Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Review: A Thrilling Campaign and Standout Dogfights
Ace Combat 8 pairs a memorable 30-mission story with weighty flight controls and fierce rival aces, though multiplayer menus and upgrades slow the pace.
Reviewed on: PC
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Developer: Bandai Namco
Release: October 2, 2026
Rating: Teen
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve makes its strongest case through the people sharing your cockpit and carrier, then sends you into missions that demand more than another missile lock. Its 30-mission story gives the familiar high-speed dogfights a personal thread, while varied objectives and imposing foes keep the flying from settling into routine. The result, as described in Game Informer’s review, is one of the series’ strongest entries, built on the momentum of 2019’s Ace Combat 7.
A borrowed legend becomes your own
The story starts with a defeat. After an invasion reaches your homeland, your pilot goes down while fighting Sotoa’s elite Shadow squadron alongside the figure known as the “Wings of Theve.” That celebrated FCU hero turns out to be more legend than living icon. You take on the name and try to keep the fight alive, carrying a reputation that belongs to someone else while building a squadron around the pilots who survive.
That setup gives the familiar scale of an aerial conflict a more intimate center. The people aboard the Endurance, your carrier, and the pilots flying beside you become a regular presence across the story. Joker Squadron and sister Queen Squadron give the player a close group to follow, while enemy aces and carrier crew members broaden the cast. The reviewer found that spending time with these characters makes later missions land harder: the stakes feel immediate when the pilots you know are fighting alongside you in the air.
The game also shifts to a first-person perspective for parts of its storytelling, bringing scenes closer to the people around the player. The approach helps the squadron and Endurance crew feel central to the experience, rather than serving only as voices between sorties. The review points to a few rough patches: some scenes pause for an arbitrary button press, and the late pilot Cope’s voice, heard after his death, comes on too strongly early in the story. Those moments stand out, but don’t outweigh a cast and perspective that give the campaign its emotional pull.
Missions with room to think
Wings of Theve’s missions are designed around distinct tasks and changing conditions. One sortie sends you over a wide desert to destroy power reserves, ammunition stores and hangars, weakening an invading force by targeting its supplies. Another asks you to fly low and fast toward an island to avoid radar detection. Later, radar jamming obscures the position of large cargo aircraft, so you follow their visible contrails instead. The changing demands give each stretch of the campaign a clear shape and encourage players to pay attention to the environment as well as their targets.
That variety also makes the game’s aircraft selection more useful than a simple collection of alternatives. The reviewer says the jets feel heavier than those in Ace Combat 7, with a satisfying sense of mass during high-G turns. Each plane has its own appeal, and bringing two special weapons on a sortie opens up more ways to tailor a loadout. The review’s author often chose the F-35C, but also enjoyed other aircraft, including an A-10 section that breaks up the faster, missile-heavy pace of other missions.
Terrain and enemy weapons add pressure from below as well as above. Sotoa’s land battleships and other terra-naval units bring rail guns into the fight, making “Rail Gun Warning” a familiar callout. The Lux Lunae, also known as the Shadows, are a memorable rival force. Their black aircraft, chanting over open communications and sharp mid-air maneuvers give their appearances a distinct identity. Fighting their aces repeatedly pushed the reviewer to improve, making those encounters a satisfying measure of progress.
Multiplayer has a strong hook—and some friction
Multiplayer covers both score chasing and direct dogfights against other pilots. Four-player squads compete for points, either working together or facing an opposing squadron, and those modes account for much of the reviewer’s time online. A more distinctive feature is the emergency sortie: an occasional mission that gathers players to face a superweapon from the series, such as the Arsenal Bird.
These encounters give multiplayer a clear attraction, but the surrounding systems interrupt the momentum. The review calls out extensive menu navigation, grinding for particular aircraft upgrades and cosmetic monetization options as obstacles that cropped up too often. The multiplayer has a solid foundation and room for additional support, but the experience described here is less immediately inviting than the campaign’s carefully paced sequence of missions.
Across its story and flight, Ace Combat 8 draws strength from how its parts reinforce one another. The squadron gives the conflict a human focus; the varied objectives give each sortie a specific job; and the aircraft and rival aces make the flying itself worth returning to. For players who enjoy learning a plane’s feel and mastering demanding aerial encounters, the 30 missions offer plenty to revisit. Multiplayer adds a cooperative and competitive outlet, even if its upgrade grind and menus slow the climb. Game Informer scored the game 9.25.
