Project Aces (Bandai Namco ACES)/Bandai Namco Entertainment
PC, PlayStation, Xbox
$70US/$93.50CDN
Buy a discounted Steam key from Fanatical or Green Man Gaming
Introduction
I picked up Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies for the PS2 on a whim back in the day because I didn't have anything else to play at the time (remember when that was a thing?) and I'd read a couple of reviews that said it struck a unique balance, being not as arcadey as something like After Burner but not remotely a sim either. It grabbed me right away and I've since beaten the entire series, going back to Air Combat on the PS1 and even the handheld games.
This franchise is one of those that's never been a smash hit but always did well enough to keep getting sequels. Players tended to either love them or got nothing from them. I was definitely the former but I could never quite figure out what exactly made them so appealing to me. With Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve being the fastest selling entry in series history, it looks like it might have finally broken through to the mainstream. For some reason, it took me this long to realize it appeals to me so much but after beating the campaign and spending some time in the multiplayer that I usually ignore, I finally get it now.
Campaign
Ace Combat games were strictly single-player affairs until Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation on the Xbox 360 and the campaign has always been the main draw. Each entry focused on different armed conflicts with a different slate of characters but the throughline is the fictional world and society Project Aces has created called Strangereal. It's a world in constant conflict between different nations that alll seemingly have Scrooge McDuck sized treasuries and though hard to follow, there's a fairly deep meta that traverses the series. Even if you're a veteran of these games, I recommend looking up one of the many lore videos on YouTube because I certainly learned a bunch of things I'd missed.
As I said above, Ace Combat lands in a unique spot between arcade and simulation. Many of the aircraft are licensed and you'll see several manufacturer logos when you launch the game. The core nuances of advanced flight are also here like having to manage pitch, roll and yaw, though that requires selecting the Expert control scheme, which I highly recommend. Missiles won't just hit your target because you have a lock and you have to make sure you aim and shoot at the right time and potentially use your guns to stop an enemy's attempt to shake you off. On the flip side, even on higher difficulties you have unlimited fuel and afterburners, can fit dozens or even hundreds of missiles on your aircraft somehow, you can easily pull of maneuvers that would turn the insides of real people two dimensional and you'll kill literally hundreds of other pilots while being able to tank half a dozen missiles and keep flying like nothing happened. This is the way the series has always been and suspension of disbelief is a requirement.
The campaigns are a linear series of missions based on each game's particular conflict. They start off relatively simple and grow in length and complexity as you go on. What's interesting is that it's not exclusively an upward curve, with occasional missions being relatively short and some being easier than others, even later in the campaign. These are often more focused on exposition and not action but they're infrequent enough that they feel like breathers in the chaos. The battles will get tougher, the stakes will get higher and eventually, it all comes with a head with some marathon battles and unique boss encounters that kept my blood pumping and never felt like a slog. It's a tried and tested formula that still works. While not the biggest campaign in terms of the number of missions, it's definitely the longest one I've played and it felt like things progressed at a more measured pace than some of the past games.
Each campaign casts you as a silent protagonist with a circle of characters around you, mostly squadmates but a couple of others in command and also on the periphery of the military too, each of which has a sizeable volume of dialogue both in and out of missions. There's a lot of cutscenes in Ace Combat 8 and your squadmates in particular get a lot of screen and radio time to explain their backstories and showcase their personalities. Prior entries have tried to tackle subjects like AI and autonomous warfare and this one layers in social media propaganda, the power of figureheads, decentralized corporate power and influence and the war economy. It's topical with clear intend and rather Kojima-esque in places but never as pretentious or preachy as Metal Gear narratives are, and I say that as a fan of both Metal Gear and Hideo Kojima. These are war games but Project Aces makes it very clear that they don't like war one bit.
For better or worse, the characters and storytelling have a somewhat anime tone to them and you'll see many a predictable trope. I don't generally care for anime but I found these restrained enough that the story was more interesting with them but I never got that emotionally invested either. Tasha's childish naivety and whining did get on my nerves more than a few times though, even if she did have good intentions. She wasn't a bad character, just presented more stereotypically than she had to be.
