Ace Combat 8 is shaping up to be a cinematic marvel, but it's more than just Top Gun simulator

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve brings the iconic arcade dogfighting series to the current gen, and so far it’s bigger and better than ever.

When Top Gun Maverick took off in 2022, the hit sequel doubled-down on pulse-spiking aerial manoeuvres and aviator sunglasses, entreating a new generation to the joys of buzzing around in an F/A-18 Super Hornet. As I sat in the cockpit of that very same aircraft, watching a squaddie barrel roll over me in Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve's opening sequence, I felt a mid-preview urge to pack in journalism and go to flight school.

The Hollywood machine is probably the best marketing tool the US military could hope for. The original Top Gun might not have quite generated the rumored 500% bump in navy recruitment, but its cultural impact on the perception of fighter pilots as airborne rockstars has long-persisted. Ace Combat 8 goes all-in on this. For the Federation of Central USEA (FCU), putting its ace pilot, Jan Cope, the eponymous Wings of Theve, on camera is unabashed propaganda. The FCU is under invasion from the Sotoans, you see, and the war effort isn't going particularly well.

As Ace Combat 8 begins, you're a no-named weapons system officer for Cope, and at some point, you end up taking on the mantle of Wings. How could you, a bit-part pilot, expect to serve as the beacon of hope? The Katniss Everdeen of the whole operation? Well, Ace Combat 8, being set in an alternate, Strangereal 2029, has fully embraced social media. As you'll once again be scrubbing through your replays for your next TikTok clip, the team aboard the FCU Endurance is doing its best to uphold Wings' mythos through digital age optics.

Wings of Theve's narrative delivery marks a huge shift from its predecessors, though long-time fans of the simulation game series are probably used to Project Aces shaking things up between instalments. This time around, the team's opted for a deeply-immersive first-person experience, placing you directly into the thick of things. Being able to move your camera around during cutscenes feels like far more of a groundbreaking addition than it should, because with every motion of the mouse or flick of the thumbstick there's a new detail to take in. Watching that opening maneuver from a fixed perspective is cool enough, but tracking the F/A-18 as it emerges like a dolphin from the clouds is spectacular.

Of course, you can't carry the FCU on your back alone; Joker Squadron has you covered. Your wingmen are certainly an unorthodox bunch, but this only makes them more endearing. While there's no Goose or Iceman to be seen, you are instead accompanied by textbook pilot Professor, gifted daredevil Tasha, and the musically-minded Noise. Though I only got to spend a few hours with Wings of Theve's ensemble, I'm already eagerly anticipating how their respective arcs will shake out.

Your time getting to know the gang isn't limited to story beats, either. Up in the air, there are plenty of microdevelopments flying about between the chaotic shouts down the radio. Comms are anything but clean, and I can imagine it'll have a few players reaching for the volume slider, but I found myself mentally going into auto-pilot just so I could pay attention to what was being said; I couldn't say the same for AC7's chatter.

Flying in Wings of Theve will immediately feel familiar if you played AC7, with the series' arcade-style controls remaining as responsive as ever. However, you'll also have to manage Joker Squadron if you want to succeed. Wingman commands are back, which I'm elated to see, and from my playtesting, they are plenty distinct from one-another. In one dogfight, I felt several birds breathing down my neck, which was quickly solved by having the squad cover my six. When targets were more dispersed, I had them fan out and splash to their hearts' content.

Alongside your compatriots, you'll be taking on the usual suite of missions. Escort missions, bombing runs, and good ol' fashioned dogfights remain its bread and butter. Project Aces has also thrown in some impressive superweapon set pieces for good measure, such as the triple railgun-toting land tank and Arsenal Bird-adjacent Pordage. At one point, I had to round up a bunch of deserters, while also playing battleships with the Sotoan navy. It really is a delight to take to the skies in these sorties, made even better by the fact that the environmental work has seen some major improvements.

In Wings of Theve, everything has been scaled up. From the stunning graphical fidelity that comes with Unreal Engine 5, to the sheer size of the map, Wings of Theve is every part the blockbuster production I'm sure many a fan always dreamed it would be. Skies Unknown has aged incredibly well, mind you, but the current-gen sheen undoubtedly adds that extra flash it deserves. It ran like a dream on the playtest rigs, though I'm presuming the build had been especially optimized for them.

I never expected to be excited by clouds (unless they look like dinosaurs), but Project Aces' new proprietary Cloudly tech would make a meteorologist beam. Knowing you're a little too close to the ocean for comfort, purely thanks to the varying cloud altitude behaviors adds to the immersion. It's easy to rely on the altimeter to gauge whether you're about to take a cold plunge coming out of a formation, so I'm grateful that I could divert my attention to more pressing issues, such as the fact I had kitted everyone out with the wrong special missiles.

Picking the right plane and wingman loadouts for the job is more important than ever, and managing your ordnance effectively can be the difference between victory and failure. The Super Hornet isn't just AC8's poster child, it's also a fantastic jack-of-all-trades that will initially serve you well across most mission types. As you progress, however, you'll find yourself needing to specialize - whether that's through the addition of land bombers or aircraft that provide utility. In the playtest build, the progression tree had a much better balance of unlockables early on than Skies Unknown's, though this of course may not be representative of the final iteration.

In many ways, Ace Combat 8 is shaping up to be even more of what we loved in Skies Unknown - AC7 sold a series high of over seven million copies to date, after all. But Project Aces isn't just playing it safe with iterative upgrades and returning features. Its narrative in particular seems to be trending more towards that traditional hero's journey, but that's not to say this is Ace Combat: Top Gun. The pilots of Joker Squadron won't be to everyone's taste, I'm sure, but so far I'm convinced that the studio's on the right track. As long as the rest of Wings of Theve flies true, I have no doubt that it'll make a similar, or even greater splash than its immediate predecessor when it launches on Friday, October 2, 2026.