Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Review – The Hand of Hope

War stories are a dime a dozen in the gaming medium, and one simply has to see the massive popularity of franchises like Battlefield and Call of Duty to see how popular they are.

However, there really isn’t any other franchise that gives us war stories like Ace Combat does. Even as far back as its PS2 days, the series has consistently attempted to walk a fine line between giving you a large-scale narrative about global conflicts that tend to involve many countries while never forgetting how such conflicts affect individual people on the ground, and in this regard, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is no different.

"The story picks up a decade after the events of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown."

There are a few stories going on in Ace Combat 8’s campaign in parallel, all tying into each other in interesting ways. Aside from the larger story of the Sotoan war of expansion against the Federation of Central Usea, you also get a few small-scale stories like the ones about the protagonist, Rex, taking over as the eponymous Wings of Theve from the previous pilot to hold that title, Cope, after an early-game ambush, and the mysteries surrounding the motivations and goals of the megacorporation only known as the Enso Order during the war. Among all of these, the biggest running theme of the game revolves around how the actions of the nation of Sotoa and the FCU’s self-defensive moves affect regular people.

The story picks up a decade after the events of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. The FCU is still doing its best to recover from the brutality of the Lighthouse War, slowly rebuilding thanks to the aid of the Enso Order, a company that has been investing several of its own resources in helping Usea build itself back up. Sotoa, previously a largely isolated country, has decided that the desertification of its own homeland is no longer viable for the nation’s long-term survival.

It must thus capture more territory, and decides to invade Usea with the help of its orbital drop-based satellite weapon known as the Tonitrus Spear. The game itself starts a few months after the war officially began in the Strangereal calendar’s version of the year 2029, with the former citizens of the FCU’s capital city of Theve now being forced to live on one of the few remaining battleships, and much of continental Usea already being under Sotoan occupation.

"While the story itself is immensely compelling, it does suffer from some pacing issues, especially around the mid-point of the campaign."

Rex follows the tradition of a long line of Ace Combat protagonists to not really have much of a personality or any character traits of his own aside from simply being one of the best jet pilots that the entire world has to offer, and most of the character storylines in Wings of Theve largely revolve around the protagonist’s squadron, Joker squadron, along with a few secondary and tertiary characters aboard the battleship Endurance that serves as the protagonist’s base of operations for much of the game.

The plot kicks off with Rex being in the right place at the right time by surviving an ambush by the mysterious Sotoan pilot Shadow-22 of the Lux Lunae squadron while serving as a Weapons System Officer for the original Wings of Theve – Cope. The first mission ends with you taking on the mantle of the Wings of Theve as part of a propaganda cycle aimed at raising the morale of the displaced FCU citizens.

The central story of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is incredibly exciting, and manages to give you a good idea of how the war has been going largely through the effective use of mission briefings, post-mission debriefs, and a few cutscenes sprinkled in here and there. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t any problems whatsoever.

While the story itself is immensely compelling, it does suffer from some pacing issues, especially around the mid-point of the campaign. Along with this, the title suffers from having several missions in a row that involve fewer aerial dogfights and more bombing runs against ground targets, as well as a relatively disappointing final mission that isn’t quite able to follow up on the two phenomenal missions leading up to it when it comes to quality.

Despite this, there are still plenty of highs to be had, from intense, challenging boss battles against Sotoa’s Shadow squadron, to more unique missions that involve, for example, sneaking through a heavily-surveilled valley in a practice plane, and even the franchise’s traditional tunnel run.

The few upgrades that Bandai Namco has touted for the campaign in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, like being able to move the camera around during cutscenes or being able to respond to questions with “yes” or “no” don’t really add much to the overall experience. You don’t really get any meaningful choices in these situations, and at most, even the ability to control the camera during cutscenes leads to little more than being able to simply stare at another character while someone is talking to you.

"The multiplayer offerings of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve are a sign that Bandai Namco might have some long-term plans for the title"

Joining the lengthy single-player campaign is an in-depth multiplayer mode that offers a few new additions over the previous title’s team deathmatch mode: Co-Op Assault, Co-Op Warfare, Scramble, and Emergency Sortie. Co-Op Assault is focused on two teams of pilots competing to see who can perform best in a PvE mission, with progress being measured with points based on how many targets each player destroys. Co-Op Warfare is much the same, but with the addition of some PvP elements, allowing the players to target each other with their weaponry. Scramble is a purely PvE mode where two teams of four pilots each can take on a PvE boss together.

Emergency Sortie is the most interesting mode of the bunch, only being available sometimes for a single attempt. The mode has you, as a team of four pilots, taking on a challenging PvE encounter. Emergency Sortie also tends to offer the most currency and progression of all the modes, which makes sense considering you can’t simply keep playing it.

The multiplayer offerings of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve are a sign that Bandai Namco might have some long-term plans for the title well after it comes out. Since all of the modes involve the same solid gameplay that you can find in the campaign, I couldn’t really find much to complain about, though some UI elements tended to feel a bit sluggish since the title had to constantly check my Internet connection to show me its in-game store’s offerings. There is a battle pass as well, which seems to come with its own ways of unlocking new items like aircraft and cosmetic gear.

