Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Preview – Will it take your breath away?
by Dominic L · tsa30 years of history. It’s funny to think that Air Combat, an original PlayStation launch title, would spawn a franchise that’s lasted longer than most of its contemporaries. It’s also only grown in popularity, building from those early days of 3D flight, to one of, if not the, premier air combat game. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is the next sortie for this storied Japanese series, and we were lucky enough to take flight with the team at Project Aces, including Brand Director Kazutoki Kono and Ace Combat 8 Producer Manabu Shimomoto to take a look.
Ace Combat is an arcade experience. Where series like War Thunder and Microsoft Flight Simulator cater to related, though more serious, parts of the flight gaming market, Ace Combat is the Top Gun to their buttoned-down instructional video. This is a series built on thrills, drama and anime-inspired storytelling, and this eighth mainline entry is the most cinematic yet.
Much of that is down to the new first-person viewpoint for storytelling. You are, ostensibly, a pilot found adrift at sea, and given the opportunity to fly once more as a member of the FCU Navy, who are on the back foot ever since the outbreak of war with the nation of Sotoa.
Where previous Ace Combat games have learned their lessons at the Gundam/Evangelion school of incongruous narrative design, this feels more westernised, and closer in tone to Top Gun – the undoubted Hollywood inspiration behind the series. Whatever its inspirations, it’s clearer and better told than previous tales, while still managing to hold true to the off-kilter vibes of the past.
Your character – the strong, silent, faceless type we so love to embody – is stranded in a dinghy out in the middle of the ocean. The FCU Navy pick you up, and after a short, thrill-filled ride with ace pilot Rex ‘The Wings of Theve’ Cope, you’re soon thrust to the forefront of the conflict, getting to grips with leading your own squadron, and attempting to turn the tide back towards the FCU’s favour.
To talk any more about it would ruin the surprise, but there’s a weight of responsibility that’s carried through incredibly well – at least during our hands-on. The rest of your squadron are also instantly likeable, though I’ll be hoping that we get to dig further into their backstories and their motivations as the game progresses. Perhaps we’ll get to hang out in a bar with a piano? Or play beach volleyball? Still, so far, so good.
The narrative is hung on some seriously impressive visuals. Ace Combat has always been a hardware showcase, whether on the original PlayStation, or with Ace Combat 7’s fantastic level of detail and its foray into virtual reality, but Wings of Theve is a clear step up for this latest generation of hardware.
The first-person viewpoint for the narrative works surprisingly well, though fans may be disappointed to learn that these are, in essence, just cutscenes with a minimal amount of physical interaction from the player. And yet, it gives you a physical, grounded space for your character within the narrative, a distinct step up from the distance I’ve felt before.
When you spend the majority of your time in a cockpit, though, those narrative sections drift away, and you’re left with a seriously impressive showcase for this generation of consoles and PC. Each of the aircraft looks amazing, whether you’re dropping into the likes of Top Gun’s iconic F14, or making use of the tank-busting skills of the A-10 ‘Warthog’. When you take to the skies, things become even clearer, with pleasingly detailed landscapes dropping away below you, while exceptional features like water droplets appearing on the outside of your cockpit as you fly through a cloud.
An Ace Combat game has to feel like one, though, straddling the line between realism and arcade thrills. Kazatuki Kono was very clear on this point, telling us, “Ace Combat is not a flight simulator game. It’s an arcade-like: Flight and shooter. We have been cultivating that feel for 30 years. With that accumulation, it has become its own category, but even though it’s arcade-like, we need to make sure that it feels real, as the pilot process on the aircraft as well. Striking that balance between the two, that’s something that we see as specific to Ace Combat.”
The weight, manoeuvrability and feel of each aircraft is different, and just as they set out, there’s a sense of empowerment alongside the distinct level of control. It’s still very approachable, and tellingly, there was a PS2 setup running Ace Combat 4 in the break room, which has that same feel.
That all bodes well for long-term fans of the series. While I think anyone can pick up a controller, there’s still nuance, the need for a deft touch and the option of expert controls for those looking for a more engrossing experience. Besides that, there are four different difficulty levels, allowing you to play Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve exactly the way you want to.
While our morning was spent at the Bandai Namco equivalent of Top Gun – I now have my own personalised call sign and dogtags – our afternoon hands-on let us loose on two of Ace Combat’s major set pieces, with the first involving an immense land tank crunching through a city. Your squadron has to protect your convoy of bomb-carrying trucks as they attempt to roll underneath the tank, hoping to blow the shielding away from the building-high wheels. Once the armour is blown loose, you can lock on and unleash a wave of missiles to slow and eventually stop this behemoth.
It is pure chaos. Your forces and squadron are constantly chattering, providing sit-reps, asides and new targets as the battle draws on, while every time you think you’ve got the situation under control, a new threat appears, whether a swarm of miniature drones or the realisation that the land tank’s lethal railgun is now pointing your way. It’s an awesome, if protracted battle, and you’re left battered and breathless by the end of it, with your hard-won victory feeling thoroughly well earned.
The second large-scale sequence we played sees you tasked with hunting down a series of air transporters, each carrying the parts for more of the disastrously destructive land tanks. Each transport is a giant wing, with multiple propellers, anti-aircraft emplacements, and an accompanying jamming plane to hide them from your radar. The hunt through the clouds is made all the more tense by the steady flight of time, every moment making it more likely that one of the transports will escape.
Alongside that, there’s the culmination of a deep-seated rivalry with the vicious Sotoan ace squadron, and as you reach the final few transports, they set upon you. This is where Ace Combat is at its absolute best, as you twist and turn in response to their evasive manoeuvres, each trying to get a clear shot or a missile lock that finally finds its home. The team at Project Aces have tuned the machine gun fire mechanics for this outing, so the spray of ammunition is more realistic, whereas last time you had to have the reticule directly on your opponent to cause any damage.
Kazatuki Kono elaborated, telling us, “It’s one of the major differences between Ace Combat 7 and 8. The mechanics of damage have been shifted slightly. It’s been updated. Specifically, in Ace Combat 7, the player needed to hit the target directly in order for that damage to be calculated. There was a box called a container and even if it was in the vicinity of the container, the [damage] was disregarded completely. But with this one, even if you go slightly above or near, very, very close to the dead centre, it will still accumulate the damage.”
To a certain extent, that shows that Project Aces know that they have the right formula already. Other improvements to the game engine, with the seriously impressive accumulation of water as you pass through clouds, are wonderful visual frippery, but Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve really gives players the one thing they really want: more Ace Combat. On early impressions alone, this might be the best entry yet, and if it sticks the landing – sorry, I nearly made it all the way through without trotting that one out – it feels as though the series is going to take another huge step forward in terms of popularity.