I remember as a young boy riding in the back of my parent’s cars, looking out the window watching the world zoom by. Seeing the road zip past almost like rushing water with trees and buildings seemingly floating along with the road. Watching the clouds and sky lazily in the background glide along almost completely separate from the speed of the ground in front of me. I remember imagining being all sorts of things racing along trying to keep up with our car. Sometimes it was a cars buzzing along the road. Other times it was a monkey swinging through the trees and bounding off buildings. Other times it would be a jet fighter off in the distance swooshing through the clouds weaving between buildings and jetting off into the sun. In those days we had less technology to block our view of the world and with Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, I can definitively say that I was brought back to that time in my childhood.
Being in the cockpit of a jet fighter, seeing the world around me buzz by. Watching the ground below stream past me while I poorly attempt to avoid buildings, mountains, and other planes. Yes, Ace Combat 8 is about dog fighting and blowing up the enemy on your radar. However, I found the game far more beautiful and serene than action packed and tense…most of the time. I spent most of my game bounding and dancing through the sky and the unbelievably beautifully dense clouds. I’ve never been in a plane, but I feel like this must be the most realistic representation of jetting through a cloud. With the rain droplets hanging on the glass, nearly complete loss of any visibility, to wondering how deep is this cloud and when will I ever get out and see that enemy fighter again! Truly a beautiful game outside of any story or gameplay.
Not only are these clouds gorgeous, they also served a very real function in the game. To me the biggest change in Ace Combat 8 from the previous installments is how it uses the clouds as a chess piece in your jet fighting arsenal. If your being tailed by a jet you have the ability to dive into a cloud and break missile lock and visual from the enemy. Allowing you the chance to escape and even pull a U-turn and get the drop on them. Unlike other games where you can very plainly see the mechanics, Ace Combat 8 feels real and engaging. However, the game doesn’t go fully simulation as it keeps it arcade dogfighting roots. You still don’t have to be an ace pilot to effectively dogfight and complete the game.
As is standard with every Ace Combat game, the story mode is weird and disjointed. The difference here is the story is more personal this go around. Instead of flying with many different squads and teams, you are the leader of a single squadron. Set in Ace Combat’s fictional war-torn world of Strangereal, the story begins as the Republic of Sotoa invades the Federation of Central Usea (FCU). In doing so they quickly occupying most of the nation and scattering the FCU military forces. Scattered across Strangereal, the FCU relies heavily on propaganda to keep moral up and the civilians believing. The veritable lynch pin keeping the propaganda machine running is the legendary pilot Wings of Theve. A fighter pilot known for downing dozens of fighters through out the war ravaged Strangereal.
Keeping true to the Ace Combat roots, the story takes its weird turn. After being saved from the middle of the ocean, you are instantly placed with your new primary squadron, Joker Flight. During this emergency mission the legendary Wings of Theve is shot down and here is where you learn twist of the propaganda machine. The Wings of Theve’s plane tally is all a lie. Not only that, there hasn’t been one Wings of Theve, but many and you are now the next to take that mantel. But after grabbing the dog tags from the previous Wings of Theve, you are no longer alone in your head. The previous Wings of Theve’s spirit, Jan “Rex” Cope, is now part of you and is talking to you throughout the rest of the story. This dead guy will pop in and offer wisdom or some minor context clues to people in the story. Realistically there is no reason given as to why this happens and what mystical force allows for it, but hey… Ace Combat right!?
Though the story starts out with a different premise and some weirdness, that is really where it ends. The rest of the story is pretty standard video game fare. The player takes on the mantel of the previous fighter who never really shot down a foe, and you make that lie and truth. No longer an idea and propaganda icon, you bring a reality and truth to the Wings of Theve shooting down enemies and almost single-handedly turning the tide of war. With one major mission, you will feel very much like a certain young space fighter pilot flying through a small tunnel to take down a world destroying base. Cool, but done…many times over.
The new first-person perspective in cutscenes is odd and clunky at best. Many times you are prompted to hit X to Salute or move to another scripted cover location, or shake a hand in which I never really felt there was any reason to do any of it. I feel just being able to look around in the cutscenes were more than enough for this game, button prompts were not a beneficial addition.
Common to the Ace Combat series, the music is very good. It was all just secondary background noise specifically to me, but during many of the missions where there wasn’t a lot of story beats, the music helped to fill in the sounds effects. I can certainly respect the views of others that the music is some of the best you’ll hear and it wasn’t annoying me throughout the story.
This dead guy will pop in and offer wisdom or some minor context clues… Realistically there is no reason given as to why this happens and what mystical force allows for it, but hey… Ace Combat right!?
