The Ace Combat series is well established as being premier arcade-style flight combat games. The series’ roots go as far back as a 1995 port of an arcade cabinet that was released in ’93. Since its earliest entry, the Ace series has been evolving rapidly and innovating on its arcade bones, with its growing catalogue generating a massive fanbase worldwide.
Considering the passion of that fanbase and that the most recent Ace Combat game to take to the skies was 2019’s Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown more than seven years ago, it makes sense that Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is a highly anticipated continuation of the series. Fortunately, the takeoff is excellent.
Wings of Theve begins with one of the series’ longest, most poignant introductions in its entire catalogue. Violently wrestled from a vague status quo as an Air Force pilot by the advent of war between Sotoa and the FCU, the player is put into the flight suit of an initially nameless pilot who, after being rescued from the sea, is witness to one of the war’s greatest tragedies and inheritor to its greatest burden.
Recognisable pilot callsigns are a tradition of the series, and nearly every protagonist is remembered solely by their callsign. “Rex” may not be as immediately striking as the likes of Ace 7’s Trigger or The Belkan War’s Cipher, but it carries more initial weight than any callsign from previous games.
Players inherit the nickname from the previous Rex, also known as the titular “Wings of Theve,” whose legendary reputation is heavily fabricated for the sake of morale. While it may seem like just a simple way of softly introducing the player, this legacy and its flaws loom over Ace Combat 8‘s entire story and is one of its most memorable features.
Anti-war storytelling is a celebrated staple of Ace Combat games, often going the extra mile to show the costs of war even during the player’s glory moments as they battle enemy squadrons or turn the tide of a war in the “good guy’s” favour. Wings of Theve doesn’t shy away from those roots either.
The 20+ hour story creates a deeply spiritual narrative split across the beautifully animated cinematic cutscenes and enormous campaign missions that show the costs of an endless cycle of war and how it consumes the vulnerable. During those missions, the arcade-style free-flying combat comes fully into play.
Engaging, three-dimensional combat is not an easy thing to pull off. However, through combining richly textured terrain, beautiful simulated weather, and repeated breakings of the sound barrier, Ace Combat 8 creates a thrilling and expressive combat loop that forces players to balance speed, targeting, and their own sense of flair as they go all out dodging missiles and locking onto enemy air, ground and naval targets.
Most of the combat is an enhancement of what Ace Combat 7 brought to the series. Weather hazards such as icing up in some clouds or the sudden snap of lightning strikes are used more widely and more carefully in Wings of Theve than in its predecessor. Using one of the game’s astonishingly detailed clouds as tactical cover or smoke screens also returns, giving the player a way of ducking in and out of a dangerous dogfight or losing a determined enemy pursuer.
A lot of said expression comes out in which four aircraft the game’s “Joker Flight” takes into action. Fighters excel at intercepting air targets, Attackers thrive against ground and naval targets, and Multiroles balance out the difference, albeit with less specialisation. These strengths and weaknesses are mostly statistical on paper, but each of Wings of Theve‘s 30+ aircraft at launch can feel somewhat different to individually pilot, with sharper turning or more stable control being the most tangible difference.
The player chooses when and how to unlock new aircraft from the Aircraft Tree, an RPG-style skill tree of progression from previous titles that uses MRP, points earned during missions (and are increased by player performance), to unlock new aircraft, their three options for special weapons, and parts that provide passive upgrades when equipped in limited slots on each aircraft.
By the end of the main campaign, players will not have unlocked every aircraft, prompting them to go back and replay missions on a higher difficulty if they want to see every aircraft that the game has to offer. Hostile aircraft have considerable variety to them as well. A Rafale feels quite different to go up against than a Su-57 does, with shifting levels of speed and a variety of weapons to contend with.
Iconic enemy squadron intros also return in Wings of Theve, mostly centred on Sotoa’s recurring elite “Lux Lunae” squadron and their striking black and gold aesthetic. These short introductions add a lot of flair when they do appear, with an easily recognisable and dramatic soundtrack that heralds an incoming boss fight. Not every mission has to feature a “Shadow,” as they are called, for their presence to be felt either. Dialogue cues and tension keep players in throes of anticipation, which can make an already difficult mission feel more intense, whether the Shadows even end up appearing or not.
High-octane, rapidly evolving missions are one of the things that make Ace Combat 8 and its predecessors what they are. The controls are relatively easy to get the hang of but incredibly challenging to master for high-G manoeuvres and splashy takedowns with or without the help of the game’s colourful squadmates. Squadron commands, which were first introduced into the series with Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, return in Wings of Theve almost immediately.
The player, as Rex, can issue one of four commands to all three of their wingmen at once (tied with Unsung War for the most in the series): “Forward Attack,” which targets whoever Rex is targeting; “Dispersed Attack,” which sees each pilot spread out and prioritise enemies on their own; toggle-able permissions for using “Special Weapons” or not; and last but not least, a very valuable “Cover” command where wingmen will scatter flares behind Rex and try to help them shake off both pursuers and their lock-on missiles.
Each of these squadmates also has a story of their own, playing out alongside Rex’s saga in the campaign. There have been many iconic wingmen in the series before (you’ll never be forgiven, Pixy), but Ace Combat 8 steps things up a notch. All three squadmates interact both during and between missions and gradually change in meaningful ways over the course of the main narrative. The relationships between these characters are often even more important than their growing bond with the game’s silent protagonist.
Silence is not entirely inconsequential in Wings of Theve, as the “Yes” or “No” dialogue choices from Unsung War return in the main campaign. While a handful of these choices simply lead to a different line of reactive dialogue from one of the side characters, some change the way missions play out, such as allowing one of the three wingmen to engage a specific enemy or help a valuable ally.
Choices play a large part in the overall immersion. A particularly useful choice is selecting what aircraft (and by extent, what special weapons) Rex’s wingmen will take into each mission, a feature missing from most Ace Combat titles. Beyond narrative and equipment choices also come a few instances where players can (slightly) change a mission or two.
A yes or no prompt, or in some cases a large battlefield with spread-out objectives, does give the player some sense of agency in what way they tackle a number of the game’s longer campaign missions. These simple options coupled with the interactive cutscenes can make Ace Combat 8 feel more entrancing than any prior entry in the series.
While the campaign mode excels at creating the Top Gun-esque fantasy of a being a legendary ace pilot, the online modes, where other players are just as good if not better, are a bit more balanced. All-new PvE modes make their debut, alongside massive 100-player lobbies, but the true focus is on the player combat. The PvP matches ultimately create the same electrifying sensation as the campaign’s combat, just with more difficulty. In short, both getting torn apart or doing the tearing can be frustratingly fun in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.
Despite the game’s vast visual beauty created by Unreal Engine 5 (an engine that can be a real challenge to optimise), optimisation on the PS5 poses little to no concern; no bugs or even a visual tear were encountered in this playthrough.
