You have to commend Bandai Namco and Project Aces for not only keeping the Ace Combat franchise alive for the past thirty years, but also maintaining a consistent lore and storyline without ever resorting to a reboot or some silly spinoff called “Generations,” “Revelations,” or whatever else. What amazes me even more is how each subsequent entry manages to build upon the already high standards set by its predecessor. This has now culminated in what I honestly consider to be the franchise’s brand new magnum opus: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve.

Gorgeous lighting and cloud effects. It’s like you’re there, just without the altitude sickness.

You don’t need to know what happened in previous Ace Combat games in order to enjoy Ace Combat 8. That being said, I absolutely recommend giving Ace Combat 7 a go, as it features similar controls and a familiar gameplay loop… and it’s also a damn good game to boot. Ace Combat 8 provides all the necessary context through cutscenes and documents. It’s still set on an alternate Earth, with different nations and conflicts from our own, with one particular continent serving as the main theater of war this time around.

You play as part of a group of fighter pilots dubbed the “Wings of Theve.” Your identities remain hidden from the population you’re defending, as the Wings are essentially used as a propaganda symbol of hope: a group of unsung heroes deified through social media. The criticism of how communication tools can be used to manipulate and influence people in the real world is pretty obvious, even if, in Ace Combat 8’s case, that image is ultimately being used with the best of intentions.

Lock-on, fire, boom, catharsis.

Your actual protagonist is a silent pilot literally rescued from an accident in the middle of the ocean. Due to personnel shortages, you are enlisted as a fighter pilot right away, under the guidance of another pilot named Cope (subtle naming, isn’t it?). Cope was the previous personification of the Wings of Theve, but dies during your first mission. You then inherit his call sign, squadron, and position within the air force. It’s that simple, guys! You also… communicate with Cope throughout the remainder of the game, as he is seemingly able to talk to you and express his feelings, despite, well… not actually being around us anymore.

It’s impressive how Ace Combat 8 manages to make all of this nonsense feel engaging, never falling into silly territory. The script is excellent, the characters are well-written, and the voice acting is great. You will care about everyone around you; their strengths, weaknesses, inner demons, struggles, and so on. Ace Combat 8 is able to give each and every character a handful of minutes under the spotlight, letting them shine with their unique personalities. All of this is conveyed either through radio chatter during missions, or well-crafted cutscenes in between them.

A varied sort of environments for you to fly over. And, more often than not, destroy.

I never thought I’d care about the story in a game where you are given a freaking fighter jet to fly around and shoot enemies down, but that goes to show the level of effort and commitment put into Ace Combat 8. That being said, we are here for, well, literally everything else the game has to offer. And I’m glad to say that, in terms of its technical and game design bits, this is a bonafide work of art.

Oddly enough, it’s not like Ace Combat 8‘s gameplay loop is too different from its already excellent predecessor. In terms of controls and responsiveness, it’s very similar. Two control styles are available: a very simulator-heavy one, if you are into more realistic physics and controls, as well as a more “arcadey” approach. The latter doesn’t make the game feel as easy-going and light as a fighter simulator like Rogue Squadron, but makes the button layout and maneuvering more forgiving for those just seeking for some fighter jet thrills. Once you get a hold of how to properly steer the fighter, perform U-turns, and do air brakes, you’ll notice how Ace Combat 8 works like an absolute charm.

I’m a simple person. I see lots of cool explosions, I smile.

If Ace Combat 8 is structurally similar to Ace Combat 7, what makes it be superior to its predecessor? Aside from the monstrous graphical improvement and technical performance (it isn’t hard to achieve 60fps on mid-tier GPUs like the RTX 30 series), it’s the mission design that wowed me like nothing else in the game. The combination of the aforementioned well-written story and creative objectives leads to a series of missions that simply never feels like filler. There isn’t a single bad mission in this game. All of them are absolute bangers.

This leads to a feeling that every single chapter in the story has even higher stakes than the previous one. Someone from your squad might even start playing a song that immediately starts sounding like the most important tune in the history of the universe, right when an enemy fighter squadron shows up, or when a ginormous tank the size of a small city appears on the horizon, with a railgun that can level down a town in a minute. Ace Combat 8 is adrenaline-fueled like very few games out there.

You can play the game in a realistic cockpit setting. I don’t know why you would, but you can…

Furthermore, Project Aces knows how to cool things down and provide players with some risk-free and cathartic missions in between serious moments. Every now and then, you are presented with a mission where the main objective isn’t to save humanity from a threat or escort your soldiers to victory; the main objective is to, purely and simply, blow everything your eyes can see up. No serious takes, no drama. Just pure destructive catharsis. You will end up feeling like Tom Cruise in no time.

This is an odd case of a game where I struggled really hard to find anything to complain about. I went into full annoying nitpicky mode for this review, even more than usual. I simply couldn’t find a major flaw. Okay, with the exception of me actively wanting more missions to enjoy after the credits rolled. I almost started begging for a randomly generated mayhem mode of sorts, because I just couldn’t put the controller down. Other microscopic nuisances I may have had with the game, such as a slightly long shader loading period upon booting the game up for the first time, is a mere consequence of having to play a PC port. It wasn’t an actual reason at all at the end of the day.

There isn’t a single bad mission in this game. I swear.

If I had to summarize Ace Combat 8 in a single word, I’d initially struggle to do so, as the game deserves pretty much every praiseworthy adjective I could throw at it. But if I had to pick just one, I’d go with “epic.” It completely immerses you in its world thanks to a thrilling story, great visuals, intuitive controls, lovable characters, and a series of missions that almost always manages to one up whatever came before. When your biggest criticism is the fact that the game eventually ends, leaving you desperately wanting more even after being served a big fat plate of content, you know you’re dealing with something special. You know you’re dealing with a bonafide magnum opus.

Take my breath away, Ace Combat 8…

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve was provided by the publisher.