Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Review – High-Flying Action at Its Best

It’s been about 7 years since the Ace Combat franchise last took flight, and Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve brings the series into the latest technological bells and whistles while retaining the high-octane flying action it’s known for. I’m a huge Armored Core fan, so I’m always looking for more action games that occupy a large 3D space, and I was not disappointed by my flight into Ace Combat.

Ace Combat is no stranger to the world of gaming, starting with the first game in 1995 and racking up over 18 titles if you count all the spin-offs and non-numbered entries. But today, we are here to talk about Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve and dive into what makes this game get my adrenaline going, my eyes dry and my palms sweaty every time I pick it up. I mean this in a good way, like a real good way. Ace Combat 8 brought me right back to seeing the Blue Angels fly down here in Florida as a kid, right back to watching Top Gun for the first time, and I can’t stress enough how much fun I was having the whole time.

I’ve played small amounts of the games in the past, but I’ve never put as many hours into one as I did with this one, and I honestly might have been missing out massively because Ace Combat 8 really clicked with me in a big way. From just the feeling that mastering the controls gave you, the tense moments in a big dogfight as you struggle to get the enemy in your lock-on range, and the wave of relief when those missiles find their target and a nice little DESTROYED pops up, Ace Combat 8 had me locked in beyond belief any time I was in the cockpit of any of the available aircraft in the game.

Thankfully, I wasn’t only enjoying myself in the cockpit, because this game is jaw-droppingly beautiful at all times. I can not stress enough how pretty this game is; whether you are doing story missions outside a jet, flying high in the sky, or skimming the water, everything about the visuals is a masterclass. I found myself just looking out in awe at the vistas as my team and I cut through the air, almost distracting me from the targets I was actually there for.

The actual story is a lot of fun. You find yourself joining the Joker Squadron and end up taking up the mantle of the “Wings of Theve”, a figure meant to inspire confidence and faith from the people, but you find out it was never some skilled pilot who was racking up the kills in the war, but instead almost a liability to the rest of the squad, as their orders were to ensure the Wings of Theve was never taken down, at any cost to themselves or others. Thankfully, we are all certified badass pilots, so that quickly changes when you take command of Joker Squad and lead the fight as a real ace who can change the battlefield.

Outside of missions and briefings, the story plays in first person from your perspective; you can look around, zoom in on things, and it honestly feels really nice and immersive compared to endlessly reading mission briefings and such, like in a lot of Armored Core games. Your squadmates feel like real people with their own personalities, stakes, and reasons for being here. I enjoyed their dynamics overall, and their personalities also showed in how they performed in combat. There were plenty of places to visit as we traveled around, doing our best to push the war in the right direction, with some really cool set pieces and events that occurred in this first-person view.

The soundscape is wonderful, from the music to all of the actual sounds of battle as you navigate the battlefield. I enjoyed how much of the “band” kind of music was integrated into the story; one member of Joker Squad is famous for playing his tunes during missions, to the point where people request them mid-mission. Every sound you get, from the engines powering up to hitting new levels of speed, or all of the satisfying sounds of the UI like missiles locking on, just sounds fantastic and real as anything. Headphones are recommended; I loved how amazing it all sounded on a good pair.

Now let’s chat about actually taking to the skies. When you finish a mission, you will get a grade and earn currency as well that you can spend on a giant unlock tree that will have you unlocking customization parts, new planes, and special weapons for the planes. Since you are managing a squad, you can purchase additional aircraft at a discounted price to let them fly, and I made a serious mistake, mostly worrying about my own craft at first, and had a MUCH easier time once I spread the moolah a little more evenly and put them in ships as nice as mine. You have ships that specialize in different kinds of combat, have different special weapons available, and of course different stats and slots to equip customization parts. I played a nice chunk of the game, and there is a TON of things to unlock, explore, and experiment with in here.

When it comes to actually flying, I loved getting used to rolling my craft and pitching my nose to turn once I got used to it. There is so much you can do in the air, and the more you do it, the better it feels. It offers a simple control scheme that lets you hold left or right to turn, but I can’t stress enough the need to take the time to learn the proper control scheme; it’s a much more engaging and rewarding experience to master, in my opinion. You can blast things close to you with a machine gun if you need to, which is great for stationary targets, but the missiles and special ordnance were my favorite to use. The way you start to react to the “target locked” sound with missiles feels like a dog when the doorbell rings. Your dopamine spikes; you slam that button and pray. Sometimes, you manage to line up that perfect shot, generally trailing someone or going straight at them, but I’ve hit plenty of clutch shots as we were both circling each other through the clouds, dropping flares to break locks, flying into clouds to interfere with targeting systems, and more.

The missions you take on range from defending places and escorting people to attacking places and more. Often, missions will evolve over time, changing your objective and things go in unexpected ways, so you might find the setup you left base with not as effective as you expected it to be. Thankfully, with different jets having different stats, specialties, and loadouts, you can build the perfect setup for yourself and your squadmates to tackle just about any challenge you might find. You can command your squadmates to follow you, attacking what you are focusing on and what’s around them; you can have them disperse and fight their own battles, and you can even tell them it’s time to bust out the special weapons when the moment calls for it.

The special weapons are a blast and some of the most devastating options in your arsenal. Specialized missiles that can target multiple units, ones with especially long ranges, bombs, homing bombs, more machine guns, and several others you can pick up. I was peeking at some of the last ships you can purchase, and saw some special weapons I can not wait to get my hands on. The game has a multiplayer mode with a hub where you can customize your pilot and queue up for co-op missions, deathmatches, and team-versus-team battles. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to try that, but based on everything else I’ve seen, this is going to be a blast to get into, with a ton of variety.

I really found myself loving the “dance” you do in this game with different targets. The way you engage targets in the air, on the ground, and in the sea feels different. Later on, the game even introduces things that shake up what you know and make you think on your feet. The ominous mention of a “Land Battleship” had my brain coming up with all kinds of crazy ideas, especially since the tech level is pretty realistic. I do regret to inform you that it was not a Gurren-Lagann-styled battleship with robot legs, but man, it was an intimidating thing to actually encounter regardless. I’ve been trying to put into words why this game leaves me breathless and tense when I play it, but maybe I can describe it.

The sky is littered with gigantic balls of fire, a greeting from a horrifying steel titan 50KM away, blindly firing at my position as we attempt a very important operation that I won’t elaborate on. I just issued my squad to disperse and fight their own targets instead of focusing on me. It’s time for me to take out their ace as we fly higher and higher above the battlefield. We are both trying our hardest to get each other in our sights, with a few quick missiles being launched, but the angle was wrong, or flares were launched into the air, sending the missiles off course into the air. I decided to try something risky since we were high enough. I stall my engine, turn my ship on its side, and use the quick turn function to whip myself around while my engine isn’t firing, in a free fall, in a cloud, until I finally have the other jet in my sights, and I have to keep them there until I’m out of the cloud since my targeting systems can’t get him at that distance. I’m falling, doing my best to keep him in my sights, and finally, I hear it. The beeping; the reticle turns red. Thunk, Thunk, Fssssssshhhhh, and my two missile trails are already off-screen as they attempt to home in after he makes a last-minute bank. I can’t see it happen, but I hear it: two impacts, and my screen flashes TARGET DESTROYED. I can breathe again, blink again, but there is more to do, and only one person can do it. The Wings of Theve.