Ace Combat 8: Wings Of Theve Is A Soaring Success For Bandai Namco [Review]

The Ace Combat series has been an enduring hit for the last thirty years, especially among fans of the arcade flight sims. At its best, the series has offered a strong mix of expansive set pieces and refined gameplay, the perfect middle ground between realistic sim and bombastic action. The newest entry in the series, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, takes both elements to the next level, with a massive scope and effective game design that makes every flight feel real.

While certain elements of the gameplay loop can feel repetitive once you’ve endured enough dogfights, the more inventive moments of game design — especially the massive boss battles — offer enough variety to keep the action feeling original. This is on top of an expansive amount of multiplayer and side material to bolster the 25-hour-long campaign mode. While some players might get tired of the recurring motifs and mechanics of Ace Combat 8, fans of the genre (and rookies alike) will find plenty to love with the game.

Review Score: 4.5/5

Pros:	Cons:
Tight game design ensures a solid mix of easy-to-learn and hard-to-master gameplay.	Underlying gameplay can feel repetitive over time.
Gorgeous graphics and sound design deliver on a naturally immersive experience.	The learning curve can be a bit steep for players.
Level design in the campaign mode — especially the boss battles — is impressive.

Time To Take Flight In Theve

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve does a great job of building on everything that came before it to deliver a flight sim that comfortably finds the balance between arcade-style bombast and immersive experience. The game’s underlying flight mechanics are refined with a level of simple-to-learn but hard-to-master maneuvers that mean even rookie pilots will feel like accomplished fliers after only a few missions. The single-player campaign follows a global conflict between the Republic of Sotoa and the Federation of Central Usea a decade following the events of the previous game. Players step into the role of “Rex,” a mysterious pilot who takes over the identity of a famed (and now dead) ace pilot as part of a propaganda effort meant to raise morale among the FCU soldiers and civilian communities.

Cutscenes flesh out the rest of the flight squad and their own perspective on the conflict, giving the narrative a sense of personality. The campaign is the perfect place to test your mettle as a pilot, with a slew of challenges ranging from dogfights and bombing runs to bringing down massive landcruisers and disabling advanced weapons systems. The range of threats keeps the action engaging even when the fundamental gameplay doesn’t change much, giving players the room to pull off their own epic maneuvers and unlikely victories. The same can be said for the different weapon types and loadouts, which can determine whether or not the player is going to be able to actually earn a victory in the air.

The different planes come with enough distinct touches to feel like you’re filling out a full hangar, even though the underlying mechanics don’t change. The actual dogfights can feel a little repetitive in this mode, but the campaign will win you back with the massive set-pieces it establishes for the player, with some missions developing a real sense of tension from the sound and level design over a more trivial ticking clock. The result is a story mode that is compelling and character-driven in all the right ways, which finds natural ways to push players to really unlock their true potential in the cockpit.

Ace Combat 8 Is One Of The Best Games The Series Has Ever Released

On top of the single-player campaign, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve benefits from a massive expansion on the previous games. The free flight mode and campaign challenges offer different ways to appreciate the game’s gorgeous graphics and strong design elements. The maps are large and full of little details, with distinct effects coming into play when flying through clouds or soaring too close to a mountain range. Thanks to the strength of the game design, actually taking on the flight paths is intuitive and easy to learn — although there is something of a learning curve if you want to start pulling off some especially difficult moves. These are the sorts of things players will want to master before heading off into the multiplayer mode, which is designed with multiple modes and a mix of PvE and PvP modes.

With servers capable of housing a hundred players at a time in a single shared space, Ace Combat 8‘s multiplayer mode benefits from a natural sense of community that’s befitting the campaign mode’s focus on survivors coming together. That concept is rooted in everything in the game, whether it be during the campaign mode cutscenes or in the moment-to-moment thrill of commanding a squad and directing them through large-scale battles. On the whole, Ace Combat 8 feels like a genuine extension of everything that came before it. The developers have repeatedly stated in previews that the intention of the game has always been to deliver that feeling of being an ace pilot. Whether it be in the missions that encourage repeated approaches with different loadouts, multiplayer duels with your friends, or just flying high with some music on the radio, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is able to accomplish that mission with gusto.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is set for wide release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on October 2.