Seven years after Skies Unknown, the jets are back, and the critics got there first.
## The numbers Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is out Friday, Oct. 2, on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Steam. Reviews went live last weekend: 87 on Metacritic and 88 on OpenCritic, per KitGuru, which makes it the second-highest-rated Ace Combat ever, one point behind 2001's Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies at 89. PC Gamer went 92. The previous game was 2019's Skies Unknown.
## What they liked The campaign, the cinematic first-person storytelling that we wrote about when the 16-minute opening leaked, "exhilarating" combat and, as always with this series, the soundtrack. KitGuru's summary line from the reviews: "the franchise's final form."
## What they didn't Some story beats and the multiplayer. Those are the two complaints that have followed Ace Combat for two decades, so consider them part of the brand.

## The read Ace Combat is the rare Japanese series that never chased a Western shooter template and got rewarded for it. An 87 for a flight game in 2026, in a month where Gears and Yōtei's expansion are fighting for the same weekend, means the anime-adjacent, melodrama-forward version of a war game still has a room. Project Aces kept the faith. The scores say the room did too.
## Sources - KitGuru, Sept. 27, 2026: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is the highest-rated entry in 25 years - OpenCritic: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve - PC Gamer, Sept. 25, 2026: Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve review
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