Over the past 31 years, video games have changed a lot, especially in the realm of big-budget console releases. Chasing high scores has fallen by the wayside to an extent, and there’s sort of an expectation that everything adopts RPG elements, or chases the high of an open-world, or otherwise follows some other recent trendy design choice.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is not interested in most of that, judging from a short demo I got to play prior to the game’s launch on Oct. 2 for PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC. Over the course of two of the game’s single-player missions (online multiplayer is not available for testing yet), my main takeaway was: Yep, this is still Ace Combat. Not much has changed, and that’s for the best.
Ace Combat 8 is a potent injection of adrenaline
Since its 1995 debut, Bandai Namco’s dogfighting franchise has accumulated a dedicated fanbase of flyers, but I still find that a lot of people around me have no idea what this series is all about. Let me briefly explain.
Nearly 100 percent of gameplay is focused on flying around real, licensed fighter jets, but most of these games add an extra layer of personality by taking place in a fictional world that has been affectionately dubbed “Strangereal” over the years. Strangereal is culturally and technologically very similar to our world, but all of the landmasses and the countries contained within them are fake.
Most importantly, wars are still primarily fought in the skies, and becoming a fighter pilot in this society is considered the most noble thing a person can do. These stories are often melodramatic and overwrought in a good way, with a bona fide radio drama usually playing out in your comms during missions. Ace Combat 8 changes the formula a bit by adding some first-person cutscenes, but I didn’t get to see any of those in the demo. I did get to see one quick cutscene where a gruff video game man described the ocean as “a cradle of endless solitude,” though, so the energy that’s always permeated the series is still there.
The first mission I played was the game’s tutorial, which quickly told me most of what I needed to know. The basic controls are exactly the same as Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the only other title in the series I’ve finished. Though you control real jets, which can be customized and unlocked between missions, these are not flight simulators. The action here is decidedly arcade-like, with a score counter in the upper left and a turbo-fueled sense of danger as you speed past enemies in the air.
Credit: Bandai Namco/Steam
I should note that, like previous entries, Ace Combat 8 allows for two control schemes, Standard and Expert. With the former, pressing left on the analog stick will make your plane turn left, and so on. With the latter, you need to consider pitch and yaw, like flying a real plane. I played the demo in Expert mode because that is the true way to play Ace Combat.
After finishing the tutorial, I jumped into a later level that revolved around taking down six gigantic, fictional aircraft that each had several propellers, AA guns, and escorts equipped with radar jammers to deal with before they could be dispatched with. The jamming mechanic here was neat, as I had to follow the big planes’ enormous contrails to find them among Ace Combat 8‘s frankly astounding-looking 3D clouds. Shooting down the escorts fixed this problem, naturally.
It was during all of this that I entered a sort of zen flow state and became a much more capable virtual pilot than I was aware I could be. I was pulling off reckless (but extremely cool) maneuvers, scoring sweet kills, and taking down the big fellas with stunning efficiency. That’s the magic of Ace Combat; very few other video games are as adept at making you feel like the coolest person in the world.
Needless to say, it was incredibly fun, and I can’t wait to play more.
That’s nothing new, though
Credit: Bandai Namco/Steam
The thing is, all of the above could be said about basically any other entry in the Ace Combat series. This formula has been fun for almost as long as I’ve been alive, and there’s no need to change it. Sure, different levels will have different objectives, and there’s room for innovation there. But the basic act of flying around and taking down targets is as timelessly pure now as it was during the Clinton administration.
That’s not to say the developers have changed nothing, though. Obviously, it’s a visual feast, using modern hardware to make probably the best-looking planes, clouds, and ground targets the series has ever seen. You can also carry two special weapons into battle instead of just one, which adds an extra layer of strategy. If you voluntarily only bring in one special weapon, you’ll have more ammo to play with, so there’s a cool trade-off to consider.
Ace Combat 8 also brings back squad commands, something that existed in some of the prior entries but not the last one. Using the D-Pad, you can issue basic commands like “cover me” and “use special weapons” to your crew, whose planes you get to choose before each mission. It’s not the deepest thing in the world, but it gives the player more to think about on a moment-to-moment basis than Ace Combat 7 did, so it’s a welcome change.
Still, even with some little alterations here and there, Ace Combat 8 is still Ace Combat as hell. That’s what I want, and it’s what I imagine most hardcore fans of the series want, too. Sometimes video game franchises need to evolve to survive. Zelda became open-world to stave off staleness, while Grand Theft Auto is leaning into life simulator systems with its latest entry.
But sometimes, all you need is a fighter jet, some lock-on missiles, and enemy targets to have a good time.
