Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve – the planes are making me cry again

God, I love Ace Combat. For so many reasons.

Some of my most formative gaming experiences, I’d say, were playing military flight simulators on the Atari 8-bit and ST, then subsequently on MS-DOS PCs. There was something incredibly satisfying about gradually coming to master these various virtual aircraft and their myriad systems; definite elements of wish fulfilment and fantasy.

One thing I never really felt from those early games, however, was a real sense of emotional engagement and narrative involvement. They were fun and exciting, sure, but never in a million years would I have thought that one day I’d be at the controls of a virtual F-22 Raptor, crying my eyes out to the sound of people from around the world raising their voices in song to support me and my wingmen in our heroic last stand.

I think you know where this is going. Hit the jump and let’s talk about that a bit more.

In Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, you take on the role of “Rex”, who, as is series tradition, is nameless, faceless and voiceless to allow you to fully inhabit their role. The game unfolds almost entirely from a first-person perspective, with narrative sequences typically unfolding as if you are “there”, allowing you to look around, focus on things and suchlike. There are occasional cutaways to show things happening elsewhere, but for the most part the story unfolds from your perspective, as you see what is going on.

At the start of the game, you are introduced to a pilot named Cope, who is better known as the Wings of Theve, a legendary ace who brings hope to anyone that sees him in the skies. It’s all a carefully constructed lie, though; Cope hasn’t actually shot anyone down, and the “Wings of Theve” is nothing but a legend cooked up by corporate social media as a means of controlling the narrative in an ongoing war.

Things go horribly wrong, however; the plane you and Cope are flying in is shot down, and you are the only survivor. You do start to hear Cope’s voice in your head, however, and he remains “with” you for the duration of the game, often having enigmatic things to say about the way things unfold.

Long story short, Rex ends up having to take Cope’s place as the Wings of Theve, supported by his three squadron-mates: civilian pilot Tasha, who is an accomplished aerobatic pilot but has never pulled the trigger on an enemy; experienced veteran and ex-teacher Baxter, aka “Professor”; and the man-of-few-words musician, Coster, aka “Noise”. Together, they fight for the beleaguered Federation of Usea against the threat of the nomadic Sotoans and numerous splinter factions that have attempted to break off from the formerly united Usea.

It is, of course, not an easy road. As with any social construct maintained over a long period of time, people start to suspect that all is not quite as it seems with the “Wings of Theve” after some time — and the fact that Rex has taken over the role without Cope’s death ever having been announced to anyone makes things all the more awkward. Certain people had noticed that Cope hadn’t actually shot anyone down, you see, and thus there was a seemingly abrupt change in his behaviour as soon as Rex came along behind the scenes.

Not only that, but certain groups that had suffered devastating effects from the war came to resent the Wings of Theve as little more than an empty gesture; a PR figure rather than something with actual meaning. They were fighting for their lives on a daily basis, yet some prick in an F-18 who was getting viral videos all the time was getting all the credit. How is that fair — and how is that helping the people who really need it? “Hope” is cheap; making a real difference is much harder.

In many ways, Ace Combat 8’s core premise is an interesting inversion of that found in Ace Combat 4. In that game, you started as a nobody, but as you progressed, your callsign, “Mobius One”, became a figure of genuine inspiration to your friends and allies — and a figure or absolute terror to your enemies. In that game, your reputation came about through your own hard work; in Ace Combat 8, you are burdened with an undeserved, unearned reputation from the outset, and effectively have to “re-prove” yourself over the course of the game’s 30-mission campaign. But oh, you do. And how.

Although you’re part of a large-scale war effort, Ace Combat 8’s story makes a real effort to make you feel like part of a small, close-knit team. The core characters of the overall narrative are Joker Flight, which consists of you, Baxter, Tasha and Noise, plus the executive officer of the Endurance, the aircraft character where you spend much of your time, and D.D., a representative of the definitely-not-shady Enso Corporation, the man primarily responsible for the Wings of Theve legend.

You also get to know your friendly neighbourhood AWACS operator, Dealer (who you never actually meet face-to-face), and Kate, the lead pilot of Queen Flight. As the game’s story progresses, you develop a real sense of camaraderie with these characters; they are the human face of the war you are fighting. At the same time, there are a number of recurring characters you never actually “meet”, but you end up fighting alongside on numerous occasions; to name just two, there’s the deckhand on another ship in the fleet (who never introduces himself as anything other than “the Stalwart deckhand”), and there’s the leader of the “Immortals” infantry brigade, who is initially resistant to the legend of “Wings”, but subsequently comes to find the sight of Joker Flight above them an enormous comfort.

