Ace Combat 6 was a bit of an experimental title in the series. Much like 5 and Zero, you have a buddy flying with you, where you can choose his plane and weapons. In most missions, you have one large map with multiple objectives you can clear. Clearing an objective gets you support from a faction of your army- depending on what you can do you can get some in battle asset like an on field base to restock, radar support to increase your missile's effectiveness, and you can actually call in help in terms of sweeping through a swathe of enemies, or covering you in the air.

This game has a lot of cute touches that I really enjoy- when you get radio calls from your allies you have the option of seeing mugshots of the main department leaders or their vehicles. When you lock on to a distant enemy you can get a close up shot in a separate window- when you fire down enemies and you're up close your screen gets splashed with some oil.

The plot is nothing to write home about sadly- nothing really memorable like 4 or Zero. I feel like most of the development focus was on the gameplay itself, which I think was okay as a trade off. I did feel like there was a sense of, maybe not friendliness but camraderie with your allies? I always enjoyed it.

Unfortunately you're not able to get it digitally anymore, but physical copies aren't going for too much. If you're a fan of Ace Combat it's worth giving the game a try, in my opinion.