Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is the best game in the series

I'm a very niche target audience for the Ace Combat series: I'm not a huge fan of simulators, I dislike military sims, and I don't have the time to fully invest in the multiplayer, which, by all accounts, gets better the longer you spend with it.

I love the Ace Combat series for their campaigns, which are usually extremely silly, often poorly written, and so deliciously melodramatic you could slap two buns around them and call it a ham and cheese sandwich.

In that regard, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve delivers precisely what I want from the franchise. It's also the most accessible and fun instalment to date.

Wings of Theve is set in the grander Ace Combat mythology, though it requires little knowledge of the series. It's very newcomer-friendly, and the story is self-contained with a surprisingly coherent (if thematically muddy) narrative that hits the high notes the series is famous for.

The action picks up after an unprecedented invasion, where your nameless fighter pilot finds themselves stranded on a life raft with Cope, the famous ace veteran of Wings of Theve, who keeps the spirit of rebellion alive.

Within moments, you're back in the air with your new squad. Except nothing goes according to plan: on your first mission, Cope is killed in combat, and you're left to carry on the legacy of a mythic figure that means more to the war effort than any one person. Your squad, former teachers and ordinary civilians drafted into extraordinary circumstances, look to you for leadership. But how do you navigate the murky waters of lineage in a time of war where even allegiances can be bought and sold?

In theory, it's a grand and evocative adventure yarn with something important to say, very much in tune with anime classics like the Macross Saga. In practice, it's a little more complicated, simply because Ace Combat 8 is a game, and as such it needs to be fun. It's difficult to maintain an anti-war thesis when the gameplay is all about looking cool as you splash bandits against a sunrise with a kick-ass soundtrack in the background.

Let's be honest, Ace Combat 8 is cool. It's almost impossibly well-made, the best the series has ever been. It is a polished, audiovisual marvel with spectacular gameplay for both new and veteran fans, featuring some of the best level design in the genre.

From the very first mission to the final run, Ace Combat 8 thrills at every turn. For 20 hours, the main campaign delivers plot twists, epic fights, and a dizzying array of imaginative encounters with anime-style villains. There is barely any downtime, save for a handful of sorties that linger just a bit too long. In terms of pacing, Ace Combat 8 is a masterful presentation.

The problem is that Ace Combat 8 is a highly political game that attempts to skirt around politics at every turn. It wants to say a lot about the cost of war on a human scale, how corporations profit from misery, and how mythologizing soldiers leads to a never-ending cycle of violence. I'm all for it. These are great themes to explore, and people like Hideo Kojima and Hiroyuki Yamaga have expertly woven them into their past narratives.

But put them together with the eternally sun-kissed skies, the thrills of larger-than-life villains versus underdog heroes, and the romanticized action, and the message is undeniably diminished. Your enjoyment will vary entirely based on how much you can stomach the contradictions.

Does this make Ace Combat 8 a lesser game? No, it doesn't. It is still an incredible experience. But it does show the limitations that games still haven't overcome.

On a pure gameplay level, there's very little to complain about. Ace Combat 8 takes the well-worn series gameplay loop and perfects it. If you're here just for the fast-paced adrenaline rush of flying fast, shooting enemies, and getting home for supper, Wings of Theve has you covered. If you want something harder, complete with aircraft customization right down to the smallest detail, it has that, too.

Missions range from routine flyovers and protection duties to hugely elaborate bombing runs, dogfights, and outright fantasy battles against railgun-wielding mobile fortresses. It's never boring and always audacious. Thanks to pristine graphics, the extensive cloud cover and hilly terrain make a genuine difference in how things play out. At best, Ace Combat 8 feels like the best parts of every high-flying action epic where you get to play the hero.

Even your NPC companions impress with smart tactics and quick response times to orders through an intuitive interface that lets you feel like you're in genuine control of your entire squadron. Previous Ace Combat titles struggled with this aspect, sometimes with obtuse control mechanics and at other times simply dropping them entirely. Not so here, Ace Combat 8 finally finds the right balance.

Combine that with surprisingly engaging off-flying mechanics, like hanging out with your team in the mess quarters, and Wings of Theve is a surprisingly compelling and humane package that unexpectedly moved me when I least expected it to.

As mentioned, Wings of Theve is easy to pick up, but veterans can expand the gameplay to their hearts' content. From simple things like switching controls from standard to expert (which allows you to adjust pitch, yaw, and roll) to fighter-specific adjustments, a dedicated player will find almost everything they need here.

This leads nicely into the multiplayer experience, which is dramatically different from the campaign in every way. At first, the amount of intricate details, info boxes, and mission parameters is overwhelming. Simply getting airborne is a chore, and my first combat sessions all ended with immediate ass-kickings. This is the domain of the dedicated, and I'm most certainly not.

But it is fun, even with my inability to handle the competition. Wings of Theve delivers the complete package here as well, with a supremely well-designed competitive scenario that should satisfy hardcore fans for hundreds of hours.

In short, if you're already a fan of the Ace Combat series, you will love Wings of Theve. It is the best entry in the franchise and one of the most beautiful games released this year. As a tech demo for those with a good audio system, it serves as a new benchmark for what gaming can offer.

Even if you're unfamiliar with the series so far, there's little reason not to give it a spin if you're curious. It's accessible, tremendously exhilarating, and so much fun that any complaints feel minor compared to what you get.