Ace Combat 8 Wings of Theve review: head in the clouds, finger on the trigger!

Now into its thirties, the Ace Combat saga is counting on this new entry to win over fresh converts while keeping the old guard happy — a crowd that has had nothing to chew on since Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown back in 2019. Seven years on, a new console generation and new graphics cards have moved into our homes. Wings of Theve makes no bones about squeezing them for all they're worth and, while this instalment isn't entirely beyond reproach, its strengths go well beyond the merely cosmetic.

Fight Simulator

If the word Theve leaves you scratching your head, that's fair enough. It's the fictional capital of the fictional federation known as the FCU, itself located on the fictional continent of Usea in the fictional world of Strangereal. You get the picture: even though it's set in 2029, Ace Combat 8 isn't trying to mirror our own reality. Which is no bad thing, since that alternate setting allows for all sorts of narrative and technological licence. The adventure opens aboard a carrier belonging to the Federation of Central Usea, which has suffered crushing defeats and lost every scrap of its territory. Fortunately, the FCU has a certain Wings in its ranks, a pilot of true legend. That legend is really a matter of propaganda and simulated invulnerability, mind, since a new fighter pulls on the suit and the title the moment the previous one goes down. And naturally, it's your turn to step into the legendary figure's boots. All of this is laid out in a barely interactive prologue, which gives you a taste of the many cutscenes and ground-based sequences the single-player campaign has in store. Those scenes introduce you to a well-drawn, rather likeable cast, carefully modelled to boot. But their sheer ubiquity, combined with endless briefing and debriefing screens, does rather chop the overall experience into pieces. Fewer, longer sequences would have bound the adventure together far better. Worth noting too that the frame rate takes a bit of a knock during these narrative interludes, the engine being noticeably more at ease up in the clouds.

It's at altitude, then, that Ace Combat 8 looks its best and runs at its smoothest. Unreal Engine 5 is put to work on realistic volumetric clouds, convincing lighting and weather effects, and impressive detail on the ground below. Vegetation stretches as far as the eye can see without ever popping in abruptly, and the buildings are detailed enough to hold up as you close in on them. The aircraft, meanwhile, boast meticulous exterior models and cockpits bristling with switches and warning lights. If you've ever been drawn in by the visuals of a Flight Simulator while being put off by its sim-heavy gameplay, the action of Ace Combat 8 might well scratch that itch to take to the skies. Your ears are treated every bit as well as your eyes, as the orchestral score isn't shy about going full bombast to underscore the dogfights. What we can't help but lament, though, is the lack of any voice track beyond English and Japanese. The middle of a furious engagement is hardly the moment to be reading subtitles or concentrating on what your wingmen are screaming into your headset. Certain twists and changes of plan may well sail straight over your head. Happily, none of that stops you enjoying the generally excellent handling and merrily loosing heat-seekers at a whole host of targets, airborne or ground-based as the situation demands.

Grand Theve Auto

With around thirty levels to its name, the solo campaign keeps reinventing itself. Some missions are heavily scripted while others give you far more freedom, some objectives are timed and others aren't, sometimes you have to destroy everything and other times you need to spare certain targets, and there are plenty more variations to discover besides. Occasionally you're even asked to pull off runway landings or mid-air refuelling. In every case, it pays to take careful note of the mission objectives laid out in the briefings — the preparation screen isn't just there to look pretty. There are a lot of aircraft to unlock across the four main categories, a lot of technologies to research, and you constantly have to strike the right balance between air-to-air and air-to-ground armaments. Speaking of balance, the game lands on a neat compromise between arcade handling and strategic depth. Head into battle poorly prepared and you'll earn yourself a thoroughly deserved failure. That said, the game does throw up a few difficulty walls that feel a touch too harsh. We'd like to offer our congratulations in advance to anyone who gets through missions 9, 15 and 28 without raging. It must be said that, more generally, our allied AI is far too reserved. You often get the impression your squadron is just there for show, leaving you to do all the work yourself. A bit more help from them wouldn't have gone amiss...