Review of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve – The Series' Long-Running Campaign Reaches New Heights.

Let's send them off, Rex! Two more missiles are heading toward the wretched enemy F2-A. Droplets scatter across the windshield as I fly past the glowing gray cloud, and the distant explosion turns dull. Visibility is garbage. No joke, Tasha's Endurance has been targeted. Oh no, Tonitrus's spear arrives in two minutes! They have a high-output laser and a wide-range jammer. This looks like a bad combination coming up during the climb.

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One or two unique missions and a rough story cannot dim the brilliance of the most breathtaking and invigorating action game of 2026.

Let's chase them, Rex! Two more rockets come at the hapless enemy F2-A, droplets splattering my windshield as I pass the glowing gray cloud, dulling the distant explosion. Vision is garbage. I'm not kidding, Tasha's endurance has been targeted. Oh, oh, the Spear of Tonitros arrives in two minutes! They have a high output laser and a long range jammer. Sounds like a bad combination Cockpit beeps during climb, constant red flash warning me my tomcat is frozen. But I can see the laser, and soon after the airship leaves. It is in my view. i have this

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Wait there are two lasers! I don't have this anymore. It's suddenly in a completely different zip code. Even when one falls, the overlapping chatter gets busier in my ears. Take them both out or the carrier will throw a javelin. move on Don't think fast, now 45 seconds, Tasha is anxious. Custer, a man of few words, knows when they are needed most: Fear not. Stick to your training. An angry shudder sets in as I veer into another ice cloud and a missile whizzes past. Login to 30 seconds. The music swells, the string players bow with an urgency that suggests even they know things are getting desperate. 10... nine... eight... finally the airship appeared. Seven... six... five... four... too late. I launch the last LAAM in vain, knowing it won't arrive in time. Three... two... one... done. I slouch in my seat as I've been sitting on the edge for the last few minutes.

But then... the shot landed! what A cutscene showing the last airship exploding. Joker 1, target destroyed. I instinctively jump and my DualSense Edge takes its first flight.

Wings of Theve's intense, often passionate, and occasionally downright hilarious campaign centers on a promotional act. The eponymous Wings is a fictional story: the invention of a media guru to boost morale during an ongoing conflict that has left people searching for symbols of hope. When your predecessor - whose kill count hasn't even reached single digits - is killed during the prologue, you're invited to take up the mantle. It's a clever way of aligning you with the character you're inhabiting: after all, this is a series that aims to make you feel like a seasoned fighter pilot. Part of Ace Combat 8's brilliance is how it reminds you that you're ultimately a rogue, while also giving you moments where you can be convinced you're a maverick.

Of course, the Top Gun comparison has been made many times before, but it's hard to ignore the debt Wings of Theve owes to Joseph Kosinski's 2022 sequel, in particular. It's not just the panning camera (which admittedly doesn't have the same effect as showing one of the moneyed movie stars - at least before Digger - flying a plane for real) or the scenes that mimic some of the film's most memorable shots. Instead, it's as if Bandai Namco Aces was inspired by one of the most exciting action movies of the 21st century: every mission feels like the weirdest set piece from a Hollywood summer blockbuster.

For better or worse, this extends to everything that happens in between. One of the big differences between Wings of Theve and its predecessors is its investment in story. There's an introduction that's borderline Kojima-indulgent (which gives me enough time to wonder if he's going to name the player character Tom-Cruiseman). First-person media never sold me on having a silent hero – and, in fact, I was sold on the value of its limited inputs, like look and zoom controls and the occasional "press X to shake". However, the mute hero's inherent awkwardness is mitigated by choosing to continue your progression as an Obi-Wan ghost. He's a mix of internal monologue and showmanship, delivering punchy lines like "The ocean sits there like an open coffin" in a mumbled whisper that I thought sounded eerily similar (sorry if it's spoiled for you) to Christian Bale's Batman voice.

It adds just a hint of unintentional comedy to the game's serious rumination on war, which feels like a developer having its cake and eating it too. There's plenty of scripting about the human costs of conflict (though the script seems to have more outrage at the evils of social media and the speed and ease with which lies can be spread and rooted in the gene-AI era), and it's not shy about realizing you're both in the war machine and the propaganda machine. At the same time, you have no choice but to embody this role, and indeed become a legendary pilot, with an improbable kill count that inspires people back home.

It's also a reminder that while Call of Duty and Battlefield often appear in awkward discussions of the entertainment-military complex, Ace Combat has managed to avoid being included in these conversations like, well, a rolling MiG dodging an incoming missile. Ah, but this is not our world, Chris. This is Strangereal, not Normalreal: where enemy planes play Baba Rock over the open channels to announce their arrival, and one of your wingmen sings mournful guitar solos at sunset on a carrier. True, but it also features several real-life planes, unveiled with the same respect that Gran Turismo gives newly acquired cars. And — space elevators, ground warships, and massive transports with thousand-meter wingspans — the scenarios seem at least somewhat plausible, especially when faced with heartbreaking scenes of devastation that can't fail to evoke the image we've seen of Gaza and Ukraine over the past few years. Wings of Theve is so grueling, so unrelenting, and so stratospherically thick that for me those concerns disappeared during the missions themselves. Equally, it's worth considering for those who may not find much escape in virtual conflict right now.

