A flight combat series with a modest but devoted following, its seventh entry having sold 7.5 million copies, now returns with Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. Its creators have spent years imagining a near future, and much of what they once invented, such as the drone, has since crept into ordinary life. The game is both an arcade pleasure and a quiet mirror held up to a world that keeps catching up with its fiction.
Ace Combat 8 Preview: Bandai Namco's Flight Series Turns Its Near-Future Predictions Into Reality
The real magic is making missions varied enough that you never tire of it
Mark
Why does the 7.5 million figure matter here?
Mimi
It shows Ace Combat isn't a niche. Metro admits it assumed otherwise, and the number changes how you read the series' lack of rivals.
Luke
Worth noting it's a sales figure for Ace Combat 7, not the new game, and the preview doesn't say who reported it.
Mark
What's the game actually like to play?
Mimi
An action game with realistic touches. Stalls and crashes matter, but ammo is generous and turns are eased.
Mark
And the missions?
Mimi
Dogfights, ship hunts, a thunderstorm chase by contrail, and a giant land battleship you dismantle with a plan.
Luke
That's from several hours on PC, and the writer says they played more than they can discuss. So it's a partial view.
Mark
Any flaws?
Mimi
The chatter. Allies talk constantly but say little about objectives, and useful lines get lost.
Luke
The writer expects that to ease with practice, but that's a guess until the full game.
Mark
What about the developers' claim that reality caught up?
Mimi
Shimomoto says drones went from distant to real quickly. Production began in 2020, so it's their own account of their predictions.
Luke
Right, and the release date is only given as 2026.
Il Polso
- A nation has been invaded, and a fighting force clings to life aboard a wandering aircraft carrier.
- A pilot's legendary callsign turns out to be a morale-boosting invention, yet the player must still take up the mantle of the Wings of Theve.
- Missions escalate from dogfights to battleship hunts, with thunderclouds threatening electronics and lock-on missiles demanding precise timing.
- Chatter from wingmen and enemies threatens to drown out critical objectives, though reviewers expect players to adapt with practice.
A flight combat series with a modest but devoted following, its seventh entry having sold 7.5 million copies, now returns with Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve. Its creators have spent years imagining a near future, and much of what they once invented, such as the drone, has since crept into ordinary life. The game is both an arcade pleasure and a quiet mirror held up to a world that keeps catching up with its fiction.
Ace Combat 7 sold 7.5 million copies, a figure that reveals how devoted the flight combat audience remains. Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, which Metro played for several hours on PC, arrives in 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The series has no real rival, and while VR has faded, Ace Combat 8 is firmly an action game rather than a simulation.
The new entry returns to Strangereal, where your homeland has fallen and you fly from a wandering carrier. Your callsign, Rex, is a fabricated legend meant to lift morale, and you take it up anyway as one of the Wings of Theve. Controls are forgiving, ammunition is generous, yet stalling and terrain collisions still end a run.
Variety is the game's real magic. Missions range from ship hunts around an island to chases through thunderclouds powered by the Cloudy engine, and even a giant land battleship can be brought down by wrecking its tracks. The one complaint is the constant wingman chatter, which can bury vital information, though the writer expects this to matter less with practice.
In interviews, the developers explained that production began in 2020 on near-future predictions that have since come true. Drones have become commonplace, and the game's Fake Wings presence explores misinformation. Sci-fi serves gameplay first, and believability second.
Ace Combat 7 has sold 7.5 million copies. That figure, which Metro's writer describes as something of a revelation, reframes how niche the combat flight genre really is, and it is the backdrop for the newest entry, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, which the outlet played for several hours last month on PC.
The game was announced in 2021 and had its first public showing at The Game Awards in 2025. Alongside the hands-on time, Metro spoke to brand director Kazutoki Kono and producer Manabu Shimomoto. The writer had met both before, at Gamescom, ahead of Ace Combat 7's launch. In the years since, the preview notes, the series has still found no real rival. VR has fallen out of fashion, a loss given that Ace Combat 7 had a fine VR mode, and Microsoft Flight Simulator has lifted the profile of flight sims generally. But Ace Combat 8 is, above all, an action game.
The series turned 30 last year, with roots in the earlier Air Combat arcade games. Its staples are an intricate backstory in an alternate world with slightly more sci-fi technology, strong graphics with a fair degree of realism, and standout soundtracks. The new game returns to the world of Strangereal. Newcomers can jump in: your homeland has been invaded, and you serve in one of the last fighting forces, aboard a wandering aircraft carrier. In the first mission you take the callsign Rex, a legendary pilot who proves to be a fabrication invented to lift morale, the previous holder having been a washout. You accept anyway and become the Wings of Theve, Theve being your capital.
Bandai Namco avoids calling the game a simulation. Depending on difficulty you carry far more ammunition than real life would allow, and sharp turns are eased, but stalling is a danger. You can survive some mid-air collisions, yet hitting a mountain or the sea ends the run. Controls are no harder than a typical shooter, with first or third person views. Missiles need a lock-on and only reliably hit when you have the enemy dead to rights, while limited chaff and flares and a sharp turn as a missile closes make dodging manageable.
Variety is what the writer calls the real magic. Missions begin with simple dogfights, then expand to ground battles using ground-to-air missiles and bombs. One early mission has you hunting a fleet of ships with a scarce supply of anti-ship missiles, circling an island while fighters defend. Another sends you after enormous flying wings with radar useless at long range, so you follow contrails and fly through thunderclouds that threaten your electronics. The effect comes from a graphics engine called Cloudy, added to Unreal Engine. Wingman commands help, and a special weapon can lock and fire four missiles at once. Planes are real-world fighters unlocked via a skill tree with in-game currency, such as the F-14D for air combat and the A-10C Thunderbolt II against ground targets. The most extreme case is a giant land battleship, taken down by wrecking its caterpillar tracks through exposed side panels, bomb trucks and skyscrapers toppled into its path.
The one complaint is audio. Developers said the writing is less anime-influenced and more grounded, but the dialogue still feels clunky, and allies and enemies talk constantly. Much is immersive chatter, yet the game says little about objectives or changing battlefield conditions, and useful wingman information can get buried. The writer expects it to matter less with practice.
In the interview, Shimomoto said production began in 2020 on predictions of the near future, and that the real world has coincidentally mirrored them. Drones, prominent in Ace Combat 7 when they were not part of daily life, became real quickly. Kono pointed to social media and the difficulty of telling true from false; the game features a presence called Fake Wings to depict information manipulation. He said sci-fi serves gameplay, which comes first, with believability second, and joked that no giant land battleship is expected to attack a city soon.
The game is due in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, from Bandai Namco Aces.
Citazioni salienti
Drones became real life quite quickly, and Ace Combat 8's near-future ideas converged with reality in a similar way.— Manabu Shimomoto, Ace Combat 8 producer
Gameplay is the top priority, with a believable Strangereal second.— Kazutoki Kono, brand director
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