Introduction to Ace Force Mobile
It’s a title that Tencent has put a lot of effort in but didn’t have a chance to breakthrough from the alpha phase. People were excited about its genre when Overwatch came out, but then the hype quickly turned to battle royale games like PUBG and Fortnite Mobile. Tencent had to delay the release of Ace Force Mobile for their own PUBG Mobile. However, you won’t have to wait any longer. Ace Force Mobile has officially launched the Open Beta phase starting from August 13th. Even before that, in China alone, the game witnessed more than 13 million pre-registrations.
Battle Royale Gameplay
If you’ve experienced Overwatch on PC before, this game won’t take much time to get used to. Ace Force features a first-person perspective. Each time has five members to take on their opponents. An auto-aim mechanism is available – whenever your crosshair is near an enemy, it automatically locks on.
From the trailer, we can see that there are four game modes: Deathmatch, King of the Hill, Bomb Defusal, and most surprisingly, Battle Royale. Only the first two are accessible right now, so I’m excited about the whole.
There are more than 20 characters for you to select. Each has a unique look, skillset, and play style, so it might take some times for players to familiarize. They’re also divided into role classes, so the combination of them should be tactical enough for each round. Like in MOBA games, a computer-based system will advise a team if it’s unbalanced. For example, you may have too much firepower but lacks healing and defense support. Within a match, players can switch between characters upon deaths or returning to their base. The purpose of this is to make use of the ‘counter’ mechanism, where a role may out-perform this group of characters but is inferior to others. As your level increases, you have more character options. Keep in mind, though, as the original character pool has only one healer.
Each character has a primary attack and more than two additional abilities. There’s a cooldown to each, so you need to time your skills perfectly to inflict the most damage. There will be some indications before they perform an ability, so the opponent will have some time to respond or take cover. That includes visual changes or oral announcement. Your primary attack differs for each character. Some use assault rifles while others may prefer sniper rifles or shotgun. It all depends on their statistics.
Many interesting game modes
In King of the Hill mode, a team needs to stand in a designated spot for a given amount of time to be victorious. This mode is similar to the game Apex Legend in some way.
The battle royale mode of the game is called Barking Royale. In this mode, you are in a team with two other players. Starting from 30 players, you must fight your way to be the last team standing. This game mode, I’d say, is what makes Ace Force different from other FPS and MOBA hybrid. It won’t make the game out of trend, too, as the hype for battle royales is still a thing.
Some people may see it as a combination of several game titles, but I think that’s a good move from Tencent. In terms of gameplay, it has everything that users crave for: survival, shooting, and personalized abilities. It’ll take no time to rise to the number 1 spot in every app store.
The game’s performance is smooth
I’m among those who are lucky enough to access the beta phase of the game, and the game runs perfectly on my device. That’s easy to understand, as the game has been in development for a long time. No lag spikes ever occurred, and the game is not crashing for me. Battery drainage and overheating are nowhere near Ace Force Mobile. You can play for leisure without worrying about power delivery and heat.
The graphics feel beautiful, too
The game is somehow reminiscent of anime style. Instead of the animated style of Overwatch, Ace Force Mobile has a more Japanese-looking artwork but looks cleaner and more compelling than any other games with the same characteristics.
The motions of the characters are well-made. Running and shooting feel very natural, unlike some mobile FPS with robot-like actions. The movement of your hands is a good bonus, too. Reloading your gun, for example, is unique on every character. Grenade blasts, gunshots, and skill effects are cool. In high settings, you can even see the smoke coming out of the barrel of your gun. Gamers with interest in graphics should be satisfied with Ace Force Mobile.
My final verdict
It’s a promising game for mobile users. From what I’ve seen, Ace Force has fascinating gameplay and great graphics. Anyway, some other players have reported the lack of interactions between players. That, I think, is going to change in no time. It’s still in development anyway. I’d give the game an 8/10. I’m sure the game will boom on every app store. Keep waiting for the official release!
