It has over thirty years since Namco first entered the combat flight simulator market with Ace Combat. This was a market of its time, as there were seemingly new games in the genre coming out each month, whereas nowadays, it’s barren. The most we’ve gotten in the last ten years is Project Wingman, and the recent release of Korea: IL-2 Series for history buffs. Because of this, Bandai Namco hasn’t really been contested since Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, and yet they are ready for a new release.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve continues the beloved franchise and its fictional world, where nations are at constant war with one another. The FCU is backed into a corner this time and must retake their homeland with as few resources and manpower as one can have.
The story of Wings of Theve is hit or miss. It gets surprisingly emotional, especially coming up to the conclusion, and this is attributed to a solid cast of characters who players will get to fly with every mission and enjoy their banter. With that said, how a lot of the story is told can take you out of the experience. Most of it is through dialogue while on missions, and sometimes it can be hard to keep us when in the middle of a dog fight, especially answering yes or no questions.
Then the cutscenes, which we wish there were more of, have oddly placed quick time events sprinkled throughout. These are simple actions, such as standing at attention or taking something that’s being offered, and each one feels unnecessary. It’s one thing to have a QTE to take down an aircraft before it splashes a wingman, but it’s another to forcibly be in control of small tasks.
As for the story itself, it involves the FCU trying to retake their continent and homeland as Sotoa has laid waste to it. It’s fascinating to immediately be thrown into the middle of a war where your allies are already back up against a wall, but it creates compelling stories of betrayal, loyalty and allegiances.
The missions themselves have a good amount of variety when it comes to activities. Whether it’s racking up a high score in taking down as many targets as possible, escorting a plane through enemy airspace or even flying low and quiet around radar, each mission has new and exciting things to do.
For those who are wondering, there's exactly one precise tunnel flight mission where pilots will need to maneuver in the tightest of spaces, all while taking down a target. There are generally only a handful of these in each game, with Skies Unknown having quite a few, but most of which were optional. Because there are virtually no optional quests in a mission, the one in Wings of Theve objective is a lot more basic, but does require at least two flybys. Those looking for more heart-pounding moments like this will have to get their excitement from the intense dogfighting.
Most of the missions are spectacular and had us on the edge of our seats with intense dogfighting, but some did let us down. The stealth mission we just mentioned, for example, is a fascinating idea and really changes the pace of the combat, but in practice it falls apart in being a bit of a disappointment. Most missions will take around fifteen minutes to complete, with some of the longer encounters running above thirty minutes, although those are far less frequent. Overall, the thirty-mission campaign took almost exactly twenty-hours to complete, and the vast majority has our highest soaring praises.
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