Squadron, you are quickly made sure to understand how expendable you and your squadron are, by being assigned the most dangerous and suicidal missions.
Another interesting tidbit we notice, is that planes from Spare Squadron are marked with so called Sin Lines at their fins. These mark the severity of the pilots crimes and the more sin lines you have, the more dangerous missions you will be appointed to. The player character, simply being called by his call sign Spare 15, has three of those sin lines. A high count, meaning we’ll have to manage some difficult tasks. What’s interesting, is that in the trailer we are being told to work off our crimes which indicate a dynamic progression through the story, where we will get a better standing when we complete our missions. Maybe even the chance to absolve ourselves of our crimes totally.
We will see what kind of story the developers are cooking up and how they will implement Sin Lines and aforementioned criminal themes into it, when we get our hands at the final game. While being set to release this year, we still have no concrete release date when exactly Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown will come out. We are hopeful that in the coming weeks and months, Bandai Namco will finally announce the release date.
