Ace Combat 8 critics clear the runway for a thrilling, uneven sortie

Opening night: the marquee is lit, and the first reviews are in. This is a roundup of published reviews, not our own; the staff did not play the game.

Outlet	Score	In a line
Kotaku	-	Immersive, full-body flying with spectacular missions, though the cast and script can flatten out 1
IGN	-	Called the series’ best aerial combat alongside some of its best mission design 2
Polygon	-	Praised as a triumphant return with a supersized campaign of thrills and political intrigue 3

No scores appear in any of the review text we have, so the table shows dashes rather than numbers. Eurogamer and the PlayStation Blog supplied background on the game, not a verdict. ⁴⁵

Where critics agree

The flying draws the most praise. Reviewers describe air combat that is easy to pick up but rewards mastery, with each aircraft feeling distinct once you learn its handling. ¹³ Mission variety also draws praise, from dogfights and ship attacks to bombing runs against enormous machines, which matches the mix the publisher advertised. ³⁵

The presentation lands too. One critic lauds the cockpit detail and the weather, singling out clouds that make the player feel the action physically. ¹ Another credits one of the year’s best soundtracks and strong visual design. ²

The story’s central idea also gets attention: a famous pilot’s reputation turns out to be a fabrication, and the player inherits the legend. ² The setup is described as compelling and earnest, with the squadron at its heart. ²⁵

Where they split

The disagreement is over the writing. Kotaku’s verdict lists the cast falling flat at times and a often clunky script among its dislikes. ¹ IGN, by contrast, calls the story melodramatic but moving. ² Polygon sits in between, noting that some of the political intrigue goes underexplored by the end of a dense plot. ³

The online side is the other soft spot: Polygon found the cat-and-mouse chases more successful in the 30-minute campaign missions than in the live-service component. ³ Kotaku, for its part, spent most of its 25 hours in the campaign. ¹

No critic here reports on performance across PC, PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, so we cannot grade the theater’s sound system. ⁵

Our read: If you want a spectacle you can feel in your stomach, the critics point you to the cockpit, and the campaign is the main attraction. Newcomers appear welcome, since the opening missions double as a tutorial and IGN says prior games are not required. ¹² If you care mostly about sharp dialogue or a deep online mode, wait for more reviews and scores, because the praise for those parts is thinner.

Footnotes

1. Kotaku, “Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve: The Kotaku Review”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. IGN, “Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve Review”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Polygon, “Ace Combat 8 Is a Triumphant Return for One of Gaming’s Best Series”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. Eurogamer, “After a seven year wait, Bandai Namco’s classic aerial combat series will return in 2026 with Ace Combat 8”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩

5. PlayStation Blog, “Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches globally October 2 on PS5”. Retrieved October 30, 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