Ace Combat 8 channels Top Gun Maverick's jet-powered thrills, and after flying a few missions I can't wait to get back in the cockpit

2019's Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown was just the kind of breakthrough the series needed. It brought the focus back to the evolving melodrama of the world of Strangereal, all while delivering on fast, high-stakes aerial combat that the series made its bones on. Ace Combat is essentially an anime spin on the original Top Gun, and in many ways, the upcoming Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is the series now giving an anime spin on Top Gun: Maverick.

​I recently got some hands-on time with the opening missions of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, which sees the series upgrade its combat and scope to focus on more involved aerial dogfights where you'll fight alongside a squad. In addition to getting to see the visual and narrative upgrades for Ace Combat 8, I also learned from brand director Kazutoki Kono about how the series needed some changes to make for a more satisfying and rewarding take on becoming a legendary ace pilot.

Strange, but real

"Ace Combat 7 exceeded our expectations in terms of units sold, and it got a lot of new players to the Ace Combat franchise as well, so we've been really listening to their feedback about where to go with Ace Combat," says Ace Combat brand director Kazutoki Kono. "One really simple example of improvements is the tutorial and introduction to the world of Ace Combat. It was important to us to pay more attention to the onboarding process of new players."

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The appeal of Ace Combat is that it leans into an endearing mix of earnest war stories in the same tone as Top Gun, but with the added melodrama and over-the-top action from a classic anime series like Macross. Ace Combat 8 certainly leans into that with its new story, which does well to showcase the surprisingly nuanced lore of Strangereal – a parallel Earth with different landmasses and an alternate history – which has evolved over the course of the series in many ways.

Set 10 years after the events of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve sees the world of Strangereal still in conflict as warring nations escalate invasions and seize territory. As an up-and-coming pilot rescued by the crew of the FCU Endurance battle cruiser, the protagonist must take on the mantle of the legendary fighter pilot known as the Wings of Theve to empower the FCU's Joker Squad and build up the fighting spirit for the Federation of Central Usea. Along with run-ins with rival fighters, the Joker Squad will face invading armies on the continent of Usea and confront unknown super weapons built by opposing forces.

Compared to other Ace Combat games, which have a somewhat detached narrative in the vein of the Armored Core series, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve puts more focus on building up its cast of characters beyond simple profile pictures and voice chatter during missions. That said, Ace Combat 8 is not short on leaning into the series' immense world-building and plot development, and returning players will likely be keen to see how the shifting power dynamics across the different continents have changed.

It's not quite a political thriller in terms of nuance, but the opening missions do showcase unsettling moments of sudden invasions, and with characters using AI-generated images to instigate geopolitical conflicts. It's a very timely and chilling turn for the series' evolving Strangereal plot, and Ace Combat 8 makes some interesting choices with where the plot goes. That said, I do have a lingering worry that these themes might be a bit too much like window dressing and not be given the proper focus that it needs within the main story.

While the protagonist is still very much a nameless character serving as a stand-in for the player, other squad members such as former air-show pilot Tasha and squad leader Professor Baxter inject a lot of playful, charming personality, creating a stronger sense of camaraderie that previous games struggled to build. Between missions, you can have minor hangouts with these characters, which serve to set up new missions, but they add an endearing sense of humanity that felt missing from other games.

Building up a legendary ace

Ace Combat 8 takes a more narrative and cinematic approach to its main story, but that, of course, is to give context to its set of familiar – overly so in some cases – campaign missions. Following the explosive tutorial mission, which feels equal parts roller-coaster ride and active onboarding to the game's core offensive and defensive options, I'm off to build up my rep as the Wings of Theve and bond with Joker Squad.

Throughout my playtime, I get to dive into several main missions that focus on defending air bases from encroaching targets, leading an invasion on hostile bases, and chasing down massive air transports guarded by rival fighters Shadow Unit, who play an eerie but exhilarating rally song across the radio when they arrive to battle. It's these kinds of moments that best represent Ace Combat's ability to balance over-the-top spectacle and tense combat. There's a constant sense of escalation, and one such spike occurs as a straightforward mission into enemy territory evolves into me desperately defending an escaping carrier from a secret super weapon's rail-gun blasts.

With the development studio at Bandai Namco jumping to the more modern Unreal Engine 5, Ace Combat 8 is the most detailed and fluid the series has ever looked, making the aerial dogfights feel more engaging. This really comes across in my favorite mission of my hands-on, which sees Joker Squad chasing down fleeing cargo carrier targets high into a cloudy expanse. As storm clouds thicken, the contrails my team follow begin to fade, making careful maneuvering and genuine team tactics vital to tracking them unscathed. Then, Shadow Unit – my nemeses – arrive, adding new electricity to the stormy clash in the sky as I have to juggle completing the mission with keeping these shark-like foes at bay. It really goes to show how these escalating and evolving aerial dogfights can turn up the heat and make me sweat.

"We've built this Ace Combat game on three core pillars, which help us to ensure that we can make the best game that we can," says Kono. "The first one is a photorealistic expression of the sky, to give players the sense of freedom to soar through as they see fit. The second is about player choice in how they engage with enemies and the sense of satisfaction in dogfights. And the third pillar is that feeling of growth as you go from rookie to ace pilot in the world of Ace Combat."

Along with the return of the Aircraft Tree from Ace Combat 7, which is essentially an unlock tree for new planes and assigned perks, Ace Combat 8 also lets you pick specific squad members with different commentary and performance in missions, along with augments for your planes to boost handling, damage, and other specs. As many missions require specific conditions for victory, I really appreciated the options that become available even in my demo, and it made me think about ways to tune my fighter jets to revisit older missions and improve my performance.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is making notable improvements to the series, and my time in the cockpit has left me impressed. Granted, it's not a massive departure from the familiar Ace Combat experience, the visual fidelity and the greater focus on showcasing its cast characters – very much in the vein of Top Gun: Maverick – show it may very well reach new heights. For many, Ace Combat's style of action could be a bit difficult to embrace, but Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is making that pull of being an aerial ace pilot soaring above the skies all the more alluring.

Ace Combat 8 wants to take the franchise to even greater heights, and that ambition has cost Wings of Theve its VR support