This game is great.
Why???
1 the sound track: the OST for this game is amongst the best imo, the way each song boosts the missions atmosphere and just how good the are. This is especially relevant in Mission 19.
2 story and gameplay: before playing ac 7 I had never heard of the ace combat franchise. But the story and world building in ac7 sucked me into the other games. As convoluted the story is at times, but all the other characters have there own goals, distinct personalities are handled and written well enough. As for the game play, at first even on easy I was putting 100% into it but after a few replays of the game I have mastered the game. And most of the missions have great replay ability value. Like the missions: long day, fleet destruction, mission 19, and a few more. The multiplayer is lacking and honestly full servers are hard to come by, the game modes are basic and bare bones 4 v 4 (that is just impossible to find) and battle royal, which is a mode that’s done to death.
3 aircraft tree and game progression: the game has a basic to understand aircraft tree where you can you know, buy new aircraft and there sp weapons. And not to mention the skins that are already in game (for the most part). Reply the story is a decent but slow way to get credits to buy new aircraft, but online has a higher pay out, but also people on there are insanely good at the game (or a coward who spams f-22 with qaams… every round… and every game)
4 dlcs: the dlcs add well new aircraft from other games to the game, along with 3 dlc missions with my favourite character init the story and the antagonist are great and well worth buying the alicorn/Torres dlc as it adds the the main story and are a lot of fun to play and then revisit.
4 cons: there is a learning curve. And the main issue for new players is definitely the default controls limiting new players ability to progress.
All in all play this if you can.