Because, yes, the legend of “Wings” evolves and changes over the course of Ace Combat 8’s duration, because “The Wings of Theve” is not just one person; there are four people in Joker Flight, and a number of others supporting them. While you, as Rex, still get to do all the cool stuff (including several sequences that cause your comrades on the battlefield to have reactions akin to “I cannot believe that idiot is trying that”), there is always a sense that you are backed up, without question, by those flying alongside you — each of whom goes through their own things over the course of the story as a whole.

Of particular note is Tasha, the youngest member of the crew, and someone who ends up part of Joker Flight more by accident than anything else. Despite being a skilled aerobatic pilot, she is not a trained fighter pilot, and thus she is naturally hesitant to pull the trigger on an enemy. She is, however, willing to throw herself in harm’s way if it means protecting the legend of “Wings” and the possibility of hope and peace — and during the game’s finale sequence, she makes a vow to “never pull that trigger again”. You know she means it.

Like most other Ace Combat games, Ace Combat 8 emphasises the horror and devastation that war can bring. Early in the game, you are presented with the terrifying sight of Sotoa’s “Land Battleships”, which are exactly what they sound like; vast fortresses that can travel across land or sea, armed with devastating railguns that can hit targets with pinpoint accuracy from miles away. Elsewhere, you have to contend with the “Tonitrus Satellites”, which are orbital missile platforms capable of wiping out vast areas with their immense destructive capabilities.

Naturally, at various points in the campaign, you have to play a crucial role in bringing both of these things down. At another, you and Baxter find yourself ejecting in unsafe territory and having to take refuge in a rural village; during this sequence, you come face-to-face with some of the key figures from the enemy forces — though they don’t initially recognise you as their enemies. It’s a wonderfully tense moment that concludes with a dramatic, desperate escape, involving you and Baxter flying a battered old A-6 Intruder aircraft out of a road tunnel and through a canyon littered with radar installations. Yes, the series’ obligatory “canyon mission” is present and correct.

The complete runtime of Ace Combat 8 presents you with a variety of missions, and it never really feels like it’s getting bogged down or giving you “filler” to pass the time despite being one of the longer entries in the series. Every mission feels like it is meaningful and worthwhile, and is different from the last; along the way, you’ll encounter series mainstays like the “destruction” missions, where you have to eliminate a certain points value worth of targets before time expires, and plenty of situations where you have to face seemingly overwhelming odds. A particularly memorable moment comes in one of the finale missions, “A Thousand Points of Light”, which opens with a rather unsettled Dealer politely informing you that a thousand bandits are on their way towards your present location.

That legend of “Wings” is crucial, though; by the end of proceedings, you and your comrades have more than proven yourselves as a vision of hope in the skies, which means that when the time comes for the final final confrontations, you have the full support of the people — not just from your home soil, but from around the world. This leads to one of the most formidable “spirit bomb” moments I think I have ever experienced in a video game during the final mission; facing the seemingly hopeless task of battling an AI-controlled submarine with a vast stock of anti-ship missiles that is laser-focused on destroying the Endurance, you fight , and you fight, and you fight until the word gets out about your desperate struggle; while once you were fighting alone for your very survival, by the conclusion of proceedings, the whole world is behind you. You cannot lose; you have come too far. You are hope.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is pretty spectacular from a narrative perspective, then, but it also plays wonderfully. At its core, it doesn’t make many changes to the base Ace Combat formula; you’re given a mission briefing, then a rough outline of how much air-to-air and air-to-ground combat the mission is going to involve, then invited to choose a plane and loadout for the mission ahead. You can then either hand-pick the plane and loadout for your wingmen also, or automatically set things up using an optimal arrangement. As you progress through the game, you earn points which can be spent on the “Aircraft Tree” to unlock customisation parts for your plane, new aircraft and new special weapons.

Aircraft are split into several distinct categories: air-to-air interceptors; air-to-ground attackers; multi-role fighters; and electronic warfare planes designed to play more of a supporting role. All aircraft can perform all functions to varying degrees — the default generic “missile” loadout on all aircraft can be used against both aerial and ground targets — but some are better suited to various roles, with the special weapons available often helping to lean further into those roles. For example, “attacker” aircraft are more likely to have special weapons that can more easily inflict heavy damage to wide areas of ground targets, while interceptors will have weaponry designed to dogfight more efficiently.

