When I got pinged to do a review on Ace Combat, I have to admit I hesitated for a while. I knew nothing about the franchise. I mean, I did hear of it, but I had never played any of the games before. But now, over 30 hours later, I am more than glad to have picked this one up, as I was genuinely surprised, if not shocked, by how good this series actually is.
Ace Combat 8 directly upgrades its predecessor, itself one of the most beloved games in the franchise, by refining its combat and gameplay while significantly boosting the narrative scope through exceptional characters, relationships, and a generally dark and brooding atmosphere that lends itself perfectly to the game’s overall philosophical considerations of war.
Ace Combat 8 is set in the series’ most recognizable world: Strangereal. It’s Earth, but very different from how we know it. You play as a silent protagonist, Rex, accompanied by the apparent spirit of his KIA’d comrade, Jan Cope, who, through his introspective and retrospective commentary, gives our anonymous character a face and a voice.
Rex takes over Cope’s callsign in the Wings of Theve, a near-mythical flight crew fighting to reestablish the Federation of Central Usea, a state wholly occupied by a foreign invading power, Sotoa. Sotoa attacks the FCU because its own land is becoming barren and useless amid rapid industrialization, and so its only hope is to snatch some arable and fertile soil from others.
You lead your crew of pilots on a journey from losing all political recognition and power to reestablishing the FCU and taking the fight back to the Sotoans.
This war forms the backbone of the game’s story, granting the game’s significant cast of characters a very strong context to exist in and develop their interpersonal relationships, which are conditioned not only by the characters themselves and their personalities but also by external factors that can, at any point in time, rip everything straight away from them.
These relationships are the strongest part of the narrative as well, with each of the characters being super believable and realistic, if a bit embellished by the game’s overreliance on shonen-type storytelling and larger-than-life personas and characterization tropes. They start off as relative strangers but form tight bonds both up in the air and on the ground with the war and how they fight in it, bringing them ever closer together.
Most of the characters go through a great arc from start to finish, and while some get more growth than others, I’d have loved to spend more time with each cast member. They’re all just so iconic, especially those you saw most heavily marketed in the game, like Tasha or Baxter, and could easily have come out from other well-known ace pilot franchises like Top Gun.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/ace-combat-8-review/
