Played for about three hours. It is a pretty good port. Runs great with no issues. So far it is
far less buggy than most AAA games true to Ace Combat style of being highly polished. This is nowhere near Assassin Creed level port quality. The only downside that I can see is currently no ultra wide support but that appears to be a common trend in Japanese games like MGSV and Ace Combat. I believe there is also no mouse control in the main menu but the design is a very responsive list style that is clean so arrow keys are not a problem. It is actually quicker and more responsive than most AAA games these days, even those that have mouse control. It never even occured to me that the mouse might not work because I only used the keyboard/controller; but I have heard that complaint.
As for a HOTAS, it won't work well for a flight game. If you're looking for a flight simulator try DCS. You wouldn't use a HOTAS for GTA or Need for Speed. I don't get the complaints. A $30 Xbox 360 controller works flawlessly. It does support some HOTAS, but not all currently. But again, it would be fairly stupid. I have an X52 Pro but won't bother using it because it isn't conductive to the flight model in the game. Again, it isn't a flight sim.
Graphics look pretty good. The only shortcoming is the trees and buildings can have a short draw distance. Hope they give an option for a longer view range in the future because I must be getting 70-80 frame rates all maxed out at 2560x1440. Otherwise the graphics look very good. I assume that is limitation for UE4 which only supports tiny map sizes / draw distance (for a flight game). Plane 3D models are not as detailed as DCS modules, but that is to be expected. Each plane costs $60-80 for DCS so I expect far more attention to detail there. Outside of that graphics look pretty amazing.
If you're okay with games like GTAV, FFXV (a steaming pile of shit), Assassins Creed Origins, Nier Automata (average game, shit port) or MGSV then Ace Combat 7 won't be a problem. Of all those games, so far it is by far the best PC port and the least buggy. Add in ultra wide support and it would be practically perfect.
Edit: Added some screen shots to show off the graphics along with DCS. Note I am using my own Ace Combat themed skins for DCS but they should be easy to tell apart. DCS looks better in some areas, AC7 better in others. Coast lines and water looks better in AC7, as does some of the lighting. But DCS wins on aircraft 3D models and texture detail hands down.
AC7:
DCS:
https://i.imgur.com/L63wkiL.png
DCS left, AC7 right:
https://i.imgur.com/1h2fCyi.jpg
Obviously DCS has much bigger maps but that can also hurt low level detail. You can see how pointy the hills can get below compared to AC7:
https://i.imgur.com/zPwBDFR.png
https://i.imgur.com/WSoFWhu.jpg
AC7 graphics are about as good as it gets for the genre, minus the not so great draw distance on some objects. At least the frame rate consistently runs very high. A higher draw distance option would be wonderful though I wonder if it will be too much for UE4.
