Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Assault Horizon's multiplayer has been improved since Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. Co-operative missions and free-for-all Deathmatch have returned, but two new modes have been added as well: "Capital Conquest" and "Domination". In Capital Conquest, two teams of 4v4 or 8v8 each take control of their own headquarters, and must destroy the other team's headquarters. First, the transmission base in the center of the map must come under one team's control; once that's accomplished, the team's multi-roles and attackers (and bombers, given the right conditions) can initiate Air Strike Mode to damage the other team's HQ. The first team to destroy the other's HQ wins; if the time limit is reached before an HQ could be destroyed, then the team with the most HQ health remaining wins. On the Ace Combat website, players can join an online faction (one for each capital city featured in Capital Conquest), and any points they receive individually while playing in a certain city will go towards that player's faction's control of that city. Every six weeks, the faction with the most global control wins.

In Domination, two teams of 4v4 or 8v8 battle it out to take control of three different bases in one single city. Taking control of a base is similar to the "King of the Hill" mode in other games; when a base is neutral, one team must stay inside it for a certain amount of time to take it over. The opposing team must destroy the ground targets that now pop up around that base, and then they must stay inside for a certain amount of time to take it over. Every 60 seconds, points are awarded to each team, 1 for each base they control at the time. The team with the most points wins.

There are two control schemes in the game: "Optimum" and "Original":

• The new "Optimum" control scheme prevents the player from doing full rolls, to gain the stability needed to get the best of the new Close Range Assault system. This is the default mode that has been used in most of the game's media and hasn't been seen in the series.
• The "Original" control scheme is similar to the controls in the previous titles under "Expert". It gives the players full control of the aircraft, with the left stick making it roll instead of turn.

In addition to these settings, there are many options to tweak the controls and adapt to the player's style. It includes the choice of normal or reverse settings for the Pitch Control, Camera Control, Throttle, and Yaw. High-G turns return from Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, as well as Auto Pilot if both shoulder buttons are held down. Lastly, the Flight Assistance provides opportunities to players such as Auto-leveling, Automatic Collision Prevention, Automatic Stall Prevention, Sight Assist, and Automatic Forward Target Selection. Flight Assistance can be turned on or off. On the Xbox 360, the game supports the Ace Edge Joysticks released with Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

Unlike other games in the Ace Combat series (but in the same vein as Ace Combat: Joint Assault), Assault Horizon takes place in real-world locations. The story itself takes place between 2015 and 2016, in locations within East Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and the United States.

The game's protagonists are mostly members of the United Nations' 108th Task Force, a joint NATO-Russian military organization primarily assigned to quell a rebellion spreading over East Africa. Players primarily assume the role of Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop, head of the United States Air Force's Warwolf Squadron. He is assisted by wingman José "Guts" Gutierrez, French NATO General Pierre La Pointe and pilots of the 108th's Nomad, Shooter, and Spooky squadrons. The antagonists are Russian General Ivan Stagleishov, and Russian Air Force pilots Andrei Markov and Maj. Sergei Illich, who are members of a Russian criminal syndicate called the Blatnoi.

In the prologue, USAF Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop leads an American defense of Miami against Russian forces, but is shot down by a mysterious plane with a "shark mouth" motif; the entire sequence is revealed to be a nightmare. He later awakes and sees the survivors of a helicopter raid on an insurgent stronghold in East Africa being rushed in for treatment. Their force is wiped out after a large explosive device is set off on the stronghold by the SRN rebel group. The 108th regroups to rescue Maj. Sergei Illich, a Russian officer, serving with the task force who was shot down in an earlier operation. The SRN's use of the powerful explosive leads the 108th to an SRN cave hideout near the archaeological ruins of Mogadiyu, but the 108th's Russian co-commander, General Stagleishov, holds back his forces from joining the attack and even launch their fighters. On the way back, Warwolf receives a distress call from a city under rebel attack, but they are intercepted by the Russians. In the course of the battle, Bishop is hit by Andrei Markov, a highly skilled Russian pilot who flies the same plane from Bishop's nightmare. The Russians withdraw, and the rebels detonate a more powerful version of the mysterious explosive on the 108th's base just as Warwolf lands.

The 108th identifies the new weapon as "Trinity", a conventional explosive with the power of a tactical nuclear weapon and designed for various weapon platforms such as cruise missiles. The 108th's survivors head to Dubai to defend the city from elements of the Russian criminal organization Blatnoi aiming to use the weapon on the city and intercept rebel cargo ships in hopes of finding Trinity weapons. However, this buys the Blatnoi time to launch a coup d'état in Russia with massive support from the Russian military. Under Stagleishov's command, the so-called New Russian Federation quickly takes control of Moscow and its surrounding areas, while the 108th joins other loyalist Russian units to take on the coup forces. Illich, who was one of the Russian pilots to leave East Africa, assists in the counteroffensive but disappears as the 108th successfully shoots down a Trinity cruise missile and an ICBM targeted for the United States. A Trinity missile destroys much of the 108th's strike force heading to Moscow, and Bishop leads Warwolf in shooting down a Russian bomber squadron bearing down on the capital; he also takes out Markov's personal plane, and the pilot ejects. Seeing the futility of resistance, Stagleishov negotiates the NRF's surrender by exchanging the final Trinity missile for political immunity, but Markov kills him and steals the weapon. It is revealed that Markov planned everything as revenge against the U.S. for an airstrike during the Bosnian War that killed his wife, with the coup as a decoy to lure many American forces out of the homeland and weaken its defenses.

Illich is revealed as Markov's sleeper agent and betrays the 108th by joining his forces bound for the U.S. from bases in South America. The 108th and several American combat units reinforce and defend Miami against an onslaught by Markov's forces. Bishop's earlier nightmare comes to life, but Guts is able to protect him, and the Trinity missile on Markov's plane is damaged in the process. Bishop then chases after an escaping Markov and Illich and encounters them in the midst of a Category 5 hurricane, Markov escapes while Illich covers his retreat after a long and challenging battle Bishop finally overcomes Illich. The 108th recovers and assists in defense of Washington DC against a larger Russian attack. In a final showdown, Bishop finally eliminates Markov and shoots down his Trinity missile aimed at the White House. Upon landing his plane at Reagan National Airport, Bishop is given a hero's welcome while Guts is safely rescued.

In March 2012, ASCII Media Works released Ace Combat: Ikaros in the Sky. A tie-in novel for Assault Horizon, Ikaros in the Sky is the story of series character Kei Nagase as she participates in the JASDF's ASF-X Shinden II fighter program.[12]