Either way, all of this makes a game at its best take a long time to come close to the opening quote of its 11th installment: Move. Don't think too quickly now after the fact, I realize this is probably as close as Wings of Theve gets to a mission statement. Few series convey a sense of urgency as well as Ace Combat, and if this particular entry's most difficult sorties strike the delicate balance between exciting and exhausting, it offers a rare sensation at best.

What sets Ace Combat apart most from its predecessor - and its PS2 heyday - is its focus on spectacle. However, there is real substance beneath its visual pizazz. For example, these clouds are not only responsible for 2026's busiest skyboxes, but also for some of its best weather effects. Visibility, after all, can be a double-edged sword, making it a key tactical consideration during dogfights. And while investing in cloud cover can make you a bit less cumulo-cimble - even reducing your missile's lock-on range - it's more of an incentive to tinker with your pre-mission loading.

In this context, you may be tempted to jump right into new planes with better stats, but it often makes more sense to invest in parts that can increase the range and efficiency of your missiles, as well as reduce your chances of stalling or increase your durability. Similarly, teammate commands make a surprising difference, as does your aircraft selection. In missions where your attention is lost - in other words, most of them - you can ask them to break formation to thin out the enemy, while you can order them to deploy certain weapons, which in some cases can enhance your abilities or disrupt your opponents.

It's another consideration in a game that typically—and intentionally—gives you more than you can handle at any given time. It's not so much organized as it is carefully designed chaos: if the relentless barrage of radio chatter sometimes means it's hard to tell which threats to prioritize, it generally feels more like a feature than a bug. To live up to your billing, you have to learn to separate the vital from the incidental, and that's not always easy when the wingman is competing with other pilots' warnings, instructions and updates from multiple sources — not to mention the loud missile warnings to add to the stress.

All of which means winging it for long sessions can be a bit tiring, as it always demands your attention. Even in relatively slow missions, there are progressions that force you to lock on before you can. Lean forward and focus. You're usually invited to go off-piste - there's a raucous moment where you're asked to lend a hand as a bell-bucket transport flies through canyons littered with anti-aircraft orders. Taking them down as your wingman repeatedly shouts "MANPADS!" It may seem rather simple by the game's standards. But suddenly it becomes a maddening race against time as a swarm of enemy fighters close in and you have to take them all down around the clock.

It's an example of a game that never stops finding ways to raise the stakes, even during landing and refueling phases that would otherwise give you respite from mayhem. You can never rest completely until the text "Mission Complete" appears. But the problem with frequently changing expectations is that within 30 missions, surprises become the norm. Wings of Theve's Shyamalan-level appetite for 11th-hour twists means it's hard not to be a little disappointed when a mission ends as planned. Likewise, one of the latest threats — or an existing threat that turns out to be still active — is introduced once in a while. If checkpoints ameliorate any frustrations, some of these sorties are decidedly less playable as timers tick well past the half-hour mark.

During an escort mission and a grueling bout of forced aerial stealth (including the most confusing route I've seen in a video game in a while), the game feels right in the moment. A mission's third act, in which you can single-handedly take on an entire squadron - a feat that repeatedly hits Hans Zimmer's levels of frenzy - offers a sense of dizzying mastery and audiovisual splendor that can convince even the most hardened skeptics of the enduring appeal of simple power fantasies.

I thought the biggest online component of the series to date was trying to do single player. But as someone who has never been a big competitive multiplayer guy, I was pleasantly surprised. For starters, healthy first-week sales (and a program that cycles between stages, with three active at any one time) mean that lead times are very short. During longer waits, or before launching a sortie, you can wander around a large airbase, where you can spend the rewards you've earned on buying new planes, upgrading and decorating crafts already in your hangar, or maybe even tackling a quartet of classic Namco arcade games. More expensive planes with more upgrade slots definitely give more dedicated players an edge, but like in the campaign, your starter plane can hold its own - and there are challenges you can only do with lower grade craft.

Alongside solo and team deathmatches that will be punishing for many are two PvPvE modes. Co-op Warfare has you shoot down humans and computer-controlled boogies alike. Perform well, and you'll earn stars that will eventually earn you the title of Ace. Such moments of triumph don't last long, however, as the title effectively paints a target on your back, with opponents earning more points if they take you down. While you can tag yourself with the D-pad to ask your allies to protect you - or otherwise mark an enemy ace - these commands are a better idea in theory than in practice. The pace of the game is simply too fast for these to be consistently useful. Most of the time, when I tried to mark it, I would see allied missiles being fired at a target. Meanwhile, Co-op Assault pits two teams of four against a common goal. There's a bit of friendly competition as Alpha and Bravo compete for the most valuable squadron, but even underperforming players feel like they're contributing to the collective effort.

This feels even more so in four-player Scrambles and eight-player emergency sorties, spawning conditions I've admittedly not fully figured out yet. Either way, after a few games of Assault or Warfare, chances are you'll hear a siren, prompting you to shoot down an enemy plane or some sort of superweapon. Yes, you're basically chipping around a massive health bar against the clock, and there may only be three of each, but for my money, these modes come closest to capturing the excitement of the campaign in a repeatable format.

In other words, there are a lot of games here - and it's not always positive. Part of me thinks that a shorter, tighter campaign that removed the weakest missions and tweaked the editing to a few more could have made it a genuine, copper-bottomed classic. At best, however, you can easily be convinced that Wings of Theve deserves to be described in such terms. Either way, this is a game with a laser focus on delivering some of the most dizzying highs you're likely to experience in a video game this year. In this case: mission accomplished.

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