Another series storytelling staple is the near constant radio chatter during missions, both between your squad and also ambient comms from allied and enemy troops. Some have criticized this for being distracting because it's essentially non-stop. I get that perspective and Project Aces seems to as well as there's a setting to turn the chatter down or even off if you want. To me, it plays as much a role as the excellent soundtrack, adding to the atmosphere and tension. It really makes you feel like even though you're the center of attention, you're still just one part of a much larger war machine. I do recommend at least giving it a chance before reflexively disabling it.
Every mission makes you feel like you contributed something meaningful to your nation's efforts and even though you're the driving force, it never feels like you could have done it all alone either. Beyond the main story, there are also some missions sprinkled in the middle with unique objectives, like escorting unarmed rebel aircraft or stealth missions where you have to fly low and under radar coverage to get behind enemy lines and are trying to avoid combat. As I said before, these feel more like breathers or palette cleansers and break up the action nicely without overstaying their welcome.
Every mission has air targets to fight but many will also have land and sea objectives and you'll need to pick aircraft, weapons and abilities that are best suited for each. You rarely have to clear a map of all targets but are always rewarded for taking out more than the minimum. The points you earn double as currency for a large unlock tree where you can get new aircraft and upgrades to weapons and defensive systems that are quite small on their own but stack up quickly. You can finish most missions with any aircraft but they all have fairly different stats and not spending the time to pick the optimal loadout will make things harder for yourself. You can also choose your squad's aircraft or let the game do it for you, though you can't pick their secondary weapons for some reason and the the game's choices are often baffling. A mission with only air targets doesn't need wingmen with unguided bombs.
You can give your squad basic commands during a mission that are simply attacking your target, picking their own, covering you and whether or not they're allowed to use special weapons, which they always deplete quickly. Commands are always given to everyone and you can't designate individuals to do different things. They also can't die so you don't have to babysit them.
You'll also be given your only chances to "speak" by occasionally answering questions with a simple Yes or No. I never understood the point of this because there's always an obvious right choice and if you don't pick it, the result is the same with only some dialogue differences. Some previous Ace Combat games had minor mission branching based on your choices but there's none of that here.
Speaking of difficulty, I already mentioned that you should play with the Expert control scheme but I also highly recommend playing on a higher difficulty. Ace Combat has never been overly difficult but playing on the normal mode was a pushover for me. I only died about a 10 times in over 15 hours, most of those were on one particularly tough mission objective involving flying in a tight space and at least a couple of them were because I was too daring with barrel roll and became an expensive lawn dart.
You likely won't unlock the entire upgrade tree on one playthrough but other than replaying missions to do that which has some achievements tied to it, there isn't much of a reason to play the campaign more than once. These tend to be one and done affairs for me but I don't mind that because I'm always satisfied with the experience in the end. Project Aces knows how to make a tight, action-packed campaign that doesn't overstay and they get a bit better at it each time.
If you want more though, there's a whole other aspect you can dig into if you want.
Multiplayer
I've tried the multiplayer offerings in Ace Combat since they were introduced back on the Xbox 360 and while I saw interesting ideas, I could never get invested enough to put real time into them because they still felt tacked on because Bandai Namco mandated it. In Ace Combat 8, it feels for the first time that multiplayer was given as much attention as the campaign and while I still don't think it's for everyone, this is the first time I've put real time into it.
There's some basic competitive modes like Deathmatch but the core focus of Ace Combat multiplayer has always been competitive co-op where you are flying with other players and are working together but are also scored individually, adding a competitive angle. One mode does make it possible to kill players on the opposing squad and kill streaks give ace designations that come with extra bonuses but you can also become one more slowly by focusing on AI targets and never engaging human ones. I like this system because it's different from predictable one seen in most other competitive games and offers incentives for taking risks. Periodically you'll also be offered special sorties where you have to work with your squad to take out an invading force of stronger AI pilots or take on a superpowered boss enemy. These are tougher but much more rewarding and are always worth taking on.
