Wings of Theve packs thrills and political intrigue into its supersized campaign

From the very first moment of Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, I’m enlisted in a war I can’t possibly hope to understand. Part of that is thanks to the flight combat series’ meticulously constructed fiction, but the confusion is also by design. The violent conflict between the warring continents of Sotoa and Usea isn’t supposed to make much sense, because real war rarely does. What reason does a nation have to launch an unprovoked orbital strike against a landmass on the other side of an ocean? Whose agenda are soldiers and civilians dying for?

It’s easy to lose sight of those questions throughout the always-thrilling Wings of Theve. For the series’ first game in seven years, the newly formed development team at Bandai Namco Aces goes all-out for a spectacular war game filled with a diversity of aerial operations that test your flying skills every which way it can. Bombing runs against megatanks and speedy jet chases through the clouds often tempt you to stop asking what you, a pilot for the Federation of Central Usea (FCU), are fighting for.

The answer is, of course, complicated. It’s hidden under layers of political deception and social media propaganda that’s gradually peeled away over the course of 30 dizzying missions. Even if some of that intrigue goes underexplored by the end of a dense story, it’s enough to make Wings of Theve a soulful epic that leaves enough room to picture a life beyond war between deadly dogfights.

Source link