I'm not playing this stunning game on my PS5 Pro, and that could be a mistake
Ace Combat 8 has me hooked
I can't be the only one who'd never played an Ace Combat game until this week, right? The series just got its eighth iteration, Wings of Theve, and while I've known about it for quite a few years, I've never had the circumstances align to the point where I've actually knuckled down and played one.
Now, with a review code provided by Bandai Namco, that's changed, and I've been slotting down a virtual visor to go on sorties for a few days, notching hours of flight time and realising that even in-game flight can be way more challenging than I thought.
This isn't a game that dresses itself up with multiple different types of gameplay, either – it's all plane, all of the time. While you do get a surprising amount of story content delivered in briefings and cutscenes before and after missions (in which you can move the camera a little, and occasionally press a button to, for instance, shake someone's hand), the gameplay is all flight-based.
You play as a pilot who's on an early mission with an ace, the Wings of Theve, before being shot down, with that ace passing away. Rather than admitting such a damaging blow, though, the PR operation behind your military (aiming to retake its own territory after invasion) decides to pretend that you are the Wings, continuing the legacy of this larger-than-life figure.
That's all a framework around which a long series of missions play out, as your forces make advances and beat retreats according to the overarching military plot. To help, you'll fly a wide range of missions, from escorting landing troops to retake a city, to strafing a giant land battleship as it crawls towards the battlefield, or long dogfights against enemy squadrons above the ocean.
There are an impressive number of different scenarios to experience, and two main control schemes to do so with. The older-school of the two lets you control pitch and roll, and while it's easy enough in isolation, in the middle of battles (if you're anything like me), the ground becomes your biggest enemy. The more casual option leaves you able to do far fewer interesting manoeuvres, but makes it miles harder to crash, and I've ended up using it to avoid frustration.
That's something I know I'll probably have to change if I decide to dive into the world of online play once I finish the campaign, which is daunting. What's also daunting is that I'm playing on PC, where people are a bit more likely to have access to flight sticks and other equipment; I normally play my multiplayer games on PS5 Pro, where my friends also game, but that option isn't the one I went with this time, and part of me regrets that choice for social play's sake.
Graphically, though, it's hard to argue with the PC version of the game. I'm playing on the Nvidia rig that I have on loan, complete with its 5070 Ti, and Wings of Theve is quite the looker at 1440p. It's a super-demanding game, too, with 4K play stretching my system to the point of needing frame generation to level things out.
Instead, I've dropped to 1440p without any real compromises on clarity, and am playing the game on the Ultra preset with no complaints and no hitches. While smoothness is really important (and I'm getting a steady 60fps without issues), it's also interesting that the pace of dogfights means that I don't feel the need to push for results closer to 120fps at this point.
The game's beautiful, though, and around 10 missions into the campaign, it's doing a great job of showcasing its natural weather systems and cloud formations. Whether it's a golden sunset cascading through high clouds or a dark and rainy night with low visibility, there's a really fun vibrancy to how the stages look.
The aircraft themselves, meanwhile, are also ridiculously detailed and impressive, with moving parts that really sing with authenticity, which makes sense since almost all of the planes you can fly in the game are, in fact, real and licensed.
I wasn't sure whether I'd click with Ace Combat 8, especially in a release calendar so ridiculously busy that I have multiple other new games waiting to be started (I'm looking at you, Silent Hill: Townfall). I'm having a blast, though, and have already carefully plotted how I'll be progressing through the campaign's unlockable skill tree – a sure sign of commitment.
Whether you aim to play it on PS5, Xbox or PC, I'd give Wings of Theve a firm recommendation as an entry point to a long series. If, like me, Ace Combat has always flown by as a theory, not something you've actually tried, then I'd tell you to get on my six, and try it out.
