It has action, drama, surprises and challenge - all tied together into a neat little package. The story actually goes a bit harder then expected and served as an interesting mirror to Ace Combat campaigns. It went in a very different direction than I thought it would.

Mission design is pretty simple - fly to the AO and kill everything. There's no time limits or special objectives for the most part. They do at least make up for it with varied map design and weather conditions. There's also a healthy mix of air, land and water targets (sometimes at the same time) to keep things interesting.
I wish they'd make more use of take-off and landing sequences as they show up like 2-3 times throughout the campaign and once in the DLC (this one even includes a full taxi sequence from the hangar!). It's a simple addition that most people would probably skip but I still love for a bit of additional immersion. Does anyone know if there's a non-sim flight combat game that utilises these sections in a more regular way?

Is it a perfect game? Considering the price and size of the development team I'd say it's pretty close to being as perfect as it can be given the circumstances. There are some issues like the missile spam and number of enemies at times but over all none of these are serious enough to dampen my excitement about this title.
Oh! Both final bosses, as in from the main and DLC campaigns, can be a bit much in terms of "spectacle". We go from relatively grounded challenges to enemies that belong in Gundam rather than contemporary military game. It's a bit of a whiplash compared to the rest of the playthrough.

It's a fantastic title that will become a mainstay on my hard drive for a long while. I really hope these guys make a sequel some day. Direct, spiritual - doesn't matter. I need more flight combat games from this studio.