After seven long years, Bandai Namco has finally cleared Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve for takeoff and judging from the reviews, it’s a worthy successor to Ace Combat 7, thrilling critics with high-flying dogfighting action and, perhaps for the first time, with great storytelling, too. Rather than relegate the action solely to the skies, the developers have designed a new narrative experience for Wings of Theve, creating interactive, first-person sequences that fully immerse the player in the story of Joker Flight, the game’s central team of fighter pilots. While some reviewers say this new storytelling technique can stall the action a little bit, when the action gets going, they say, it goes.

Wings of Theve‘s gameplay partners well with its narrative. Structurally, the game keeps the majority of its story personal, focusing on Joker Flight’s travails. The flight is a well-realized crew, both as a group and as individuals.

Wings of Theve might be the best Ace Combat has ever felt. It’s honed the action to a fine edge; it feels wonderfully smooth to play, and improved presentation just makes everything pop all the more. Even though your actions in the game rarely shift from dogfights and dropping bombs, I never once got tired of the campaign, which manages to keep things varied across 30 missions.

While plenty of the game’s story still takes place in the skies, a larger portion revolves around the player and your crew’s reactions before, after, and during missions from [the game’s new first-person perspective for story sequences].

Source link