As with pretty much every fan of the series watching the Game Awards 2025, the announcement of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve was the highlight of the event for me. Thus, I was excited to try the game out when we were given a hands-on session with the game recently. While hands-on previews like this typically run for around 2-3 hours, our Wings of Theve preview was nearly five hours long, and during that time, I got to try out seven missions.
Before I get into my thoughts on Ace Combat 8, a quick disclaimer regarding my AC preferences. While I’d say I’m a fan of the series, I’m not exactly the hardcore Ace that others are, as I typically only play the game on Normal mode (but on Expert controls). I also haven’t played the PS1 era Ace Combat games, though I have completed the PS2 trilogy, along with ACX (yes, the PSP game), AC6, and AC7.
While I understand that most fans consider the PS2 trilogy to be the best of the series, I’d say that I enjoyed 7 just as much as the trilogy. Sure, the story is all over the place, and the planes don’t feel that different from one another, but the more creative mission objectives and numerous epic moments made it a memorable experience overall.
So, how does Ace Combat 8 fit into the picture? Well, from my nearly five hours with the game, I’d say that it takes AC7’s more creative objectives, all with a more cohesive story and nice gameplay additions.
Signature Ace Combat Gameplay, But More Dynamic
Even though there are new features in Wings of Theve, this is still very much an Ace Combat game. As always, each mission starts with a briefing, followed by aircraft and SP weapon selection. Project Aces also brought back the Aircraft Tree from AC7, so you can also choose which aircraft and weapons to unlock.
While Ace Combat 8 is structured pretty much the same as all the previous AC titles, and especially 7, gameplay-wise, it noticeably feels heftier than Skies Unknown. Moving your aircraft feels heavier, and you can especially feel this when doing High-G turns. What also adds to this is the improved visual effects and sounds. In a way, the heavier feel kind of reminded me of AC4 or AC6, which (if I remember correctly) don’t have the more instant movement of the later games, especially 7.
It turns out that this was because Project Aces tuned each aircraft to feel more unique, as the planes in AC7 felt a bit same-y. As such, this heft that I felt was likely due to the fact that I was using “starter” planes. And while these planes felt a bit heftier, it didn’t take long for me to adjust, as they are still incredibly maneuverable, enough that you should still be able to do lots of fancy moves.
Going through clouds in the game is also more noticeable. Sure, there are missions in AC7 (like First Contact) where navigating through clouds is quite challenging, but in Wings of Theve, they can feel even more treacherous because of the enhanced feedback you get.
Aside from some fancy flying, you’ll also be doing lots of shooting. While I wasn’t able to fully test out the machine gun’s capabilities (though it feels much better to shoot than AC7’s), the great thing about Wings of Theve is that you can now equip two SP weapons on your aircraft.
It did take a while for me to get used to this. Because I was so used to just shuffling between two SP weapons, I found myself getting confused about which one I had active, especially during heated dogfights. This isn’t a game issue, though, as I think it’s just a matter of getting used to switching between three options. The game does at least ease you into this, as two SP weapons seem to only be unlocked as an option after a couple of missions.
Speaking of missions, I got to play the first five missions of the game, followed by two missions that happen around the mid-point. In terms of structure, these missions are reminiscent of AC7, but they feel even more dynamic.
Many AC7 missions are split into two phases. For instance, a mission may start as an attack on ground targets, after which enemy fighters must be dispatched. In Wings of Theve, missions don’t feel as two-phased as before. One mission had me targeting massive but slow transport craft, but at some point, a dangerous fighter squad attacked. This forced me to choose between continuing my attacks on the transport or shifting gears and going dogfight mode.
There’s even a memorable moment in an early mission where I had to do a carrier landing (yes, these mini-games are back), but it turned out to be a fake-out mission ending, as a group of enemy fighters suddenly attacked, forcing me to abort the landing and engage.
In this regard, the game’s missions feel much more natural and also more exciting. Even though I only played seven missions in total, I already experienced a lot of cool and memorable moments that had me feeling like an Ace. Thus, I’m excited to see just how epic the later missions get.
What is worth noting is that some missions I played were quite challenging, with the fifth mission in particular having a noticeable difficulty spike. This wasn’t a problem for me as I enjoyed the challenge, and I can imagine fans of the series loving this. On the flip side, I can see newer players having a hard time. Thankfully, there’s a much better tutorial system here compared to AC7.
It also helps that Wings of Theve lets you give squad commands again, a la AC5. This is great, as you actually have useful allies that can help you in dogfights; a far cry from AC7, where allied aircraft don’t really do much.
A More Promising, Squad-Focused Story
All the other Ace Combat games have stories that are told through cutscenes from the perspective of a different character. For Wings of Theve, Project Aces is doing something different, as cutscenes unfold in first-person.
Thus, the game’s story is told through the eyes of the protagonist. Sure, you’re still playing a character who doesn’t talk much (if at all), but the fact that you’re sort of an active participant in cutscenes does make the story feel more “real” in a sense.
Given that I’ve only played the early hours of the game, I can’t give a proper verdict on the story. What I can say is that there’s a lot of potential here, especially when it comes to your squad.
While the story starts a bit slow at first, as it’ll take around an hour or so before the bigger picture is explained, I did get to see some nice interactions between the protagonist and the rest of the squad. Thanks to this, even though I only played the game for a couple of hours, I already found these characters more memorable.
These cutscenes also add more weight to interactions over comms during missions. In AC7, while I loved AWACS Long Caster’s food-related quips and Bandog’s rude remarks, the other characters didn’t really make much of an impression. Thus, I already think Wings of Theve is a big improvement here. Hopefully, this is the case with the rest of the story.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve – Initial Impressions
Even though fans had to wait a while for Ace Combat 8, the wait seems to be worth it based on my hands-on time with the game. With its great flying feel and more dynamic missions, coupled with the return of squad commands and an interesting story presentation, Wings of Theve is shaping up to be an excellent series entry.
In fact, if the rest of the game is this good, I can see this game being as good as the PS2 trilogy in the eyes of fans.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will launch on October 2, 2026, on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.