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Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve could soar higher than ever in series history
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve could prove to be something very special.
Bandai Namco
- Cole Luke
Published: Thursday, 4 June 2026 at 2:59 pm
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During the latter part of May, Radio Times Gaming was invited to Paris to attend a preview for Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, and after playing five or so hours of the game across a variety of missions, we came away seriously impressed by the visuals and frenetic combat, but not everything has stuck the landing.
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Wings of Theve is set against the backdrop of a lightning invasion of the Federation of Central Usea (FCU) by the Republic of Sotoa, causing the FCU to splinter into independent nation states.
Despite the game opening with the protagonist being quite literally plunged into the deep end after bailing into the sea, it’s actually a fairly slow start, with exposition delivered by new real-time cutscenes, which are a marked improvement over the slideshows of Ace Combat 7.
Character rendering is mostly great, though there are the usual Unreal Engine bugbears, such as bad aliasing on hair. For the most part, the visuals are absolutely stunning, with extremely detailed planes, maps and utterly delightful fluffy clouds, the latter of which developers Bandai Namco Aces Inc implemented custom tech into Unreal Engine 5 to get just right.
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For series veterans or those used to flight-sims, it is a bit of a slow start. The first time you go into the cockpit, you aren’t even at the controls, and the early missions are fairly pedestrian. Fortunately, you can rattle through it all quite quickly, and the action ramps up. For newcomers, this will be a great way of easing into the game, and there are all sorts of difficulty sliders to adjust to tune the game to play just how you like it. We opted to stick with Expert controls, as we honestly find the Standard mode unintuitive.
The good news is that when things start going, they really start going, as the game quickly becomes brutally, yet satisfyingly difficult, though your life is made easier by having a squadron that you can assign to cover your six or go on the attack.
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Occasionally, you will have to make a decision about how your pilots will act, but as we were jumping between missions, it wasn’t entirely clear what effect this will have on the story.
These characters are a bit hit and miss, though again, it was hard to gauge what sort of character development there was, as we skipped a good chunk of the story, but Tasha Seversky in particular proved rather irritating, much in the same way "adorkable" characters in recent Disney films have been.
But when the action ramps up, it becomes easy to ignore.
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One particular mission saw us trying to put a stop to a Sotoan Land Battleship ploughing through the FCU capital city of Theve, leaving destruction in its wake. Swooping down, threading through skyscrapers and skimming rooftops on bombing runs to blow its tracks in an A-10 Warthog, with drone swarms buzzing around and a battle raging below, was an incredibly cool experience.
Another mission sees you hunting down giant cargo planes that are hidden amongst the clouds, with AWACS planes jamming your radars. Spotting the contrails, following the aerial behemoths into the clouds, and destroying them by methodically knocking out the engines feels like something out of an 80s or 90s hard military OVA, akin to animes like Paltabor 2. It’s especially satisfying when you can link a chain of destruction by targeting the highest plane first and watch it crash into the craft below.
When it all comes together, with anti-air missile warnings, layered radio chatter and explosions going off around you, you almost enter a high-functioning, zen-like state, with the aerial action becoming something of a mesmerising, hypnotic dance.
If you have ever played a rally game and have gotten into the groove with the pace notes, knowing what corner is coming as well as the next three, that is exactly what Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve feels like, just with a lot more explosions.
Thematically, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theves explores some interesting ideas, such as controlling the narrative of a war, despite what the reality on the ground and sky is, though some elements fly a little too close to ongoing conflicts for comfort.
Another curious twist is that after your squad lead (Cope) dies, his voice remains on as a ghost who speaks to you throughout the missions. When talking with developers, Kazutoki Kono and Manabu Shimomoto, they said they wanted to explore the souls of these pilots, and the relationships they share, as well as their legacies beyond death. The jury is out as to whether Cope is a Ghost or not, but given all the other AI and sci-fi shenanigans of the Ace Combat series, it could prove to be something far more existential.
Ultimately, for fans of the series, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is shaping up to be an excellent instalment in the long-running series, with better flight characteristics, presentation, graphics and storytelling.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches 2 October for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
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Authors
Cole LukeFreelance Writer
Cole Luke is a freelance journalist and video producer who contributes to Radio Times Gaming. He also has bylines for Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, Network N and more.
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