None of the matches are long and it's easy to jump in and do a few without having to put aside a chunk of your day for it. In about 10 hours I've put in so far, I will say there doesn't seem to be a lot of variety in both objectives and maps so I hope this is something they'll expand more.
Unfortunately, this is a Japanese developed multiplayer title and that comes with some clunkiness, grind and sometimes obnoxious monetization and engagement mechanics. There is a social hub between missions and an avatar you can customize for it but this is little more than a fancy menu system and no one engages in it. Most of the avatars are just standing around because you can access every hub function by just bringing up a full screen menu.
You can buy and kit out a large selection of aircraft but you're best served by picking one of each type and focusing on those because new ones will require grind between their base costs and the character rank requirements. Each aircraft can be levelled up to an initial maximum of 5 and to their credit, it doesn't take long to get there. Going beyond that involves increasing the level cap by spending "plans", which are consumable items you earn from completing challenges and special missions. Each aircraft has its own plans and there are some general ones you can use on any aircraft but again, you'll be grinding hard for these. When matched with players who had many more hours than I did, I never felt like I couldn't hang with them though so it appears that the improvements you can earn are still fairly minimal. You can also sell back plans for aircraft you aren't interested in for in-game credits but the exchange rate is pretty weak so I never bothered.
There are daily, weekly and monthly challenges, plus some long-term objective based ones. I managed to knock all the initial month's timed challenges out in only a few hours and could have done so quicker if I paid closer attention. They also reward you pretty well for the effort. There's an "Ace Pass" too because you can't have multiplayer without this in 2026 but everything it offers is cosmetic and if you don't obsess over that kind of thing, there's nothing else to be earned from buying the premium tier. I pre-ordered the standard edition of the game and I don't recall that including the premium pass but it apparently did and just by completing the challenges, I've already gone through over half of it and you can gain 5-7 levels a day from just doing the dailies and a few others you'll unlock organically. It is nice to make my plane look cooler and it does the usual leering fly by at the start of matches but I wouldn't obsessively login every day or buy premium currency for that either. On top of the pass, there's other cosmetics you can just straight up buy. The monetization is strong with this one but I've seen a lot worse and again, it's all optional cosmetics and that doesn't bug me.
What it needs quickly is more modes and maps and especially, variety in the missions. Every match progression is the same and the batches of targets tend to spawn in the same places on each map so it's easy to come out ahead in score if you know that and can position yourself to get to them before other players.
They've got a really good framework here that's a big step above what the other games have offered but if it doesn't evolve quickly, I don't see myself putting any time into it beyond when I complete this first pass. It feels like they got the budget to expand this mode but also didn't want to go too far with it until they saw if it would sell well. Still though, if you're one of the many players for whom a campaign isn't enough to justify spending full price on a game, this multiplayer will add a lot of hours for those who want more but different.
Technical & Presentation
Ace Combat was exclusively a console and handheld series until the spin-off Ace Combat: Assult Horizon from 2012 (which you can't buy anymore to my surprise) and the only mainline games on PC are this latest entry and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. A remaster of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War was also included as a pre-order bonus and while Bandai Namco hasn't said if it will be sold on its own, I can't imagine they won't do that at some point.
Project Aces used to roll their own engine but sadly like so many developers of late, they switched to Unreal Engine with the previous game. Ace Combat 8 relies on Unreal Engine 5 and while it's definitely not the worst case I've seen of what I've termed Unreal Sloptimization that's plaguing most games on the engine these days, it's definitely there. I run a rig with a Ryzen 9800X3D and a Radeon 9070 XT and at 1440p on the high preset, not the ultra preset, I only pull between 90 and 120fps in most missions. This might sound pretty good but that's also with FSR 3 enabled (FSR 4 isn't supported, despite it launching over a year and a half ago) which introduces a lot of extra visual noise to a game that already has too much of it and when you consider that most of the time, you're just staring at largely empty sky or tiny ground elements, that's pretty weak. Gears of War E-Day has loads more detail on screen at once and runs better than Ace Combat 8 on higher settings, though I admit it has similar visual noise issues. On my MSI Claw 8 AI+, the game's a slideshow even on the lowest settings, it doesn't support Intel XeSS at all and Epic's software-based TSR has always been a joke.