The customisation parts fall into three main categories: upgrades to the plane’s body, which allow you to improve its manoeuverability in various ways; upgrades to the plane’s weapons systems, which can improve the power and performance of various weapon types; and upgrades to the plane’s electronic warfare systems, which can do things like improve the plane’s stealth capabilities, break enemy locks more easily and suchlike. Each plane has a set cap on how many parts in each of these categories you can equip, so it pays to be a bit strategic about which parts you unlock in the Aircraft Tree as you progress through the campaign. There are no real “wrong answers”, mind, as you can probably get through most of the missions using just the F-18s you start the game with; it’s just that the aircraft, weapons and parts you subsequently unlock will probably make your life a bit easier in various ways.

Once in the air, things will be immediately familiar to series veterans — and easy to get to grips with for newcomers. Like other entries in the series, Ace Combat 8 offers both a simplified and a more realistic control scheme, with the former offering a simple “push left to turn left” mechanic, while the latter gives you full control over bank, pitch and yaw. Like its immediate predecessor, Ace Combat 8 allows you to perform a variety of aerobatics with casual disregard for the effects of excessive G-forces on the human body, and you can also pull off fancy post-stall manoeuvres if you really want to show off.

Three views are on offer, including an in-cockpit view (the default), an external chase cam and a full-screen front view with the cockpit omitted. At this point, Ace Combat 8’s visuals are high enough fidelity that the in-cockpit view doesn’t feel like it gets in the way nearly as much as in some earlier installments, so it’s entirely practical to play the whole game from this viewpoint; however, the choice is yours.

Like Ace Combat 7, Ace Combat 8 features varied weather conditions, though thankfully nothing as extreme as the notorious “sandstorm” mission. Flying through clouds will cause your canopy to become covered in water droplets and eventually freeze up, and making good use of cloud cover is an important part of air-to-air combat. There’s a lot of ground detail, too, even on the “performance” graphics setting, and an excellent sensation of speed when flying low.

Not every mission features take-off, refueling and landing sequences, but these are fun to participate in — or can be skipped if you don’t rate your skills. For the most part, these sequences are handled in completely separate “instances” to the main mission; however, there’s one mission late in the game where you’re defending an airbase, and resupplying mid-mission means landing on that airbase while still under heavy fire. It’s an exciting, sphincter-puckering moment to do so, but it feels manageable; I suspect the game specifically takes it easy on you while you have your landing gear down, but it’s still a heck of a rush to hastily slam your plane down on the runway while you know there are still many, many enemy aircraft buzzing above.

Absolute star of the show in Ace Combat 8 is the sound, though. The sound effects are meaty, with explosions in particular being some of the most powerful and reverberant that they’ve ever been. Voice acting is consistently excellent, with individual characters really getting their personality across through their lines, even in the case of characters you never see face-to-face.

But the music. Oh, God, the music. Like several other Ace Combat games, the soundtrack for Ace Combat 8 features several leitmotivs running throughout its complete duration, and these are weaved into the individual mission soundtracks beautifully. Not only that, but they’re used dynamically during more “downtime” moments, too, such as during the mission briefings and preparation to sortie. There’s a particularly lovely moment before the finale missions where the main theme for the game gradually builds up, with new instruments being added as you assign each of your wingmen a plane and their loadout ahead of things getting particularly real.

There are some legitimately chilling moments created almost entirely through the use of music — and the drama of the spectacular finale sequence is taken to incredible heights through the amazing score used. You are a stronger man than I if you make it through the last few moments of the game with dry eyes. It’s a truly incredible experience that is right up there with the series’ previous high points — which, for me, are the final missions for Ace Combat 4 and 5, and their likewise unforgettable soundtracks.

Ace Combat, for me, has found the ideal balance between quasi-realism, enjoyable accessibility and a real, genuine sense of emotional engagement. It is, of course, a far cry from the relatively dry military flight sims that I played in my youth — and I maintain that experiences like that still very much have a place, even though we don’t really get them any more — but for my money, this series continues to provide some of the absolute best experiences you can have flinging virtual planes around the sky, with this latest entry being right up there with the series’ best.

Don’t worry if you’ve never played an Ace Combat game before. Don’t worry if you don’t know what the whole “Strangereal” thing is about. Don’t worry if you’ve never played a flight sim before. Ace Combat 8 is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had this year, and I sincerely hope this wonderful series continues to thrive in the years to come. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

I’ll see you in the skies.

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More about Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve

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Want more Pete? Check my personal blog I’m Not Doctor Who, and my YouTube channel ThisIsPete. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider buying me a coffee.

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