Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve let me live out my Top Gun fantasy — but I wish there were fewer cutscenes getting in the way

TechRadar Verdict

Ace Combat 8 is a phenomenal arcade flight sim. You'll feel like Maverick every single time you dodge an enemy missile or manage to take down a rival ace. Where it stumbles is its story, which drags on and attempts to cash dramatic checks that it simply cannot.

Pros

• +Breathtakingly beautiful at times
• +The best clouds in gaming
• +Combat is fun, varied, and razor-sharp
• +Missions feel suitably tough

Cons

• -Overly long cutscenes
• -Anticlimactic ending

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Ace Combat 8, the latest installment in Project Aces' long-running arcade flight sim series, is here. Packed inside this game's cargo hold is a medley of melodrama, mission types, and a beautiful new look, but it's somewhat over capacity when it comes to cutscenes.

Review info

Platform reviewed: PC
Available on: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Release date: October 2, 2026

You'll discover this right from the off: Ace Combat 8 is the first game in the series where its cutscenes are entirely from a first-person perspective.

You step into the shoes of Rex, a pilot in service with the navy of the Federation of Central Usea (FCU). Sotoa, a nation of former nomads, has decided to emulate the Mongols of our reality and has conquest in mind, with the FCU already almost completely subjugated at the start of the game. Said shoes are likely very damp, with events kicking off on a life raft after the helicopter you were in went down.

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Soon, you're back in the sky as a navigator for Jan "Rex" Cope, the original Rex, who is the mythical Wings of Theve of the game's subtitle. This strongly evokes the Ghost of Kyiv, a mythical pilot heavily propagandized early in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War, but Cope soon comes a cropper and gets killed, forcing you to take over his role.

A huge part of the game's narrative is about propaganda and the role that social media plays in modern warfare. Wings, as a pilot, can't be allowed to die, so you need to fill in and lead his Joker Flight unit. The former Rex, however, doesn't disappear; his spirit serves as a near-omniscient narrator for the rest of the game's escapades.

Flying without wings

What escapades they are, too. Over the course of the game, which is significantly longer than Ace Combat 7 (with my playthrough clocking in at around 18 hours to complete all 30 missions), you'll do almost everything you could reasonably expect a pilot to do. Dogfights, close air support, attacks on enemy ships, and more.

Best bit

Engaging the afterburners, breaking through the clouds, and shaking off an enemy missile never loses its charm.

Joker Flight will accompany you through most of it, and happily, every member has a well-fleshed-out personality. There's Ellington "Professor" Baxter, an easy-going and ever-professional former university lecturer; Tasha Severskaya, an ex-stunt pilot; and William "Noise" Coster, a taciturn musician who provides soundtracks to some of your battles.

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