I can’t remember the last time I got hooked on a game before I even played it. I’m sure it has happened before; it would be weird if it didn’t, but I can’t put my finger on the exact moment. Well, I couldn’t before getting that feeling in the opening moments of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. There you are, riding wingman to a character you knew from the second one was destined to die, taking in the skies. The majestic blue vista that the team at Namco Bandai Aces crafted for you. Thus far, all you know is that you are a rescued pilot who might have found a new team to fly for after being rescued while stranded at sea.
Then it happens: Shadow 22, the game’s take on a Red Barror-type nemesis, appears and gives chase. What follows is one of the best credit sequences I have experienced. Your jet ducks and weaves through rockets. Suddenly, the two start spiraling around a long bridge over the water, avoiding collision by a hair’s breadth. It all leads to an explosive finish when you get struck and Cope, that guy we totally saw it coming for, gets that thing we knew was gonna be got.
That’s all before you ever even go wings up in Ace Combat 8, and your heart is already racing. The narrative slows down a bit after this but is never less than fantastic. If I had to lodge one complaint, and it is a minor one, this game feels more built for VR than the previous entry, and yet they ditched the feature here. The thing is, you, the player, are completely passive during cutscenes, acting as just a first-person perspective for other players to tell the narrative to you. It just so happens that the characters telling you the story are all great.
This is almost a fault, though, because a few times beyond some minor camera tilting your character can feel like a quadrapaligic the lack of any real moment in you. To compensate for the lack of momentum, the game adds some fairly pointless QTE events that consist of simply pressing the action button to engage. The thing is, they never feel necessary, and failure is so insignificant that skipping cutscenes skips these moments as well.
There was one, for instance, that occurred with us sneaking behind enemy lines in the back of a truck. You have two triggers: one in which you must push the prompt to get on the truck, and another you can miss to shake the woman who helped you’s hand. Neither of these feels like it couldn’t just have been part of the scene, though. I’ll go further; I actually think it would be more organic to do it without the prompts. Again, part of this feels like the game had VR in mind before that fell out of favor, cause there would be no notes if that was the case.
You forget about this when you actually experience the story, which would make an excellent war movie at worst. At best, it is a modern take on a grounded and realistic war mixed with—and this is going to sound crazy, I know—Lelouch of the Revolution. That character, Cope, I clocked as dead the second he spoke because both his dialogue and voice felt at odds with a war story. After his death, he serves as a narrator the player hears in their head, offering beautiful musings and dark realism as the struggle of the Joker unit progresses.
Each member of said unit has a nuance, with each sequence of the naval aircraft carrier, even the innocuous ones where nothing happens, managing to consume and engross as you get a little more from the characters. Even more so than all of that, it’s the narrative’s use of propaganda that straight up lands a kill shot the way it is so flawlessly presented. Both on the players’ side and the enemies’ and feels so topical. At points, we even see the suit-wearing PR member of the team posting straight misrepresentations, and you never get to see this in full effect, not this way.
It all factors in because The Wings of Theve is more than a person; it’s a well-crafted symbol to rally behind, and THAT is where the game gets you. You can expect more of the narratives to play out during frantic dogfights. Ground units, aerial units, all screaming out locations and engagement. One sequence while invading a major city ratchets this up to 11 as you are doing flybys over LCACs, guiding them to shore. Then, when they finally land, you are getting instructions on all enemy resistance on every road. It’s intense and insane, and you never feel like you are doing the right thing as more and more people die and you are frantically racing the clock.
Then the dialog turns to ‘Don’t worry, Wings is watching over us.’ The game places this mythos on you, just a human being, and in every game where they have placed this, I have never felt as infallible as I did here. Soon the combat actually starts, and there are so many things that come at you. You are trying your best when suddenly you hear, ‘So much for the Wings of Theve; they are killing us,’ then suddenly, ‘Please, Wings, I don’t want to die.’ You come out the other side with victory, but you ask yourself, at what cost?
The franticness of constant communication and changing targets makes for a good start to why the gameplay is engrossing. One of the things I have always loved about Ace Combat in general is just how easy it is to pick up and start playing if you have never actually played a flight sim before. I have a Hori flightstick, but I only did one mission in the sim because I genuinely love the simplicity of the arcade controls. Regardless, the game doesn’t waste much more time before sending you into the thick of things.
These are gorgeous as well, having a vast open space for the dogfights and often featuring multiple locations that you will need to move between. I do not know who designed those fluffy clouds, but whoever the hell did deserves a raise, as they so elegantly take up space but also serve as obstacles that can cause your jet to ice up and therefore stall. This is one of the simplest runs with clear blue skies. When you are fighting in an all-encompassing storm, battling the elements and bogies on your tail. It is a mind-numbingly brilliant experience.