Project Aces may be far from the worst UE5 Sloptimization offenders but this just isn't good enough. It's a pretty game to be sure but it doesn't justify its high requirements at all. It needs some major optimization work, support for modern upscalers which are already built in to the latest UE5 releases and they need to do something about the visual noise. Since this has been selling so well by their own admission, they have no excuse not to put this work in now. I don't think they will but I'd love to be proven wrong.
As usual, the overall presentation is also quite slick with menus that feel like they're part of some military computer that you'd see in movies but with the tradeoff of being rather slow to navigate because of all the effects. I do wish you could turn the transitions off as they get old after a while. The mission briefings share this style, which is a hallmark of the series and it looks as good as ever. The cutscenes are also pretty sharp and considering the series never had fully modelled characters until recently, they did a good job there.
The soundtrack is the usual combination of orchestra and rock with the kinds of bombast and intensity befitting an experience like this. A lot of the tension and energy of the missions is amplified by the music and while you could get by without it, the games are always much better from it.
Now I Get It
Coming back around to my story from the beginning, I've loved this series since I first picked up Ace Combat 04 but in all this time, I never understood what about it hooked me so much. I like the arcade vs. sim balance I talked about and how the pacing is great at keeping you engaged. I also liked the fictional world and the nature of the conflicts that provide the basis for the stories. None of those were the core reason I always jumped on every new entry as soon as they came out though, something I've done with few other games.
It wasn't until I was posting this quandary in the comments of ACG's review that I suddenly realized what it's taken me over 20 years to finally get: Ace Combat is my replacement for Wing Commander. Sure, it's aircraft instead of spacecraft and you're fighting fictional humans instead of cat aliens but the other parallels are unmistakeable: Linear missions with increasing challenge, stakes and intensity. A squad of unique characters you not only command but get to know as people. A hard-fought war with a lot of history and the future of your nation (or species) on the line with odds that aren't in your favour. It all lines up, to the point where I have to think Project Aces took a lot of inspiration from Chris Roberts' seminal designs.
I adored the Wing Commander series and finished all of them at a time when I didn't finish many games. I've always loved space combat but those were a cut above the rest with their universe, story and characters, plus being the kind of hardware melting technical showcases that Origin Systems was legendary for. EA killed Wing Commander because the increasing costs of using full-motion video and staying state of the art technologically were outpacing what the sales justified and also because well, killing good things is what EA does. Since then, I've desperately wanted something that captured that same combination of traits that compelled me so much and Ace Combat does exactly that. I still don't know why it took me so long to realize this but it was a total "Well duh!" moment as soon as I did.
I'm really glad I decided to grab the 4th game out of the blue 25 years ago (ugh, I seriously don't approve of this getting old thing) because I would have missed out on the new incarnation of something's that a core part of my gaming memories. Sure, there's been newer attempts at that type of game and some of them have been pretty good. EA even tried one with Star Wars a few years back. But nothing's like Wing Commander to me. Ace Combat isn't either but it's without question the closest thing to it.
My dream aside from Project Aces trying their hand at making a space game would be expanding Ace Combat to include all the different types of combat outside of just flight. Imagine an Ace Combat where some missions had you manning the ground and naval units or even a first-person shooter segment where you're in one of the squads taking over an enemy facility. Imagine being able to switch between those on the fly or having a co-op mode where each player runs a different segment of the battle, coordinating and relying on each other to conquer the battlefield. There's multiplayer games like War Thunder that kind of do this but I don't think it'll happen for something like Ace Combat because there's no way they could sell enough to have that scale of linear campaign make sense.
Unless you hate air combat games, I'd definitely give this a try because it seems to be resonating with more people than ever before. You can get the Wing Commander series on GOG too if you want to see what I loved back in the day but they're a bit rough to play now. I really hope the remaster of Wing Commander III that EA announced out of nowhere nails it. It feels like there's some testing going on to see how into this type of game people are now and if we're really lucky, maybe we can see this genre make a comeback. With Ace Combat 8 apparently doing so well, a man can dream.
