Branching Path - Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve wants you to feel like a real Ace Pilot

We've explained it in the past, but sometimes we'll be given the opportunity to cover a game that isn't quite an RPG, but lands "close enough" that we find it merits a closer look. The most recent game that falls under that categorization is Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve - last month we had the chance to go hands-on with 7 missions from the game during a hands-on preview event, and we're pleased that the game seems to be off to a strong start.

If you've played Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, then most of what Ace Combat 8 has to offer won't be very surprising - but there's two key differences, both of which concern the much larger focus on the player character, Rex, and his fellow pilots. One of which is the much heavier emphasis on story this go around, and inserting the player directly into it; while the other revolves around expanding Ace Combat 7's plane customization to all 4 members of Joker Squadron.

Speaking to the former, while Ace Combat 7 included cutscenes in-between missions that helped tell the story of the war surrounding the player character - Ace Combat 8 takes a drastically different approach, centering story cutscenes directly from a first-person perspective, wherein the player quite literally takes control of Rex during key moments and can even control where his gaze wanders at times. These cutscenes are much more immersive than the ones previously, and it struck me that they felt like they would have been at home for a VR release.

That hunch turned out to be right, in a sense. While Ace Combat 8 will not feature VR support on any platform, the team did reveal that at the start of development VR was considered - and the "immersive" cutscenes are a byproduct of the team trying to capture some of the immersion VR could bring, even though the idea for VR was scrapped very early on. To their credit, it works - the prologue especially sticks the landing quite well, though while I appreciate it if anything it makes the lack of VR support sting all the more. 

The second half of the equation revolves around your Squadron. While your fellow pilots were very much a part of the story in Ace Combat 7, to say that they weren't very impactful on the gameplay itself is an understatement. Not only does your Squadron have a renewed focus in the story this time, but beyond customizing your own plane loadout, you'll also be able to change the loadouts of the rest of your Squadron. Combined with a returning ability to command your Squadron to focus on specific targets, among other actions, so far it really does feel like Ace Combat 8 isn't just the story of you becoming an Ace Pilot - but also the journey of elevating your entire Squadron.

Plane customization is mostly identical to Ace Combat 7, but with a few key differences. First off, there are new planes of course - but also the addition of 3 other pilots to account for means that once you have bought a plane, you can rebuy it 3 more times at a much reduced cost. Upgrades that aren't specific to any one plane also have been rebalanced; now instead of one limit for how many upgrades you can slot onto a plane, each plane instead has a bespoke number of slots that depend on what type of upgrade you hope to install. While you can of course set your upgrades for all members of your Squadron on your own, there's also the option to default to a loadout that the game determines would be best suited for the mission you're about to tackle - a welcome option, considering just how much time you might end up spending in menus, otherwise.

Basic plane controls are mostly unchanged, outside of the ability to command your Squadron. If you've played Ace Combat 7, you already roughly know how the game feels - in the lead-up to the preview event, I did a full playthrough of Skies Unknown, so I feel pretty confident in that assessment. More interesting to Ace Combat fans would be some of the mission objectives on display.

I'll refrain from spoiling everything, but I was pleased with the missions I did have a chance to test out. One highlight involved you chasing some resupply planes, but with a catch - you're at a high altitude, nothing to see but the clouds around you, and to make matters worse your targets are being escorted by planes that are jamming your radar. While you can estimate a rough location of where these planes could be off of the sections of your radar that are blocked out, the real tell is the conspicuous contrails that these massive planes leave behind, and which can point you directly towards your target if you know where to look.

It goes without saying for anyone versed in the series, but part of what makes Ace Combat so compelling is knowing what loadouts to run for each specific mission, and while I'd never go as far as to claim Ace Combat 8 is an RPG - well, there's certainly an overlap in terms of slowly upgrading your planes, and making use of the right gear for the job. If nothing else, I can say I'm excited to see more when Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam) on October 2.