Ace Combat 8 stages are well diversified too because there are a few night runs, like that LCAC escort (something I might elaborate on because I love to say LCAC) which has a literal armed battle along city streets. If you were there, it would probably be the most Call of Duty thing you have ever seen. You get to lay down cover above as lights flash and a missile warning disrupts. And during this, you have two tasks: the first is to take out the enemy unit in a jet fighter while clearing the road before your units are wiped out by tanks. This leaves you picking your fights. I managed to clear two out early, but I was still running defensive maneuvers while attempting to lock on to just one of those tanks to clear them out. This also ignores the many other things, like SAM cannons trying to kill you.
Everything gets so intense that some of the more enjoyable moments were more simplistic. This one mission had me trying to follow a series of tough armored bombers, firing missiles while their machine guns spat out tons of bullets and dodging planes. Now, was this frantic as well? Sure, but it didn’t involve dodging skyscrapers and focusing on land vehicles, not that there is anything wrong with that. There is something to be said about slipping behind them and landing that final blow while the Lux Lunae unit does NOTHING TO STOP ME.
No, but seriously, you will love it every time Lux Lunae enters the fray because they announce themselves with a boss theme song that gets you hyped every single time. EVERY TIME! This is thanks to them bringing back Ryo Watanabe as the main composer. Nearly every stage starts with the characters playing some rock track that gets you in the mood, segueing into fantastically curated instrumentals.
That LCAC mission (told you that was coming) might start with their favorite song in the entire game as you fly through the night sky to reach the LCACs and defend them, building up flawlessly with the engagement. My Blue Sky Home is stuck on repeat in my head. This isn’t Namco Sound Team, but it is damn close to that classic sound, and where it isn’t, it’s better.
There is a bit of annoyance when it comes to save points, though. Most main missions are long, with some having a 30-minute clock that is easy to finish with only a few minutes left. At least under 10 or so. While progressing through saves in a few missions, you might burn through 10 minutes doing something, lose track of yourself, then nose dive straight into the ocean and die only to be reset to about 10 minutes of game. This is an annoyance, though once I restarted fighting, I forgot why I was made.
Ace Combat 8 also takes about four missions to reveal to you. Wait a second, we have this entire skill tree you can unlock stuff in as well. The most obvious is that there are about 30 planes, all of which are well crafted, both in their interior and exterior. Personally, I love to play in first person in flight games, as the immersion is worth it for that moment you see the target pass in front of you and you let loose. The external fight mode is equally as good, though, being both dynamic and so very pretty.
It took me a while to start figuring out just what all the other upgrades do, but they all make for a great progression system. They have minor tweaks that you need to check out before checking out the mission so you know what you will be facing. More land assault than air; equip accordingly. One upgrade decreases icing on your plan, while another cuts down on lock-on time. The ability to equip two secondary fires is also way more impactful than I was thinking it would be. In one stage, I had boats, planes, and missiles effective on both, so I was constantly quick-swapping between them. Wingmen are also effective allies that can benefit from all of these, as well as be commanded to engage in a certain way.
Then, once you are done with all of that, guess what: you aren’t done yet. This is a good thing in the world of Ace Combat 8, though not in the world of Catch-22. The online mode has a fully customizable character that can enter a lobby of 100 people to play multiplayer. I say that, but Pac-Man is also in the lobby, so… Do the right thing: play Pac-Man. No, there are actually a few things to do here, but obviously running more missions is the top priority.
In fairness, I did not play a ton of the Ace Combat 8 multiplayer up until this point, but it was really good from the few matches I did. I didn’t get any lag across those matches, which was my biggest concern. I mostly stuck to co-op, which was the one available to me. It is basically the main game, except your teammates do all the work. So, it’s a nice break. The missions are also shorter, more bite-sized, giving you a lot of the chaos, with less of the time commitment.
Verdict
Bandai Namco, you beautiful, beautiful people, you did it. You nailed Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, creating one of the most compelling war games that I have played through. This is coming from somebody who wasn’t a big fan of the last one either. The narrative is engaging and compelling, even when playing out with six different players in the middle of explosions and absolute chaos. And that gameplay? Engaging, whether you have been playing these games your entire life or are looking to try one for the first time. This is a big, bold Mission Accomplished.
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Reviewed on PlayStation 5, also available on Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam
Developer: Bandai Namco Aces
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Release Date: October 2, 2026
Pros
+Story with some unique takes on war, especially its exploration of Propaganda.
+Great cast of characters
+Aerial gameplay accessible to all players no matter skill level
+Gorgeous and well crafted stages
+One of my new favorite soundtracks
+Multiplayer has something for players looking to extend their time with the game.
Cons
-Some Auto saves can be annoying in how much you lose.
-The interactable moments in the narrative feel pointless
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Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