While the progression for the campaign and the multiplayer are kept strictly separate, both offer the same core system. Completing missions earns you currency that can then be spent on unlocking new jets, parts upgrades, or even new special weapons for jets you already own.

While you start off with relatively simple offerings, like a MiG-24A or an F-16, as you unlock more things along the Aircraft Tree, you’ll start getting cooler and fancier jets, ranging from a Typhoon to a Mirage, an F-22A, or an Su-47, among many others. There is a vast number of jets to unlock across both modes, as well as plenty of ways to customize your aircraft to ensure that they fly and fire weapons precisely how you want them to.

"Generally speaking, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve doesn’t bring in any radical changes for its gameplay."

The core gameplay of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve has you pick an aircraft, a pair of special weapons, and some stat bonuses well-suited for your mission before you fly out. The title offers two distinct control schemes to make the onboarding process feel more welcoming – a “Basic” scheme and an “Expert” one.

The former attempts to automate things like turning by rolling and using your rudders into a single push of the left analogue stick, while the latter instead gives you more granular controls over pitch, yaw, and roll. I would recommend that everyone play with the Expert controls, especially since it takes just around 10 minutes of practice for it to start feeling intuitive, and as a result, you can also pull off awesome maneuvers like loop-de-loops or intentional stalls to get behind your enemies quite easily.

Generally speaking, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve doesn’t bring in any radical changes for its gameplay. Rather, it builds on the arcade-style gameplay that was essentially defined by 2001’s Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies. The few changes we do get involve more squad management mechanics, and the ability to equip two special weapons rather than the usual one.

The former gives you better ways to manage large-scale battles by allowing you to set up your squadron’s aircraft and weapons loadout, as well as letting you give them more direct commands like using their special weapons more often, covering you, or attacking targets while being spread out. The latter is another way to ensure that you have more than enough explosive powers to ensure that you succeed in your missions. Neither of these additions brings in any fundamental changes to how you might play the game, especially if you’re a returning player from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.

Visually, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is downright stunning, and while the trailers may not fully convey it, actually spending some time with the game reveals that it is definitely a major upgrade over its predecessor. During my time with the PS5 version, I was offered two presets – a Quality mode and a Performance mode. While the Quality mode looked great, I believe that the higher frame rates of the Performance mode greatly benefit not only the gameplay, but other aspects of the visuals as well, like the sheer sense of speed you can get after you’ve heard that first sonic boom of hitting mach 1. One of the key aspects that Bandai Namco spent quite a bit of time discussing was its impressive cloud rendering technology, and I can safely say that the company was absolutely correct to brag about them.

"The setting of Strangereal has never felt so real"

Clouds have realistic formations throughout the game, and I found myself taking some time to stare in awe at the layer of clouds above me and below me simply because of how beautiful the game could look at times. The clouds also affect gameplay; flying through them makes it harder for homing missiles to keep their lock on you.

Doing so can be quite dangerous, since you’re bound to start getting condensation all over your canopy, obstructing your view in the process. Stormy levels might even give you the wrong idea about your elevation unless you’ve been keeping a close eye on your altimeter – a difficult prospect in tense battles – potentially leading you to crash into the ocean. And let’s not forget, high-altitude clouds can even start causing ice buildup on your jet, making it harder to control if you don’t get out of the cloud quickly.

One of the franchise’s strengths has traditionally been incredible sound and music, and Wings of Theve doesn’t disappoint in this regard either. Just about every sound effect has been lovingly crafted as if they were recorded from the real things. Even in the midst of an intense dogfight, you’re bound to start recognizing telltale signs of certain jets, be it a MiG, a Sukhoi, or even the venerable F/A-18E, which also happens to serve as the cover jet for the game.

I have to commend Bandai Namco Aces for delivering on yet another phenomenal soundtrack. Key moments in the campaign are punctuated by epic orchestral scores, while other scenes are often elevated through the effective use of other kinds of music. One of the best examples of this is your squadmate, Coster, who often blasts rock music through the comms channel, and even goes through an entire character arc where he decides that he’ll only play music once the war is over, which leads to an incredible pay-off in one of the final stretches of the game.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is certainly an ambitious game, as evidenced by what is easily the longest campaign in mainline series history. However, this ambition played a part in being the source of my biggest problems with the game, especially when it came to the slow middle act, a plethora of bombing missions, and a final mission that feels like a massive letdown after some fantastic boss battles.

Despite this, I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, and pacing issues aside, firmly find this to be a noticeable upgrade over its predecessor. The setting of Strangereal has never felt so real thanks to how well Wings of Theve was able to compellingly tell a story of war, propaganda, the role corporations play in large-scale conflicts, how people who simply want peace often find themselves dragged into fights they never wanted, and even how well a nation can successfully radicalize its own soldiers into giving up their lives for a cause that might be doomed to failure.

Pair this with new multiplayer game modes that will likely see plenty of play time thanks to how well they combine the fantastic PvE gameplay of the Ace Combat franchise with some PvP elements and you get what might be one of the best titles that the series has ever seen.

This game was reviewed on PlayStation 5.