Finished campaign in less than 15 hours. There's a "conquest" mode I didn't play yet but will do later and if it changes my review I will update. Here goes:

Story: 6/10 - Story was linear. Straight and to the point. Good guys, bad guys, plain and simple. No animations or cut-scenes of any sort, so only voice acting to portray the story so unfortunately not a whole lot on this front. Characters are pretty likable and memorable even without dedicated story telling. Dialogues was pretty decent. My only critique on the story is that it starts to become slightly chaotic in the later half of the story and you really need to pay attention to the dialogue while playing the game to know what's going on. While I did like playing the final 2 missions, story-wise, it could've been a lot better if it wasn't...let's say random? Not sure what the right description is and also without spoiling. Could have a more thorough explanation of the what happened at the ending, but otherwise, gameplay went out with a bang.

Gameplay: 10/10 - flying was awesome in this game. Unfortunately there's no replay or camera mode despite having free flight mode and cool scenery and a lot of gorgeous sun set views. Well-balanced AA vs AG fighting so I'm happy with playing campaign missions. I have not done conquest, maybe that'll change my mind. Solid flying, solid shooting, solid guns guns guns. Only small complaint I have is the missions can be lengthy if you're trying to clear all things and taking 30 on doing a mission just to die by boss or accidentally, you'll have to restart from the very beginning of the mission. Oh, also allied fighters actually kill targets too, that's kinda neat, though I think it takes away points you could be earning, but not that it matters much.

Visual: 10/10 - as mentioned the scenery looks great, or hellishly great. Also getting to see California in ruins brings joy to my eyes.

Music: 5/10 - one of the lesser impressive aspect is the music. Some are very good and fitting, but other times/tracks, it ruins the mood with some funky ones. I don't know, half of the OST is a hit, the half are a miss.

Overall: 7/10 - despite it being just above average on story telling and lack of any cut-scene in that regards, playing through the campaign was fun and very enjoyable with the story being simple enough to follow, even if you missed some dialogues while having fun in the air. It wasn't as annoying as AC7 where majority of the fights were AG and then the remaining people were turd drones or an old man. It actually feels good to beat another fighter, rival, etc.

Recommendation: Because I expected this to be less of a story telling game as opposed to reviewing an Ace Combat game, I definitely liked like the content this game provides. Could've been great if it had multiplayer feature or co-op mode, but eh, maybe didn't have the infrastructure so I won't go too hard on that. If you are a fan of flying in the air, dog-fighting other pilots, this is a pretty solid pick.

Finished campaign in less than 15 hours. There's a "conquest" mode I didn't play yet but will do later and if it changes my review I will update. Here goes: Story: 6/10 - Story was linear. Straight and to the point. Good guys, bad guys, plain and simple. No animations or cut-scenes of any sort, so only voice acting to portray the story so unfortunately not a whole lot on this front. Characters are pretty likable and memorable even without dedicated story telling. Dialogues was pretty decent. My only critique on the story is that it starts to become slightly chaotic in the later half of the story and you really need to pay attention to the dialogue while playing the game to know what's going on. While I did like playing the final 2 missions, story-wise, it could've been a lot better if it wasn't...let's say random? Not sure what the right description is and also without spoiling. Could have a more thorough explanation of the what happened at the ending, but otherwise, gameplay went out with a bang. Gameplay: 10/10 - flying was awesome in this game. Unfortunately there's no replay or camera mode despite having free flight mode and cool scenery and a lot of gorgeous sun set views. Well-balanced AA vs AG fighting so I'm happy with playing campaign missions. I have not done conquest, maybe that'll change my mind. Solid flying, solid shooting, solid guns guns guns. Only small complaint I have is the missions can be lengthy if you're trying to clear all things and taking 30 on doing a mission just to die by boss or accidentally, you'll have to restart from the very beginning of the mission. Oh, also allied fighters actually kill targets too, that's kinda neat, though I think it takes away points you could be earning, but not that it matters much. Visual: 10/10 - as mentioned the scenery looks great, or hellishly great. Also getting to see California in ruins brings joy to my eyes. Music: 5/10 - one of the lesser impressive aspect is the music. Some are very good and fitting, but other times/tracks, it ruins the mood with some funky ones. I don't know, half of the OST is a hit, the half are a miss. Overall: 7/10 - despite it being just above average on story telling and lack of any cut-scene in that regards, playing through the campaign was fun and very enjoyable with the story being simple enough to follow, even if you missed some dialogues while having fun in the air. It wasn't as annoying as AC7 where majority of the fights were AG and then the remaining people were turd drones or an old man. It actually feels good to beat another fighter, rival, etc. Recommendation: Because I expected this to be less of a story telling game as opposed to reviewing an Ace Combat game, I definitely liked like the content this game provides. Could've been great if it had multiplayer feature or co-op mode, but eh, maybe didn't have the infrastructure so I won't go too hard on that. If you are a fan of flying in the air, dog-fighting other pilots, this is a pretty solid pick.